HATPINS USED BY WOMEN ON MEN WHO ANNOY THEM
The willingness to turn a badly-behaved man into a new Chicago subspecies of porcupine is a quality I think you want in a store manager. It’s certainly one that John Blocki appreciated, because while Blocki Perfumes was and is a family business, Miss Van Arsdale was instrumental in the business becoming an American staple.
John Blocki trusted her and women like her not just as shop girls, but as managers, distributors, sales agents, and marketers. A century later, history repeats itself: Blocki is making beautiful perfume that reveals a hidden piece of American fragrance history and smells damn good.
...and they’re still trusting a slightly crazy lady to help tell the story: me. I’m LC. Tammy and Tyler have been stuck with me since 2022, when I did the first round of Blocki photos for them.
Telling the Blocki story in the 21st century requires careful thought and navigation.
It’s a living brand, but we have artifacts that need both creative and archival photography.
We have hundreds of hours of history to share, but about seven seconds to catch someone’s attention. We admire the legacy of John Blocki and his family as American immigrants, but we don’t revere or deify him.
And when it comes to beautiful objects, we have an embarrassment of riches.
Shooting these bottles in cloudless Colorado sun sort of feels like Jesus and Vivian Maier smiling at you and blessing your camera. The bottles, new and old, are prisms for sunlight, illuminating past and present. We chose to surround them with family heirlooms, like photographs, jewelry, vintage bottles, and scarves. 
I imagined what it would be like to be six years old again, playing with my Memaw’s fancy jewelry while I hunted through an I Spy book.
Tammy and Tyler wanted crisp, contemporary imagery that didn’t feel like overworked nostalgia bait, or like a mad science experiment. They wanted beautiful bottles anchored in the brand’s century-long story.
They didn’t ask for me to sweep in and turn their entire house upside-down looking for props, set pieces, and articles of clothing. They bore it with exceptional grace, humor, and amaro. They’ve let me into their lives and trusted me with a part of their legacy. The images we’ve created together reflect the true ethos of the brand. They represent stunning, truly unique fragrances that hold their own absent any of the Blocki story. If you wanted to stop looking there, you could. If you look closer, though, you’ll get curious. You may ask about objects in the photos. They are all intentional. They are all there on purpose.
Blocki rewards a close look. Blocki rewards your curiosity.
There are two photos I’ve taken for Blocki that are my favorite. The first is below. Pictured is the current Blocki cap, sitting below one of the vintage greek key stoppers. The upper left is framed by a vintage box for Sanrovia, the bottom right for a later bottle with a beautiful shield style logo. To the left of the cap sits one of Tammy’s heirloom rings. Underneath all of it in faded script is a note left by Tyler’s grandmother. It was written on a lid to a box of Blocki documents and historic information. It says, in part “Please, someone care.”
I wish I could tell her how many people do.
I wish I could convey to you all how good these people are, not just to me, but in how they see the world and how they treat others. I’ve never been prouder to have my name on something, and when I think about a few of the best days of my creative life, several of them are based in a house in Colorado Springs that is flooded with light and feels like home. That leads me to the second photo, in the Garden of the Gods in the middle of a snowstorm. It’s my anchor for all the Blocki creative - two people carrying their family into the future.
I don’t know if John Blocki considered Miss Van Arsdale family, though I’d like to think so. I don’t know if I’d chase someone out of a Blocki store with a hatpin. (I say this for legal reasons, I absolutely know what I’d do in that situation.)
I do know that I feel as passionate about the brand as she did. I care as much as she did, and I will evangelize about Blocki the same way she did, because this generation of Blockis has chosen to trust me the same way John Blocki trusted her. I’m so proud to be a small part of an American legacy,
Maybe I’m just missing a nice hat.