Our Next Favorite Statement Pieces - Nathalie Costes Collarettes!

Nathalie Costes

I’ve been quite obsessed, if nothing else, with knitwear since I started making knitwear pieces during design school, about three years ago.

Those days are not gone, but I also enjoy looking at knitwear-design behind the scenes for inspiration – the possibilities are countless, and much more modern and unique than those granny sweater we always think of when seeing a crochet hook, and those two long needles.

Crochet and knitwear are both made of a single yarn (any kind of yarn), yet their look and possibilities are completely different.

So, in my search for some unique applications of crochet I happened to find the most charming artist, Nathalie Costes, who makes no other than cotton crochet collars, or what she calls in French, collarettes!

These small and dreamy pieces are an example of a unique, and simple idea turning into something wonderful, and a model of how unconventional pieces can also be very wearable ones! Just take what you love the most about clothes and make it your own! But it doesn’t go as easy as it sounds.

Needless to say, I’m drooling here over Nathalie Costes ultra-femenine collarettes! To me, the rufflier they get, the better! And they will definitely change any simple, and not so simple look, in a second.

Check her site/e-shop out after you read what this lovely French designer has to say! 

1.  Nathalie, can you tell me a bit about yourself?
I’m just a simple woman, mother of three children, two girls and a boy – ages 20, 19 and 17.  I’m looking for a simple life, trying to worry less and giggle more. 

2.  Where are you based?

I left Paris 4 years ago after stopping my wooden necklaces business. I’m living in the Southwest of France, not far from the sea, not far from Spain, and not far from the mountains in a small town calling PAU. I like to go to Paris for small journeys and I’m always happy to come back to the country.

Workshop

Nathalie wearing her design

3.  How long have you worked in fashion- designing such beautiful accessories?

I started to design fashion accessory in 2003, with my lacquered wooden necklaces. I wasn’t conscious that they would be such a success. After four years, I decided to stop as I felt like a prisoner with all those beads. The production wasn’t easy.


4.  How would you define your style, or the girl that you design for?

I don’t really know how to define my style. I think it’s simple, elegant, and joyful. I don’t think particularly about a girl to design for. What I love is when different kind of people can wear what I design. I like it when different girls wear the same accessory in their own style. 

Gravel & Gold – Find Out Everything About Their Community Of Artists And Their Crafts

How often do you ask yourself where your oranges and tomatoes come from? Do you ever wonder where on earth were the clothes you wear made, and how? I guess the meaning goes beyond a tag.

Living in San Francisco, we have come to fall in love with a counter culture of products that are basically opposite to the overwhelming fast-fashion merchandise at department stores. Most of us will rather focus on the people, fair trades and the crafts essential to the creation of things we eat and use every day.

Now, shopping is already exciting, but it gets so much better when you know that what you are buying is special. Now, imagine entering a store where every product sold is especially chosen because of the message behind it?

Treasure-hunt spot Gravel & Gold is one of these unique stores around the Mission district, where blankets, knives to hand dyed ties, funky jewelry and organic cotton clothes coexist in the same space.

You feel like visiting a funky friend’s house when coming into the corner store on 21^st Street and Lexington – a naturally lit living room with rights to cozy sofa in the corner and wooden décor. The point is to hang out and discover what the charming, ‘70s looking place beholds. For instance, their charming wooden wall- and mosaic/tiled-dressing room transforms into a catering and bar station during dinner parties, and food–related workshops hosted at the store.

Is/Was Projects Ties

Random notes are also pasted on the walls besides products to remind us a bit of how merchandise, like belts, jams and leather sandals are made – by whom, and where. “A huge part of the shop is putting the emphasis on the makers themselves,” said manager Em Gift on a visit I did last week. That might explain not only the fact that they know their vendors personally, but the personalized space that each one is given inside the store, and in Gravelandgold.com – where a small profile and links to the brands’ own website can be found.

What we have here is a network of artists connected by Gravel & Gold. The store was founded in 2008 by friends Cassie McGettigan, Lisa Foti-Straus and Nile Nash. None of them had experience in fashion, or actually created pieces like the ones they feel proud to sell today, but it was a junction of similar sensibilities towards what goes on behind interesting products. “Where do you buy your socks, your soap, and who makes this leather bag?” were questions that came up regularly, making it a point to build a place – pet project – where unique, high-quality products, eco-friendly practices, fair trades, and some dinner parties here and there would link.

“An additional way to activate our emphasis on the creation of the products is to get makers to come in and host workshops,” said Em about the limited to 10-folks events that range from learning the art of pepper jelly, to how to craft leather pot-hangers for floating indoor gardens. “It’s just another way to sort of build a community around makers.” Great relationships, if not friendships have been the outcomes of these collaborations.

