In the haze of late August, I scrolled through Instagram and paused on a two-inch explosion of fantasy technicolor chic. Elena Perminova, recent streetstyle star and fashion grasshopper had a thin, plexiglass cuff on her wrist – what stopped me was the bracelet’s closure, an industrial bolt.
Reading the comments, I found the brand name : Cooee.
Cooee? What is that?! I had to know.
And I had to have that cuff.
One web-shop glitch and an email to customer support, and I was soon trading emails with Cooee founder (and now friend) Catrine Aberg.
Click to read my interview with the Stockholm-based designer, who is gaining acclaim and attention (from the likes of Moda Operandi, with a trunk show for her SS13 collection in September) for her unique use of plexiglass and metal, always with a hint of whimsy and an element of surprise.
What inspired this very distinct design (of the nutcuff)?
I love Scandinavian minimalism, but I like to put an edge or a twist to it sometimes. I often have a gut feeling of what’s up (and) coming. I have always loved old buildings and factories. It’s both the history and the life that used to be inside the building, and the industrial architecture that is interesting.
For the “Nut-cuff” bracelet, it recalls the Machine age with the bolts and the future with the Plexiglass. (I have attached a photo of my Mother when she was young and its from my Grandfathers factory, I love this photo and it has been in my memory, it could be one factor to the idea of Nut-cuff) One night the idea of the bracelet came to me, and the next day we started to work on it!
When did you first realize your love of jewelry?
I have always loved jewelry and I grew up in a family that works in, and is very interested in art and design. My grandmother was a great painter and she also loved accessories. I used to play with her vintage clothes and jewelry. She is a great inspiration to me. I have photos of me when I was only a couple of years were I have styled myself with clothes, shoes and jewelry!
When did you create the brand Cooee?
I have lived abroad for a couple of years, in London, Dublin and Sydney. I studied graphic design and marketing. When I was in Sydney I got a lot of inspiration from the Aboriginal art and the Australian nature. I decided to start my own brand 2005, I named it “Cooee” which means “hi, hello” in the Aboriginal language.
Tell me about your team.
I started the company on my own but since 2008 we now are a family company. We all have different roles in the company. We have one employee that works in the production and girls that works extra in our concept store.
What are your favorite materials?
I love to work with Plexiglass that has all the colours of the rainbow and it can be bent when heated etc. Corian is mostly used in modern kitchens, but I have jewelry made in it, which is really unique. Corian is interesting as it could be either matte or glossy finish. It contains 75% natural minerals. I like to mix this with pure metals.
Do you have a favorite style from your collections?
It changes over each season, but some jewelry stays forever. For now I love to mix at stack of bracelets, for instance; "nut-cuffs" with other plexi cuffs, leather bracelets & a facet diamond bracelet. I think a new jewelry style that I will carry a lot this coming season is the new "Nut-cuff" necklace.
Who are some of your biggest supporters?
Several International bloggers are wearing my designs as Sabrina Meyer (afterdrk) & Hedvig Opshaug (northernlight). Fashion icons as Candice Lake, Natalie Joos and Elena Perminova. Also the Royal Crown princess Mette Marit (Norway) and Victoria (Sweden).
Will you expand further into home goods?
Jewelry is our main thing, but we also have interior decoration objects in our collection. I have worked with bigger projects and designed a whole concept as well. Unfortunately, the time is not enough to do all I want to!
What (or who!) is your biggest inspiration when designing?
I find inspiration all around me. I live close to nature with lakes and great woods. I often get inspired by colours to be combined from nature and flowers. I love music, art, films and to photograph. Patterns from different centuries. All this is great inspiration. It can also start when I find a great colour and then the creativity starts! Plus, I draw a lot and write down the ideas in the mornings.
Exclusive: Catrine will soon launch the nut-cuff necklace, seen here in vibrant red.
For the third "carré d'artiste," Hermès artistic director Pierre-Alexis Dumas invited Japanese photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto to partner (for the second time) with the iconic house.
Sugimoto presented Dumas with his COULEURS DE L'OMBRE project in 2010, in his Tokyo studio.
