Last weekend, February 29th-March 1st, Soo, Josefina, Jessica, and I (Casey) took a trip to New York City to visit with a designer, gather sewing supplies like metal zippers, and gain inspiration for our project.
We had originally planned on meeting with Atom Cianfarani http://www.atomseco.com/, a discarded commodity designer who is known for using recycled bike inner tubes in her garments (see second photo above). Unfortunately, we were not able to coordinate our schedules for a meeting. Check out Gaelyn & Cianfarani’s previous collections at http://www.gaelyn.com/. It is awesome stuff. The bike inner tubes look like leather, but are certainly more animal friendly and utilize material that would otherwise go to waste only to pile up in landfills
Anyway, we did end up meeting with Caroline Priebe http://www.ulurunyc.com/, which happened to be a very fortunate meeting. It was as though we were drawn to her by fate or something. After we arrived in NYC by bus from Washington, D.C. at 5:00AM and getting in a couple extra hours of sleep at our hotel (Westin Hotel Times Square - which was very nice and hooked us up with very early check in and an upgraded room after our encounter with a rude security guard at the downstairs reception desk - we definitely recommend staying there) we found an article in a guide in our hotel about Uluru (How odd is that?) We were very interested after reading the article and thought, “Hey, why don’t we give her a call?” It couldn’t hurt to try. We looked at the website for Uluru, were very impressed with the designs, and gave her a ring. Caroline was very accommodating right off the bat. On the phone, she gave me a lot of good information about sustainable design resources and said she would be able to show us some of her work in her studio in Brooklyn. Later that afternoon, after visiting a couple of small boutiques on the way, we arrived at 5 in 1 studios in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Caroline showed us numerous pieces from her collection. All of the garments were very classic and well constructed, meant to last, not to be disposable. Definitely check out her statement on the Uluru website—it totally sums up her point of view. Currently she is also collaborating with Natalie Chanin http://www.alabamachanin.com/ , who does very intricately detailed clothing using old t-shirts, all by hand with reverse appliqué and other various methods of embellishment. Pieces from Uluru’s previous collection have been sent to Natalie Chanin to add embellishment in order to up cycle the garments for the new season. In the first photo above, Caroline is pictured holding one of the pieces (along with all of us!) that has a quote from Frida Kahlo appliquéd on it along with wings. “Each season uluru chooses a female hero as inspiration, a woman of substance, courage and style. In 1953, Frida Kahlo, the iconic artist wrote, ‘feet why do we need them, when we have wings to fly?’ which inspired the wing, spine and bugambilia, handstitched embellishements (http://www.ulurunyc.com/). It was a great experience, and it was influential and inspirational to all of us.
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