Seeing Stars : Interview with Celinecelines from SLOWFACTORY.

We recently caught up with the up and coming Montreal based designer Celinecelines of SLOWFACTORY to talk about her inspirations and motivations concerning sharing, stars and future endeavors. Check out www.slowfactory.com to see the entire collection available for sale online.

Interview by Ashley Bilodeau for LeSmokingMTL.com

LeSmokingMTL: Can you explain to us your views on sharing and collaborating? This has been a constant theme in your career and you are always very vocal when speaking about your involvement in Creative Commons.

Celinecelines: Creative Commons is an open license decriminalizing people who decide to share or remix a certain content. It facilitates sharing / remixing and collaborating. These are the core values of the Web culture. Being web-native and having learned my craft online thanks to communities and people sharing their knowledge, I am an open culture activist and encourage people to upload / share and participate thus growing an existing culture. For Slowfactory I collaborated with Pattern Recognition's artist and founder Zohar Kfir for the first collection on NASA Hubble. Since she specializes in printing on silk fabric, I turned to her for advice and she was super excited about the project.

LeSmokingMTL: How has creative commons influenced and shaped your process as a designer?

Celinecelines: I don't know if CC has influenced me as a designer. I was already doing design, the thing that it did was make me feel part of a larger voice / initiative / community. I met amazing people while being involved with CC and it opened up my options. I started being super involved in the CC Salon (Qatar / Beirut / Montreal) and meeting more interesting people and bringing people together. I love bringing people together, interacting with people is really great!

LeSmokingMTL: What does the digital era mean to you?

Celinecelines: It means the present. It means where we are at now in our evolution. We live with digital platforms that have shaped our perspective / vision / culture. For the lucky ones, we have adjusted to change, we have opened up to other possibilities and created new crafts. For the unlucky ones, we have fought hard for things to NOT change (which is like swimming against the current and can be very exhausting). Some people are afraid because they cannot control the message anymore, or simply because they feel they cannot keep up with the movement, the information flow etc... Its a current state of change.

LeSmokingMTL: When did you start researching NASA Hubble images?

Celinecelines: Since I was a kid, I wanted to be an astronaut. I read somewhere that the majority of the eldest children in a family tend to want to be astronauts. I am part of that majority, a generation of kids who dream about the Universe, who dream to discover the unknown... I think the first contacts I added on my Flickr account where NASA Goddard's account and my favorite images are from that account. One time I twitted something like : "imagine this image printed on a silk scarf#hermes style http://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/6511685905/in/contacts/ …"wear the beauty of the univers" That was the point where I decided to act upon my idea.

LeSmokingMTL: Where does your mind go when looking at these images?

Celinecelines: My mind stops and admires. I think that we need more moments in life where we can safely allow our minds to take power naps so that they don't tend to freak out and spin. I believe in wisdom, peace of mind and for someone to grow and rise up to a higher self. The more the mind spins, the more we stagnate. So, yeah, I contemplate.

LeSmokingMTL: What made you want to start a collection of scarves?

Celinecelines:I love Hermés and I am a big fan of fashion and trends. Trends are defining cultures and times and its fascinating. I come from the Middle-East where wrapping yourself in scarves is very chic ;) and from Montreal where you NEED to wrap yourself in a scarf otherwise you'll freeze to death lol!

LeSmokingMTL: What do you hope to accomplish with SLOWFACTORY?

Celinecelines: I want to keep collaborating with trend setters / fashion designers. This Collection from SLOWFACTORY is a first of a series of collaborations, we are currently working closely with one of Montreal's TOP designer on a Top Secret Project (for now) :) and we will soon be very excited to share it with the world.... Stay tuned!!!

Thought of the day.

There are so many ways to understand FASHION. Everyone see's, touches, digests fashion in totally different ways. Always remember to be yourself in it all. You are always different from everyone else, the same way that seasons and collections are different. We all represent an important part of what is happening now. BE COOL, BE YOU.

Prada: 60's Scottish spaceship travelers armed with fur and fish scales Fall 2011

 

   Prada chose to live stream their runway show. The show itself was one hour and a half late. Guests were made to sit on square Styrofoam boxes as they waited for the plastic to be removed from the catwalk. The setting was a very large two level room with pillars and a big stair case. It sort of seemed seem like the models where coming out of everywhere at a pretty fast speed. There was an air of uncomfortable confusion to the entire show which seems to have been done purposefully.  Plaid 60's like dresses, fish scale like palette dresses and fur mixed coats where over powering. This collection draws your attention, sucks you in out of curiosity and then leaves you confused but slightly obsessed at understanding the mix of themes that went on.

This stood alone, nothing can touch it, nothing resembles it. It was class, it was a review, it was elegant and fun.

MISSONI campagne add

Berardi goes light and girly for Spring!

  We are used to seeing super short and super tight with Antonio Berardi. For his Spring 2011 Ready to Wear collection Berardi really changes things up. There is an air of sophistication, elegance and luxury to this one yet totally keeping with the clean modern edge. He introduced parachute like pants, with tuxedo tops and then went  to shiny silver trench's that were to die for, then off to ballet/military  combo which oozed prettiness.

This collection was sort of all over the map, in a good way!

 

Loving both of these trench coats, one for day and one to glam up the night.

 This jacket is to die for! Excellent cut and form.

 Finally, Phillip Lim's Calder shoe wold be a perfect match to Brardi's black and white suit.

Photo: Yannis Vlamos / GoRunway.com

http://www.antonioberardi.com/

Christopher Kane Spring RTW '11 a burst of freshness.

       Spring is around the corner and we are definitely feeling it in the air. The weather the last few days has been so warm and spring like, it's been encouraging to us. Looking at Christopher Kane's Spring Ready to wear collection for 2011 we can really feel the freshness especially with his choice of colours. Using perforated leather with a vinyl coating  gives  a more shine, more of a clean allure and mixing that with lace and patterns that look peacock like, he takes the tea time look to a futuristic time. This collection goes perfect with springs new love for orange cosmetics.

 Christopher Kane Spring Ready to Wear 2011

all above photo's from Style.com

Actress Arielle Vandenberg

 Mac Limited Edition

Neon Orange Lipstick

Samuel Dong, ruffles galore!

This outfit with the aqua gloves and the space like leggings feels futuristic and sci-fi.

 

    Samuel Dong is a New York designer who showed for the first time @ MTL Fashion Week 2011. Traditionally, Dong makes things for a more mature clientele. With this "Fantasy" collection, we find Dong tries to reach out to a younger crowd, mixing and matching prints and textures. This collection was more theatrical, more edgy and stronger then anything we've seen from him in the past. This could be considered a major improvement for Dong. 

DENIS GAGNON, lovely, fun and technically interesting.

 We loved the choice of colours and textures from fake furs to folded chiffon, to intricate weavings of cotton. It had a sort of futuristic cotton candy feel to it. Denis recently started doing business in the Asian markets. Hopefully this means we will be seeing more creations like these! Uninhibited, free and so much fun!

There was also alot of black pieces which we really liked too! But our coup de coeur was the more playful choices of colour combinations! Way to go Denis, oh and you inspire us too!!!!

xo

www.denisgagnon.ca

Footage by Ashley Bilodeau

Photos by Ashley Bilodeau