"I can still remember it very clearly. At the center of a large, light-filled room, rising like a column from floor to ceiling, there stood a very dense, immaculately clear prism. This was an experimental device whereby, every morning, the sunlight passing through the prism would create a world of colors, projected like shadows on the white walls of the studio." Pierre-Alexis Dumas, artistic director, Hermès of Paris.
For ten years, Sugimoto photographed the varying gradations of light with a Polaroid camera. Inspired by the scientific experiments of Goethe and Newton exploring the origins of color (the analysis of light, broken down and captured, and its corresponding emotional impact on the beholder), Sugimoto went on to create endless abstract images of color.
Sugimoto and Dumas selected 20 Polaroids to transfer to silk using inkjet technology; 20 scarves each in a limited edition of 7 -- the total 140 scarves measuring 140 cm x 140 cm.
The COULEURS DE L'OMBRE silk scarves were presented in Miami's Design District, Dec. 7 - 9, 2012 during Art Basel.
Danilo Gabrielli's FW12 collection is up online, and it's inspired by the '40s. Just wanted to share this campaign image, and the story I wrote about him, below.
Danilo Gabrielli is beaming. Tuscan accented English tumbles from him in a stream of excitement. “She has no idea, my mama. I told her I was receiving an award - you know, a little speech at an event. She fought me! She said, ‘A few minutes and you want me to fly all the way to New York?’ I said yes, mama – it is important!” The surprise for Angelina Gabrielli is not that her son is to receive an award – at least, not in the conventional sense. The surprise is his first show as an independent designer during New York Fashion Week on September 12, 2011. With his business partner, Joe Bellavia, Danilo Gabrielli has launched his namesake label with a spring/summer 2012 collection that features crisp cottons, sparkling metallics and layered organzas with gentle structuring. A duo reminiscent of Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé, Bellavia is the business, the promotion, the strategic communicator. Gabrielli is the artist, the designer, the gentle creator.
In true Italian fashion, Danilo Gabrielli loves his mother. Listening to his descriptions of childhood, it is easy to see why. Born in Porto Santo Stefano, Monte Argentario – a Tuscan island on the western coast of Italy, Danilo Gabrielli was surrounded by an intrinsic sense of style from an early age. “Growing up on this island was like growing up in paradise. My mother always surrounded me with beautiful things. We used to watch all of the Hollywood classic movies together. Even as a child, I wanted the American dream.” His mother employed a personal pattern maker to create clothing for herself and her children. “She would go at the local fabric store, cut the material…She would have the pattern maker come over, and she would say I want this proportion, this length – and it was amazing, because she was always very fashionable.”
One of the first things I noticed about Gabrielli was a stunning sketch of a structured, voluminous jacket set atop a cropped cigarette pant.* The sketch was beautiful, unique, with fantastic proportions and style. In a digital age, the ability to sketch is the mark of a real artist. Gabrielli began to draw and paint as a young child. His artistic talent was natural, and his tastes decisive. “I remember when I was five years old, my aunt was getting married. It is a custom in Italy that the sisters of the bride assist her with getting dressed for the wedding. My mother and her sisters were helping her get ready, and they were trying on the veil. I saw my aunt and told her, ‘Oh no, that looks terrible. You need to wear it down so it flows.” In her delightful book, The Beautiful Fall, Alicia Drake recounts a similar story about a young Yves Saint Laurent. André Levasseur, who worked for the boutique line for Christian Dior in Paris in the late 50s and early 60s, described Saint Laurent in the early days of his career, when he was still just an assistant. “He was already very assured of his own talent. I remember when he showed me some theatre costume drawings he had done and asked what I thought of them…and he said, ‘But no, I don’t agree with you at all.”
