I really grew up around a lot of creative people and have loved learning from the true artisans and hearing their stories of when they worked with the old masters. It breaks my heart that so many of them find it difficult to find work. Many don’t have the internet or are just out of the loop in some other way. They had gotten used to the days when the European designers were still coming to them and many of them were working in house, now so much is outsourced. I keep meeting people who want small runs of handbags or just one or two designed for their shops. They dream of creating their own label too. It just seems so hard for these people to find each other!
SO, me being the crazy romantic dreamer I am and taking a cue from the Buena Vista Social Club *what a wonderful story, I am a HUGE lover of Cuban music*, have also made it my little personal mission to put these people together. I think it helps that I am over here and have managed somehow to get my foot in the loop *which, believe you me has been not an easy thing to do* But, it is why I now have a nice little address book of people to call and consider no job too small.
To summarize, weather you are a clothing or handbag designer (or just want your own label and let someone else do the designing, make the patterns, do the prototypes, and then find your manufacturing), you want a line of jewelry (it seems we have some jewelry people here), the possibilities are limitless. Maybe you are into shoes (I love shoes!)
I go to the leather fairs in Italy and in France to handpick leathers, and go to Florence to work with hardware designers. If you need color or trend reports, I’m your gal. If you need production patterns, and prototypes, that is my thing. My fit model was also the fit model of the legendary Hubert de Givenchy (who became so famous by creating Audrey Hepburn’s look) and he draped all of his designs on her body for many years. She was the one who always wore the wedding gown at the end of his shows! What is so wonderful about working with her is that she knows how the clothes should feel and how they should move, so she not only helps me to see if the garment is going to look good on the body, she can consult me on what Givenchy would have done. I am so lucky to have her, indeed.
You can imagine, it is like a beautiful dream to be aloud into the world of these amazing people! If you are dreaming of creating something, it can be done. Please let me know if you need some help facilitating your project.
It is all about doing what ever possible to keep the art alive!