Original Gravel & Gold printed dresses and shirts

That’s where G&G’s newest endeavor falls in. They’ve started special product collabs with the likes of R.P. Miller Stripey Shirts from Pennsylvania, which translate into essential pieces that also carry a G&G tag. “Now we are also starting to produce our own stuff, and design textiles. – a new chapter of Gravel & Gold.” Canvas totes with leather handles, pillowcases, and interesting types of cotton and silk-wear, with exclusive boobies- and panda face prints, are highlights inside the store.


After a lot of traveling, shared interests, and opened mind and eyes, everything pretty much fell into place. “We care about things that are made with quality and distinction.” I guess we do, too.

Selection of R.P. Miller Stripey Shirts

Rachel Corry Leather Sandals

Photos and text by Laura Acosta

More videos of Hermès - Festival des Métiers

I hope you've enjoyed the videos on the Hermès Festival last month in San Francisco.

Here is another video of some of the other crafts presented within the same tent!

Enjoy!

Silk-Screen Demonstration

Take a look at this scarf silk-screen demonstration from the Hermès - Festival des Métiers event in San Francisco

Enjoy!

Merging Jewelry and Clothing – one Fashion Designer – Isabella Coraça

Isabella Coraça's design

Copper hasn’t always been a designer’s prime choice when it comes to making jewels.

It does oxidize easily, and changes its own look, as well as other metals it alloys with. But once in a while, especially in fashion, it is the underdog that become the superstar.

What does the idea of jewelry mean to us? Diamonds, sapphires and emeralds set in gold and silver are not the only ones worthy of the connotation. We might want to open our eyes to 21^st century statement jewelry – designers continue to create statement pieces for the body, but a lot of things have changed. Let’s start with scale and materials. Who said we cannot dress ourselves in jewelry, rather than just mere garments?

Isabella Coraça is someone who might have found jewelry by chance, and yet she discovered so much more in an art that many people would take as limited to the great jewelry companies. As a full time curator-assistant at the Victoria and Albert Museum, and part time fashion and jewelry designer, Isabella ties her love for fashion history and designing in the shape of one of a kind neckpieces, or better said, collars. Plus, she might have made copper one trendy shade to covet.

Here’s a little chat we had about her day to day in London, and her latest piece – an orchid necklace made specially for a bride to be.

Hello my dear! What are you working on right now?

Hello my darling! Right now I'm trying to figure Christmas presents out. I always try to create some sort of jewelry for my close ones, so it's personal and unique. Besides, they are my best clients!

17th century-laces inspired necklace

"Style, just like most things, takes time and effort to evolve." 

How long ago did you start designing jewelry? Would you consider it a hobby now a day?

Well, I started designing jewelry in college. At the fashion school I attended in Brazil, we had to go through most aspects of fashion, from women’s wear to textile design to marketing... Jewelry design really clicked for me, so I decided to graduate with a jewelry collection. It was great fun, best way to sum up the four intense years of college. My collection ended up being really well received, which also helped! For a while I considered becoming a professional jeweler, but life took a slightly different path. Soon after I graduated, I got the opportunity to move to London, study fashion history and get into the curatorial world. Then again, I am not quite sure if I would call jewelry a hobby, I can still see myself doing something with it. It's just not the priority right now.

What is your idea of contemporary jewelry? And how would you describe your style?

To be honest, I don't think I have produced enough to be able to develop my style. Style, just like most things, takes time and effort to evolve. I do, however, have some features that are quite occurring in my frame of work. For instance, I tend to put a lot of focus on texture and materiality, either by mixing contrasting materials and/or by manipulating them. I also prefer to design larger pieces, almost as if they were the continuation of a garment. I supposed this is in part because of my formation, which is primarily of clothing design. When creating a piece of jewelry, the body plays as an important role as it would for the conception of a dress. Maybe this is where my style is evolving to, the merge between fashion and jewelry. 

 

Do you wear the pieces that you design?

To be fairly honest, I don't really wear my creations. I am captivated by jewelry and accessories in general, and I believe they can do miracles to an outfit. Still, you can count in your hands the amount of times I've changed my earrings! On a daily basis, I just prefer not to draw too much attention to myself, and as I mentioned, my creations are usually quite large, if not extravagant. Besides, at my work is preferable not to wear anything that might damage the objects I handle.

What inspires you on a regular basis?

History, always and forever! Everything that I ever designed, in fashion school or professionally, I always had at least one historical reference. So now that I work in museums, you can imagine how influential history is to me. Basically, it's all I think of! Last year, around Christmas time, I was working with a lot of 17th century laces, so guess what was the inspiration for the Christmas presents?!

What was the inspiration for your orchids-necklace?

The orchid-necklace was a special case. Usually I start my designs with a mood that progressively evolves into imagery references and inspirations. For this necklace, however, I started with a question that asked for certain features. In a way, I took a rather architectural approach. I needed to create a piece of jewelry to complement a full lace wedding dress. It had to be something large enough to create a focus of interest over the simple front, but not too intricate to fight with the beautiful Guipure lace. It had to be asymmetrical so to contrast with the straight neckline, and it could not disturb the detail of the back. 