Raised humbly, Danilo Gabrielli had one dream – to achieve his impassioned goal of becoming a designer. After high school, his plans to attend fashion school in Rome were met with the challenges of steep tuition and living costs in the city. To help his parents earn the money he would need for tuition, supplies and rent in Rome, he enlisted in the Italian Navy. Gabrielli began his service in 1986. Military service was far from his intended career path, but Gabrielli describes his choice merely as a means to an end. Unlike Saint Laurent, whose short military service is marked as the start of his crippling mental illness, Gabrielli was able to channel this punctuating moment forward, to serve his ultimate goal. “I spent almost three years in the Italian Navy, because I had a dream,” he says with some hesitation, “it was a dream, but it was my goal to save money to go to fashion school in Rome. It did teach me a lot of discipline in my life, and as I always do, I worked hard to be my best and reached a Sergeant level before I left.” Did anyone try to convince you to stay in the Navy? “Oh, yes, yes, absolutely. Normally the service is one year, but I stayed almost three.”
After leaving the Navy, Gabrielli was accepted to the prestigious Accadamia Pistoiese in Rome. True to his humble wide-eyed nature, he still marvels at his acceptance. “For the first six months, I was the worst student in the school. I was creative, but not technical.” Gabrielli did not attend preparatory technical training, as many of his classmates had. He lacked experience in proportions, pattern, and sewing techniques. But what he could do was draw, another characteristic that he shares with the late Yves Saint Laurent, which he suspects is the reason for his acceptance. Gabrielli described his thoughts at the time, “I couldn’t believe that passion wasn’t enough to overcome obstacles. I’ve always believed that if you have a passion you can really achieve.” And achieve he did.
While studying, Danilo Gabrielli stepped out into the Italian fashion industry with panache. He became the personal designer to Prince Torlonia, the nephew of acclaimed film director Luchino Visconti, and a relative of the Queen of Spain. His favorite film is Roman Holiday – “Not just because of Audrey Hepburn’s beauty, or the beauty of the costumes, but also because of the story itself. It’s about a princess who falls in love with a member of the paparazzi. It shows…when you are in love, there are no boundaries. It doesn’t matter if you are royalty, or you are part of
the working class.” Gabrielli has a gentle disposition, sensitive to compliments and hungry for criticism – from those he respects. Although the story of Roman Holiday impacted him more than the aesthetics, Gabrielli found success while studying at Accadamia Pistoiese as a costume designer for film and television. Through a serendipitous encounter, Gabrielli secured a meeting with a prestigious costume designer who was responsible for various Italian television shows, and other projects. In the blink of an eye, his career had launched. Gabrielli joined Sartoria Neri Moda, one of Rome’s premier costume houses, as an assistant designer. Sartoria Neri Moda was soon contracted to manufacture the costumes for various films, including Guiseppe Tornatore’s classic film Cinema Paradiso, which won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film in 1989. “They gave me this beautiful white material and told me to dye it to match the colors the movie Director wantedfor that particular scene. I would help in sketching out with the design team , follow the team during the fittings and samples maker with the movie cast.” Tornatore’s postmodernist film is laced with nostalgia, and parallels the designer himself. The film tells the story of a young man and his passion for film and romance, which guides his life forward. With a sentimental view of America, and of his native Italy, as a man, Danilo Gabrielli reflects the art that he creates.
At the end of his fashion education, Gabrielli graduated in the top twelve of his class, which had dwindled in number from 200 students at initial enrollment, to about 25 graduates. “They were all talented people, very creative, with good technical skills. But many didn’t have passion.” At his graduation, Gabrielli was chosen to show his final collection in the Finale Work Fashion Show at Le Grand Hotel in Rome, and as part of Alta Moda’s Fashion Week.
In October of 1994, Gabrielli left for New York City.
Why New York? “I believe it is connected to my mother. My mother and I, we used to constantly watch Hollywood movies. And there are many movies filmed in New York! With these big actresses, Elizabeth Taylor, Audrey Hepburn, Greta Garbo, and actors like Rock Hudson, Clark Gable – so for me it was like, New York, New York,” he sighs. “It was always New York.”
After arriving in New York City with few resources and unable to speak English, Gabrielli struggled with a reality far grittier than the Hollywood films he shared with his mother. However, this sense of disillusionment passed as he quickly found success. One of his first charmed moments in New York was a meeting with Alber Elbaz, now designer of Lanvin, who gave him his first assignment. Before long, he freelanced as an accessories designer for Geoffrey Beene, and worked directly with Sergio Pellari and The Gap, before becoming a senior designer for prestigious American labels Tommy Hilfiger, Ghurka, Ann Klein, Club Monaco, Simply Vera Wang and Nautica. While he is classified as a new designer, the only thing new about Danilo Gabrielli is his namesake collection.
