5 Questions in 5 Minutes - Gingerbread Shop

Marc and Heather of the Gingerbread Shop got back to us with a few little tales of old-school high school lovin' (you know, the days when you sent smileys and animated emoticons to that cute girl you sat next to in class...or were we the only ones that did that,) how their online shop nearly got called Elephant and how much their parents got pissed off with their taste in music. This just all seems a little too nostalgic.

Gingerbread Shop runs as a sort of blog/shop - but not like the rest of the crowd - filled with everything you want and need. Plus, their music taste is now the sort that wouldn't annoy the neighbours too much ~ well, unless you have Lana Del Ray on repeat as you struggle to wind your mouth back up off the floor in awe of her lips. And hey, their models are not too shabby looking - especially that leggy brunette .. who by our luck is probably Heather herself.

Here's what they had to say:

D.C - Where did the name come from? We're guessing it wasn't a little too much story time in kindy.

G.S - To be honest, not even we know where the name originated from. As far as we can recall, we were just throwing around words we liked the sound of. Colours was one we talked about; Elephant was another (still like that one). For a while we were going to go with Gingerbread House, but in the end Gingerbread Shop had our hearts.

D.C -  How did you guys meet? Was it a bit of a luck-had-it/star-crossed-meeting or something you'd been hoping for?

Heather: We met at a house party in year 10! I thought Marc was a babe and proceeded to follow him around all night, and finally the night ended in a kiss! He didn't get my phone number but something told me that we would see each other again. In the days before finding people on facebook he did the next best thing: added me to msn :)

D.C -  We heard you like the bad girls, honey (or did that come straight from the horses mouth?) Do you guys actually like bad girls/boys? What scores high on your radar?

Heather: Always like the bad ones! You know though, underneath the harsh exterior of every bad boy/girl there (mostly) always lies a heart of gold. Sense of humour scores high on my radar, anyone controversial or mysterious, and I also don't like things that are false.

Marc: Yeah, I like rebels without a cause. They can't have a cause. Literally. They have to be angry at the world for no reason. Happiness scores high on my radar; people who are happy.

D.C - Influences, Inspirations and Internet sites.

Heather: In a lot of instances we have different tastes, but for me...
Influences
- The 1960's and the 1990's. Being a child of the 90's, I hold a very special place for the fashion (grunge, florals, and excessive denim), music (from the Backstreet Boys to Bjork), films (kid stuff like the Babysitter's Club Movie, Now and Then, and teen/adult stuff like Leon: The Professional, Romeo & Juliet, Clueless), and TV (namely The Simpsons) of that era. At the same time, I can't get enough of 1960's pop and folk music (Phil Spector, Dusty Springfield, Simon & Garfunkle, Bob Dylan, Serge Gainsbourg and all his girls, The Beatles) and mod fashion, which is basically everything that the 1990's stands against, so go figure.

Inspirations
- 1960's fashion and beautiful babes, such as Anna Karina, Jane Birkin, and Brigitte Bardot.
- Romantic art, clothing, and even flowers e.g. John William Waterhouse paintings, billowing white gowns and white lace dresses, and roses, hydrangeas, lilies, poppies, daisies, and wisteria.
- I'm starting to really come around to the 1980's, which used to truly mortify me, but I've realised I actually love the music (new romantic stuff like ABC and Bow Wow Wow, new wave stuff like The Cure and Talking Heads, and indie rock stuff like The Smiths), and also the lucious ladies from the 1980's such as Brooke Shields, Sharon Stone, and Talisa Soto.

Ginger Girl look #42

Internet sites
Diva Projections I love Diva Dompe! Smart, pretty, and crazy incredible style.
naked cow girl vintage Crystal Lee is a self proclaimed "idealistic half-chinese, half-Southern, freckly gal" who is also the owner of what must be the best vintage wardrobe in the world and she takes some beautiful photos of herself mincing around in said incredible vintage clothes as well.
hannahandlandon - Hannah and Landon are a young married couple, each as talented and as beautiful as the other (and with equally killer wardrobes). Plus Hannah seems to have a fixation on the 1960's, and I ain't at that :)

Marc:
Influences
Music; I like a lot of rap, disco, and techno. I also like countercultures, like graffitti and skateboarding.

Inspirations
Fantasy films, film soundtracks from the 1980's, and musical scores like those by Danny Elfman. I love all the synth stuff from the 1980's like Moroder.

Internet sites
youtube ...Is that too obvious?
motherboard.tv It has things like weird news and synth documentaries.
we make it good.comAn awesome art blog.
oizo3000 Mr Oizo is a French music producer and director who comes up with hilarious gems such as "Someone should publish a book of 200 Youtube comments". His music is genius too.

Ginger Boy look #21

D.C -  Finally, what music blasted out of those walkmens and tape players that pissed off your parents?

Marc: We weren't allowed to play music when my Dad was in the car. Mum let us play rap and techno as loud as we wanted, but my Dad couldn't stand it. Rap was (and still is) his most hated style of music, and my brother and I loved Dr Dre, Snoop and Eminem, so that was a problematic for a while.

Heather: When I was nine my favourite song was "Sexy Eyes" by Whigfield, which completely mortified my conservative parents. My mum literally asked me not to tell anyone that I loved that song. If you listen to the song now, it could really be considered one of the most lyrically tame song ever made, so the fact that my parents were so appalled is quite hilarious to me.

Over and out.

-D.C