Inspiration

I have never blogged before, but here I go.  It's almost 2011, and I have been thinking about how just over one year ago I resolved to start my own company, and how just under one year ago I began the process of making that happen.  In the past year I encountered a lot of questions that I've only begun to have answers to.  For example, I am regularly asked what inspires me and how I come up with my designs.  I of course have my favorite designers I admire greatly who inspire me, like Helmut Lang (both the original line as designed by him, and its current incarnation now that it is a contemporary brand owned by Theory), Stacey Bendet of Alice + Olivia, and Miuccia Prada of Prada (obviously) - among others.  I name these three in particular because I love their shapes, use of unconventional fabrics (often combined with more conventional ones), and the nod to femininity while maintaining a modern and unique point of view.  I do not look to these designers as people to emulate, but as innovators to admire.  My true inspiration comes directly from the things I love in life be it a story, a song, a film, or a photograph taken by a friend or family member.

The first season of Linden was to be small; 15 designs in total.  Ultimately, 12 were made into samples, and 8 were produced in a limited run.  The original 15 designs were comprised of 3 colors: black, white, and red.  My inspiration for my colors, as well as my designs, was the Grimm's fairy tale Snow White.  I reread the story last year and saw themes I'd never noticed as a child.  The whole story seems to be about domination and submission, death and reincarnation, and undeserving reward.  Snow White is helpless and easily fooled, constantly being controlled by men or the evil queen.  I translated these ideas into visual concepts.  Many of the details come from the idea of being bound or wrapped as a means of control.  All of the photos can be seen on the Linden website.

 


My second season was more than twice the size of the first.  For Spring 2011 (soon to be in stores) I found inspiration from the Beatles animated film, Yellow Submarine along with the 1990s grunge rock movement.  There were two sides to the collection - the Yellow (submarine) side, and the Blue Meanies side.  Shapes and color blocking were inspired by the film, but I looked back at my childhood for those soft, relaxed, sloppy shapes brought about by bands like Nirvana, and incorporated them into the stark colors and shapes that the film had inspired.  Some images of this collection can be seen on the Linden facebook page, and will all be up on the website very soon.

My current inspiration for Fall 2011 is a photo taken by my mother

It took me some time to take this image and convert it into designs, but eventually I began to look beyond the image and thought about the location itself as a spiritual and meditative space.  I started to think about where I go to find my own inner peace and decided on Richard Serra sculptures.

You'll have to wait and see how I've combined these two ideas.