As a designer, Danilo Gabrielli is a unique mix of rustic Italian sensibility and classic American luxury. For this collection, the inspiration is Brigitte Bardot – a woman who was at once both sensual and chic. “When I see Brigitte Bardot, I see beauty, femininity and sex appeal. I think what we miss today is sex appeal that is elegant and confident. Most of what we see today is too risqué, and not elegant. I think she sent a message to women that you can be sexy, sophisticated and still be strong and confident.”
The collection is small, but beautifully constructed. A brilliant button-reveal reversible A-line skirt in a Swiss white cotton eyelet is paired with a Bardot-esque boatneck blouse with a beautifully skirted waist. A similar white eyelet fabric creates a classic A-line dress, with a wave detail on the sleeves and hem, mirroring the line of the embroidery. A cascading noir dress is a marriage of Italian jersey cotton and stitched taffeta with elegantly gathered silk tulle at the shoulders. That very same sketch that first impressed me about Gabrielli is transformed into three dimensions as the cigarette pant is born in silk charmeuse, topped with a cropped metallic sequin tank and a voluminous jacket of double faced organza. An A-line dress of metallic sequins stitched together with metal thread on an open knit comes alive when paired with four rows of satin rosettes.
This collection is created for the woman who is as comfortable walking down an Italian street in mid afternoon for her groceries as she is laying on a beach in Côte d'Azur.
For men, Gabrielli has created a handsome blue suit in an Italian silk and cotton blend, with exposed stitching. For an Archipelago afternoon, the Gabrielli man is clothed in striped linen shorts, and a hooded jacket of laser-cut waxed embroidery, trimmed in Italian Napa leather.
This is not a collection for daily wear – this is a collection about escape. Danilo Gabrielli has launched a solo career guided by the aesthetics of tranquility, beauty and sensuality. His clothes are born from sketches as beautiful as the final pieces. In his first signature collection, Danilo Gabrielli shares the results of his artful upbringing and commitment to his passion, and the result is a joy to behold.
Jean Shrimpton and Terence Stamp. Lauren Bacall, Humphrey Bogart, Katharine Hepburn. Jerry Hall. Ringo Starr and Maureen Cox, Liza Minelli and Joel Grey. Princess Grace and Cary Grant. Sophia Loren, center.
As I prepare to move, I am rereading the large, beautiful books that have filled my apartment in the past year. One such book, GUCCI: The Making Of, has received little of my attention, though it should be showered with care.
The beautiful black tome is a tribute to the brand, the quality, and the individuals who wear and carry the pieces. Edited by Maria Luisa Frisa, Stefano Tonchi, Frida Giannini, et. al, the book is expansive, elaborate, captivating.
New Yorkers for Children's spring benefit, New Year’s in April: A Fool’s Fête, was hosted on April 10, 2012 at the Mandarin Oriental The event raised a record high of over $580,000 to benefit youth in foster care in New York City.
Accidentally deleted this post! My column made it's way across the sea from the December 2012 issue of Sense & Style. 2011 highlights and what to look forward to in 2012.
In the showroom of designers Ophelie Klere and Francois Alary of Dévastée.
CS: What was your vision, and your inspiration for the collection?
OPHELIE: “Devastee has many principles – codes – like black and white, shapes, very quite street, classical…and also very, very graphical pictures. So the inspiration more for this coll is about and started from a book with many, many letters of Andre Breton, the French surrealism artist. When he wrote to his daughter, Aube, so from “Lettres a` Aube”, and he sent many cards with landscapes from the South of Frances where he was spending all of his summers. So that’s the place where we have grown, so we have created dresses with big landscapes, and stuff like that. That’s the first point where we started from…After we add silver prints or silver touches, and many things.”
CS: That silver coat looked incredible on the runway, with the bodysuit underneath.
