“Authenticity is a collection of choices that we have to make every day. It’s about the choice to show up and be real. The choice to be honest. The choice to let our true selves be seen.”   ~Brene Brown

When I read this quote the other day it was just after I’d completed shifting through some Hannah Kate photos from our Fall 2018 shoot, and what hit me was how our whole shoot really revolved around this very quote.

Authenticity ~ a collection of choices that made up this wonderful collection of clothing, the showing up in a very realness with each other, working hard, honesty with each other on what needed to be done and not done, when we weren’t shooting, relating on a real and personal level, and how each of us moved into the shoot’s vision truly based on that personal level.

It was a family event. Not just within my own, as three of my girls are involved, but it was a family of women that came together and made big things happen, one small step at a time.

It is fathers who bring their little boys too, and a grandmother that helps out with her grandson. It’s mamas who work in the home and outside the home and in those same days schedule dropping in for full-energy shoots with their toddlers.

Sometimes right before nap times. {Super-hero-status as we all know!}

It’s snack times, play times, cry times, ring-around-the-rosy times, dress up time. Sit times, stand times, hold-hands-with-friends you’ve just met time.

Let’s-try-again-times!

Authenticity requires a vulnerability and I love that about Andrea. She was there in her tennis shoes, fixing hair, changing last minute details, shifting shoot locations, always giving her honest vision in the sweetest of ways and making beauty happen.

She sinks heart and soul into each Collection and it’s always a joy for me to witness and see her real love for what she designs.

I want to personally thank each and every mom, dad, sister, aunt, cousin, and grandmother who came along side us and made our HK shoot take place for our Fall 2018.

I want to do a huge shout out to every child’s best friend, Sara Barton!  — Little arms wrapping around her neck when they were ready for their naps but we had just a few more pics to get through.

She brings the party with her pretty smile and ability to attract the kids’ attention at any given second. She makes magic happen.

Photo shoots with little ones are never an easy parade! But it’s the challenge that brings an instinctive desire for authenticity in each of us… because after all, that is the purity and wonder of childhood.

I wanted to fill this post with not only the beauty of our Fall Collection, but with the beauty of authentic real moments. Take a moment to read Andrea’s letter in the front of our new catalog. It embodies what we truly want to be here at Hannah Kate ~ original, humble and authentic.

We hope you enjoy this Fall Collection 2018 as much as we enjoyed shooting it together here in Texas!

Have a wonderful 4th of July!

 

Alyssa

For Hannah Kate