(Inspired by) We Were an Island

This summer, I'm looking for styles that remind me of a crisp and quiet New England summer: rocky shores, empty stretches of coast, oiled leather and sailor's knots. Some of my recent finds (and one item I'm still desperately on the hunt for) above.

Clockwise: 1. Cooperative Linen Sundress 2. Rebecca Minkoff Laptop Case (If you can find this...help!) 3. La Mer Bali Stud Watch 4. Sailor Knot Bracelet 5. Tiny Rose Necklace 6. Deena & Ozzy Canvas Menswear Tote 7. Kimchi Blue Knotted Sandal
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Now if I could pick the perfect place to live out this fantasy summer, it would be Placentia Island in Maine, the setting of one of the sweetest and saddest real love stories I've heard in a long time.

While checking out Bird and Banner earlier in the week, I learned about the book, We Were an Island, about a husband and wife (Arthur and Nan Kellam) who lived on the otherwise uninhabited island for 35 years. From a New York Times article about the Kellams:

One of the great love stories of the last century played itself out, alone, off the coast of Maine, unknown but to a handful of people who included the rich and powerful, like David and Margaret Rockefeller and C. Douglas Dillon, as well as the community of lobstermen and their families in the vicinity of Mount Desert Island.

Arthur and Nan Kellam, an aviation engineer and his wife, moved to Placentia Island from California in 1949 and lived there, without modern convenience of any kind, its only tenants, for 35 years.

The Kellams were 38 when they arrived. They built a house by hand in a clearing, with a porch and a swing, and a ''bandstand'' with a view of the sea, for picnics. They pressed their footprints into wet cement just inside their front door -- his left, her right. When they went separate ways for the day, they wrote each other notes -- one, signed ''B L Bear,'' thumbtacked to a wall. The ''L'' is encircled by a heart.

At the very least, I encourage you to read the full NYT review (of an older book about the pair)-- it's fascinating and beautiful and heartbreaking all at once.

(The Kellam's notes and footprints pictured below)

Finally, as I dug further and further into this post, I remembered a post I wrote last summer that featured "rugged nautical style" in interiors. Some highlights: