Inside the Designer's Studio: Erica Weiner

My never-ending search for the next best sample sale led me to Erica Weiner’s Greenpoint studio in March. It was 5 PM on a Sunday and I had spent the better half of the day seeing Craigslist apartments in the flesh around Manhattan. The fruitless housing hunt left me needing to destress in the only way I know how: by surrounding myself in a room with wearable objects available for purchase. I stood on a corner by Union Square and scrolled through my inbox until I found a sample sale that the investigative shopping journalists behind Racked.com had deemed worthy, and so I headed to Erica’s studio. I didn’t realize until I got there that the sale was cash only, so I bought a five dollar bangle from the seven dollars cash I had in my wallet.

Fast forward/flash back to a few weeks ago when I went back to Erica’s studio to ask her about her #creativeprocess and find out how she wound up a Brookyln-based jewelry designer. Context alert: she’s from the New Jersey town that neighbors the one in which I grew up.

In true autodidactic fashion, Erica taught herself how to sew when she was in high school. She went off to explore the liberal arts for college and majored in art history at Vassar. Her foray into the world of wearable art began when she was studying abroad in a textile program at the Glasgow School of Art. After graduating college, she got a job working as a costume manager of a Broadway touring company, where she learned how to make things on both a budget and a tight schedule. She ditched the theater after two years and entered the high fash-un industry as a patternmaker.

Jewelry making began as her side project, but once she walked away with wads of cash from selling her charms and chains at a Philadelphia craft fair, she knew she was onto something. In a case of being in the right place at the right time, she snagged one of the first five vendor spots at the Brooklyn Artists & Flea circa 2006.

The trademark pieces that catapulted her from flea market artisan to established jewelry designer still make up much of her business, though she’s since expanded into the antiques sphere. She and her business partner go antique hunting in treasure troves in London and Maine and either sell their finds in vintage form or modify them as part of her 1909 line. Anywhooze, she’s got something for everyone--from brides looking for an antique ring to lil’ old you and me in the market for an airplane charm necklace--all of which you can check out here.

Designer Spotlight: Starring Marion Hanania of Good Guys Don't Wear Leather

I stumbled upon vegan shoe brand Good Guys Don't Wear Leather a couple of weeks ago when I was beginning my search for a pair of spring booties. Though vegan leather isn't a necessary condition when it comes to my choice of footwear, I became momentarily obsessed with the brand's imitation suede booties, loafers, and brogues that I made it my business to meet up with its vegan founder and designer, Marion Hanania, when I was in Paris. (I've also seriously wondered the viability of veganism in France given that the typical French meal is comprised of meat, dairy, and eggs. Quiche Lorraine, anyone?)

Marion is the type of person who exudes creativity. When I met her, she was wearing an OshKosh denim jumper that not many people over the age of five can pull off. Whenever I meet someone successful in a creative field, I always want to know how they got to where they are now, which in Marion's case, is exhibiting her Fall 2014 line at the Don't Believe the Hype exhibit in the Tuileries.

She's a lifelong Parisian whose creative juices have been flowing since a young age. Proof: she has always loved to draw and her grandmother was a fashion designer. Now 33, Marion studied fashion design at L’école Duperré, a fashion school in Paris, and started her own company after winning a contest for which she could design anything of her choosing. She explained that though she was initially drawn to clothing, she wanted to try her hand at something new, so she opted for footwear. Before launching Good Guys two and a half years ago, she spent almost ten years working as a freelance shoe designer for fashion icons like Isabel Marant. (She isn't responsible for the wedge sneaker though.)

She started Good Guys out of a desire to bring something new to the shoe market: unisex vegan shoes. The shoes look and feel like leather and suede, but they're made of breathable microfibers, canvas, and natural rubber. She likes to keep her styles basic but is always on the hunt for the newest and most animal-friendly materials.

When I asked her my hard-hitting question of how one could be a vegan in France, she didn't have much to say except that it's pretty hard. As for her shoes, she wasn't sure how they'd first be received in France, but we can assume quite well because they're currently front and center in the windows of Colette. I'm planning on making the Duke bootie (below) my spring shoes once I get myself over to MooShoes on the Lower East Side to snag a pair.

Check out Good Guys' e-shop here, and its bumpin' Tumblr ova here.

Designer Spotlight: Starring Louise Damas

I came across Louise Damas’jewelry collection while combing through various blogs and online shopping sites a couple of weeks ago—otherwise known as my favorite form of multitasking. As soon as I clicked into her e-shop, I wanted to adorn myself in all of the accouterments on her site and then meet her because both she and her jewelry seemed so effortlessly cool.

I went to go visit Louise at her apartment-cum-workshop on an 11^th arrondissement street close to Père Lachaise cemetery last week. Home to grungy chic Oberkampf, the 11^th has the sketchy hip vibe that attracts post-college creative types (uh, hipsters). I wouldn’t say it’s the Brooklyn of Paris though—maybe the Long Island City? Actually, I have no idea.

As expected, Louise is the quintessential cool Parisian. Born and raised in Paris, she graduated from the Sorbonne two years ago with a degree in literature and launched her jewelry line during her final year of school. She’s a DIY evangelist and has been creating things since she was younger, so jewelry making was a natural hobby, and now career, for her to fall into. I wondered if she’d be at a nondescript entry-level job if she weren’t designing jewelry (do they have those in hashtag France?), but she claims she’d be studying for a higher degree in literature. Girl crush alert: I love people who love studying.

She hasn’t left literature behind though, and much of her inspiration comes from the great heroines of European classics. Emile Zola, Charles Baudelaire, Stefan Zweig, and Colette rank among her top authors, and one of her favorite pieces in her new collection is a ring named after Mrs. C, the main character in Zweig’s Twenty-Four Hours in the Life of a Woman. The walls of Louise’s workshop are lined with books: a collection of rare editions passed down from her grandmother, two sets of encyclopedias, and stacks of livre de poche books that could have only been purchased with a class syllabus in hand.

Currently at work on her third collection, she makes all of her pieces at a desk in her apartment. Aside from the usual necklace-bracelet-ring combo that constitutes a run of the mill jewelry collection, her new line incorporates ear cuffs, headbands, and shirt collars, and includes strands of gold braids, Swarovski crystals, and semi-precious stones. Her line is currently available at a few boutiques in Paris and online at her e-shop, which you can buy (and ship to the Etats-Unis!) here.

Bobo chic, no? Au revoir!