Necklace sketch

Isabella

Tell me a little bit about the process of creating it? It looks very intricate and detailed. I love IT! (What materials, techniques did you use)

Working on those aspects, I ended up with a shadowy outline, which I sketched over and over on a picture of the bride wearing the dress. I still needed a proper shape to fill on of the edges of the necklace. At the same time, I kept thinking of the orange blossoms that brides used to wear during the Victorian period, and the thought of using some sort of flower was very appealing, conceptually and visually. Finally I came up with orchids, mainly because they were around the house! Also, they had a simplify shape that would be easier to recreate.

Orchid-necklace

What do you feel seeing your jewelry being worn by someone close to you, as Ju?

I think the best part of having your creation worn by somebody close to you is the complicity it creates. During the whole design process, I had my friend in mind. She was as much part of the necklace as its shape or color. And by the time she worn it, it felt like she was wearing a piece of me. Besides, there's the mutual trust, from me to create something beautiful, and from her to accept my ideas and judgment.  And of course, there's the pride and relieve when everything works perfect and successfully!

Where can we find your jewelry, fashion designs? 

Right now, I think the only place to find my designs would be in my private archive (a.k.a. my parents' house!). In 2011 I had my graduation collection exhibited at a gallery in Stockholm, but since then, nowhere else. I definitely plan on having a venue for my jewelry, but that is something for the future.

Images courtesy of Isabella Coraça

For more information e-mail her at isabellacgv@gmail.com

Has Visual Merchandising turned into an Art Form? We say yes!

San Francisco might not be the most fashionable city, but once in a while it amazes us with a the creative input up-and coming designers, boutiques, and the work of artists turned designers, or installation artists turned visual merchandisers.

Kavin Orantes, the new Visual Director at high-end retailer Wilkes Bashford might not have planned to develop a career in fashion. But as shown in his windows bellow, he might have just found the place to express his love for clothes and creativity.

We had a little chat with him about the craft of directing the visuals at Wilkes.

Pre-fall windows at Wilkes Bashford

What does your work at Wilkes Bashford entail?

My work is mainly consists in the visual display of all the brands at Wilkes, starting with the window displays – from sketch to actually putting on the windows. I also do merchandising, and sometimes a little bit of administrative work, collecting records for the store’s buyers.

With your background in fine arts, how has this helped you to create a visual identity for the store?

My background in fine arts has helped me in terms of understanding color, and how to compose window displays. So, the windows are created as I would create a painting – starting with the rhythm, the composition, colors, the space, and the unity of it all. My goal is to bring it out, and push it forward into a more artistic view of windows, and not just have clothing displayed in plain air. I can create a story, and actually enhance the look of the clothes.

Also, inside the store I oversee the styling of the mannequins and forms, the color story of absolutely everything. The merchandising for me is more based on color, and that way I can have a synchrony in each floor. The point is to make it look beautiful, and then organize it, so that the customers feel attracted to the clothes.

Tell me about these two windows that you created recently.

The first window is called “From the Sketch.” It was a sales window. The whole point was to put sketches of the garments that we carry at the store. First it was just sketches of garments. And to be honest, at that part I was just playing, an planning to do a huge collage with clothes on the window. But when I was actually putting it all together I came up with the idea that it would be better to put “paper clothing” on the forms. So I created some dresses, sports jackets and shirts with the sketches I had done.

From the sketch

Sales window

The second window has a traveling them and it’s called “And away we go.” The backdrop is made of vintage postcards from different parts of the world – these had been collected over the years by Wilkes’ manager of both stores. To portray this story we used one of our biggest brands, Brunello Cuccinelli. Their garments are really versatile, and you can actually wear them on different occasions, everywhere in the world. They not only matched the idea of travel, the brand look is trimmed and young, and their color scheme and fabrics give a great example of luxury travel garments. I was trying to make it look cool with airplanes, cutting the window in spaces, and thus, framing the different looks on the window.

And Away we go!

How has your craft, and the different techniques that you’ve learned along the years helped you accomplish this kind of creative work?

I have the vision of an artist, but I need it to fit with the vision of a visual merchandiser. Now I’m using them both together, in order to deliver a better visual display.

How long does it take you to crate the windows?

The making of a window can take from one to two months, starting with an idea that has to be presented to the company’s visual manager to be accepted. Once they give you an ok, the project goes into pre-production, where we see what we need for the window, and how are we going to get it – for example, the manufacturing of especial items, the props, new lights, and so on.  This process takes about two months, and we build it all on the same day.

What is interesting is that we already have the projects of every window since the beginning of the year. These are planned according to the schedule of trunk shows, special event, and visiting vendors.

I also pull clothes from the store to style the mannequins. These have to be approved by the managers before dressing up the windows.

What is the favorite thing about your job?

Everything, but I think the process of creating window displays is my favorite part, because it is here where I can be free to create and express myself as an artist.

Images by Kavin Orantes