OPHELIE: Smiles. “We were looking into transparence, and different techniques of fabrics where you hide the threads and you get a kind of lace, but its not lace, its just an effect of the fabric.”
CS: Could you tell me more about the materials for the collection, is it mostly silk?
OPHELIE: “The collection is mostly silk for the summer, we wanted to keep the natural fabrics…the silver is not paint, it is the threads.”
CS: I loved the models that you chose, like the girl with the short blonde hair.
What did you think about when you were going into model casting?
FRANCOIS: “We wanted really girly models, very feminine. Because the concept of the collection is symmetries and the themes are quite hard with something that could be sad, so we wanted the girls to be very feminine and happy, and kind of joyful girls. It would not have been the same at all with gothic girls with black hair – it would be too much.”
CS: Our magazine is published in Asia. Are you selling in Asia yet, or do you plan to?
FRANCOIS: “Yes, most of our customers are in Asia.
Going along with the trend of "I can't believe this, that, or the other thing just happened," CFDA, the Council of Fashion Designers of America, just reblogged my Prabal Gurung post from yesterday. So did Prabal! #melting
Monique Péan and her gorgeous SS 12 jewelry collection.
"The collection is all inspired by my recent travels to Peru, and I learned all about Peruvian opalina and opal," said Péan, "This is the Peruvian opal, and this is the Peruvian opalina - these really deep, electric blue colors. All the pieces that we make are eco friendly and sustainable, so we use all recycled gold and all artisinally mined materials as well as conflict and devastation-free diamonds and our main materials are fossilized wolly mammoth and the fossilized walrus ivory."
Gesturing to her wrist, “So this is all fossilized woolly mammoth that has fossilized jet inlay, and you can see some scrimshaw work as well, where artisans have hand-etched into the wolly mammoth, and then vintage ebony wood from an old furniture mill, and sustainable pearls.”
How sweet is Prabal Gurung? He's showing me the collection! When did I get so lucky?!
At the CFDA "Americans in Paris" preview.
Britton Parker, Prabal Gurung Sales Manager, on the inspiration for the collection.
“He was inspired by a Japanese photograph series called Sensual Flowers. So he worked with a printmaker in London to kind of use those prints as an inspiration for these prints, which are called the Surreal Floral prints.”
"He used this very feminine soft floral print and kind of mixed it with bondage materials – leather, rubber and latex, these are rubber paillets – this is spray painted latex, feathers and lace, so it’s kind of about using this soft feminine floral to soften up these harder materials.”
On September 30, in the sweltering Indian Summer heat of Paris, Espace Éphémère in the Tuileries filled with a damp haze. Champagne was served, and the twinkling of breaking glass punctuated the pre-show music as waiters jostled with the excited (and overheated) crowd.
A member of the production team showed a photo on her iPhone of her own foot inside one of the show shoes. “The toe box was made far too narrow, the girls cant bear to stand in the shoes,” she said. “We were given pairs to take home and wear around the apartment – to try and stretch them out.” The house lights went down, and the full house fell silent.
Like Sirens striding forth from the mist on their island of rocks and cliffs, the women of Lanvin possessed a dark, dangerous allure. The show began with the confidence of a neutral done excruciatingly well – black, ivory, dusty peach. A snake coiled around the neck of the first look to combine the three shades of the neutral seperates. The distinctly Elbaz shaping of past Lanvin collections was still present; a taupe top tucked in to create the organic, almost floral structuring that previous seasons have featured so prominently. The silhouettes looked both suited for the cold transition into spring as much as they seemed to fit the lingering warmth of pre-fall. Reworked suiting, structured shoulders on perfectly constructed dresses and an exquisite all-white pant and jacket look, a crisp, clean reference to luxury.
The sheer look on Iris Strubegger in the S/S 11 show was fully explored with this collection. The concept was given life, the tight hemline on Iris was shirked for a free flowing A line. Julia Nobis, in the first muted rose version, was greeted with applause and an audible chatter of approval. The final five looks of the show were a delight – rose, olive, surf, gunmetal, and Karlie Kloss is a shade of berry that can only be described as succulent.
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