Popular Australian creative platform Sticks & Stones has released their first printed hardcover book. Entitled ‘shelflife’ No.1, this edition explores everything around the theme “hair” and the confidence and unapologetically own their sexuality and standing in their right to exist as a sexual being apart from the perception of stereotypical ideas of beauty and aesthetics within present-time. We had an insightful chat with founder Ainsley Hutchence about passion, balance and love.
Hey dear Ainsley, so happy to chat with you again. The last time we talked you broke up with your husband. Meanwhile a lot of things happened. What memory you can’t forget?
Since my husband & I broke up a lot has changed. I was able to find a lot more time to reflect on what parts of the business I still loved & wanted to evolve further & which parts I needed to let go. It was a much-needed spring clean & an emotional transitional period. I came out the other side feeling so clear about my new direction & have been putting most of my time & energy into strengthening the Sticks & Stones brand & less time creating content for other brands. Even though I was adamant about giving myself at least a year off dating, I accidentally fell in love with someone I have been crushing on since the 90’s. His name is Matty & you will learn a little more about him in the following answers. We’ve been dating for 2 years now. For the first year it was a long-distance relationship & it gave me the space I needed to find clarity both in my personal & business life. It has been an emotional rollercoaster since we last spoke but right now, a week after releasing our hardcover book, I feel happy af & I’m back baby!
I am so glad to hear that! So, you just published your first photobook. How long have you been working on it?
Yes! So exciting! This is something that I have been wanting to do for the past 5 years! As you would know printing is expensive & it’s a bit of a risk to release a hardcover independently without any sponsors. But all the best things I have ever done have required extreme patience & hard work (and in this case money, which I acquired when I crashed my car & received a payout that was worth way more than what I could have sold it for :) All the stars aligned & we got the book out a week ago! My partner & I have been working on the layout over the past 6 months in any spare time we could find outside of our regular bill-paying work. I curated this book with the beautiful photoshoots & imagery that has been featured online since the birth of Sticks & Stones 5 years ago, plus some new exclusive shoots & shitty interviews with creative legends. Its subjects ooze confidence & unapologetically own their sexuality, firmly standing in their right to exist as a sexual being, a gay being, a trans being, a human being. As I looked at the finished product for the first time I realised this book was actually 35 years in the making. It’s a product of all of the life experiences that brought me to this very moment. This book is a big “FUCK YOU” to all of the shit that’s pissed me off over the years; close-mindedness, misogyny, the suppression of female sexuality, an abusive ex-partner who told me I wasn’t a “real” woman because I wanted to have a career, people that told me how to dress & how to be, the beauty & fashion industry I grew up with that almost always upheld & enforced a rigid & uncompromising standard of beauty & perfection.
What’s great music to listen to while reading it?
Oohhh.. This is a good question. For me the experience probably feels a little different. This is literally a dream come true & I am still pinching myself. As I look through the book I am usually sipping a glass of red & using my other hand to wipe off happy tears from each of the pages & so love listening to emotive music that moves me… Radiohead, Jonsi, Leon Bridges, Sigur Ros, Carole King, Tracy Chapman… For others I would recommend looking up music from Amy & Dani’s bands (featured in the book) – Surfbort & Amyl & The Sniffers… Or any kind of kick-ass female voice… “Respect” by Aretha Franklin, “You don’t own me” by Lesley Gore, lol.
“This book is a product of all of the life experiences that brought me to this very moment.”
How did you come up with the theme “hair”?
In 2015 Instagram deleted our account because we posted 2 girls standing on a beach wearing bikinis that exposed an unshaven bikini line. They deleted our account because the girls had their natural hair intact & did not live up to the current standard of beauty which pressures women to get rid of almost all of their body hair! Thankfully C-Heads got behind us & started a worldwide media frenzy about the topic & helped us get the account reinstated! We are now mentioned in the Instagram Wikipedia page under “Controversy”…. So on brand, so fucking perfect! In light of this & many other hair issues, we have experienced on our Sticks & Stones journey, our first ever printed edition was always meant to be a “hair” issue.
Who did the layout?
My amazing Partner Matthew Bouris (Matty B – not that little rapper dude). He is a super talented fashion & graphic designer but he has never laid out a book before which made him the perfect designer for Sticks. I have always just figured this all out as I have gone along which I believe is how Sticks & Stones has maintained such a unique & fresh flavour, & so it only made sense to work with a graphic artist who had to do just that! We have been dating for 2 years now. For half of that time, we were long distance forcing us to take things super slowly. But after a year we decided it was time to move in together. He moved back to Queensland with me which is where we first met & developed cute little crushes on each other 17 years ago. Even though we would have chance encounters once or twice a year while attending the same parties or events, we never told each other about crushing on each other in the 90’s until we hooked up for the first time just before we started dating. He is my unicorn. The dream guy I never thought I would end up with. He is also my creative partner who does all the stuff here at Sticks that I can’t do… I feel so fucking blessed to have found such a beautiful loving & working relationship!
“I surround myself with people with good energy as much as I can.”
I know you´re working so much! How do you recharge your internal batteries?
I work hard but over the years I have worked out how to maintain a nice family/work-life & also how to work in environments that make it seem like I’m on holidays… cute cafes near the beach, on the couch in front of Netflix, bars, etc… I get energy from people & so I surround myself with people with good energy as much as I can. I love nature & live in a beautiful coastal town in Australia so beach days are a must. Time spent with my 12-year-old daughter requires me to truly shut off & enables me to recharge too. & cute animal videos on instagram… Especially the ones starring unlikely friends like a giraffe & a bunny for example.
What is the best advice you ever told your daughter that made a real difference in her life?
I am starting to realise that its the things I have done & just the daily conversations we have & not so much the nuggets of advice I have given her that have made the biggest impact in her life. She is a fucking sponge! I have heard her have conversations with her friends & even my friends about feminism, religion, racism, homophobia, environmental issues. She has a strong voice & demands to be heard & she is funny af. She is a boss & I can’t wait to see what impact she has in this world!
The Shelflife No.1 “Hair” Hard Cover Book is available here
Photography: Hunter blue, Sander Dekker, tiposilvija, Alexa King, Cory Vanderploeg, Veronica Formos, James Beddoes, Dan Siman-Tov, Anton Lombardi, Marius Sperlich and Ugur Araz
