The Long Road Home

Every October we celebrate Calexico’s birthday, and this year I wanted to give you something you can hold.

I grew up on glossy magazines. My mother’s Vogues, Tatler, Vanity Fair & W magazines from Paris, London and New York were stacked around our house, and I collected every one I could get my hands on. I’d go through them page by page, then go back and do it again. There’s still nothing that beats the weight of a glossy little magazine in your hands. In a world where everything lives on a screen and half of it is written by AI, I wanted to go back to that.

Some of you will remember that we used to do this. Our last printed catalogue was released about ten years ago, so The Long Road Home feels like a reunion. It’s arriving in letterboxes now for Calexico and Calexico Man, and I hope it ends up on your kitchen bench, gets flicked through over coffee and maybe starts a conversation with your friends and family.

This year I’ve made a point of going back to my roots and styling the pieces myself, the same pieces I choose on our buying trips overseas. For this shoot I had a strong urge to take everything home, so we shot it at our place in the Sunshine Coast hinterland. It’s where my family and I escape whenever we can, away from work and school runs, and it’s where I do my best thinking about how we can make Calexico better for our clients and our team.

The day was magical. The sun came out, the birds were the only soundtrack, and nobody’s phone had great reception, which may have been the real secret to the whole thing. I worked with one of my favourite photographers, Libby Willis, and two faces many of you will know: Elise Gosdschan and Luke Faulkner. They’ve been with us for years, and they understand exactly how Calexico should feel when you wear it. Having them back together felt like another reunion. We had a wonderful support team behind the scenes, and one very important crew member: Alfie, our cocker spaniel. He made his modelling debut in the lookbook. He took direction about as well as you’d expect, and he still thinks the whole thing was about him.

The edit is made up of our surefire hits from the designers we love most: Nili Lotan, Avant Toi, Giorgio Brato, Vince, Doen, Alexis and Raquel Diniz. Look closely and you’ll spot a Calexico belt on most pages, designs I’ve been building on for years.

And if you’ve been with us long enough, you might remember the playlists I used to burn onto CDs and hand out – I think we got up to Vol 7. Highly illegal, yes. I’m bringing that tradition back, this time legally. Here’s the playlist we had on for the shoot day, so you can get a feel for the campaign while you turn the pages.

This catalogue is a milestone for me, and I’m really proud of it. Sixteen years in, I still love dressing you all, and I loved making this. I hope you enjoy turning the pages as much as I enjoyed putting them together.

With love,
Nicky x