The Gentlewoman

Issue 1 2010

The Business of Fashion- Webby award nomination

Imran Amed of The Business of Fashion (BoF) posted a week in review on 12th April 2013. I have only just caught up and he mentioned my insight regarding my view on the brand Maiyet and expansion. Thanks Imran. 

 BoF has been nominated for the Webby award which is fantastic news! Fashion I believe is serious business and deserves recognition Click here to find out more and to vote:  http://pv.webbyawards.com/nominees/web/general-website/blog-business

 

Here is part of the article:

"...the buzziest news of the week was our nomination for a prestigious Webby Award in the business blog category, alongside globally recognised digital heavyweights Mashable, Business Insider, The Atlantic Business and All Things Digital. According to our internal statistics, more than 2500 of you clicked on bit.ly.com/VoteBoF to show your support in the public vote, helping us surge into second place position with 33 percent of the vote, just behind Mashable, a site that gets 20 million unique visitors per month. In recent days, we have maintained our second place position, but our share of overall votes has dropped back a bit to 23 percent. In order to help us win what is truly a ‘David and Goliath’ battle of the business blogs, please click and vote to show that the fashion industry means business. It takes 2 minutes and with your support we can win this thing! Elsewhere this week, we published a story on Maiyet, a brand which, in only 18 months, has managed to beautifully fuse a distinct luxury sensibility with ethical credentials. It remains to be seen whether the business can be scaled, however. As Polly pointed out in the comments on the piece, not every brand needs to grow into a behemoth, but healthy businesses do need to expand. At BoF, we’re very interested to see where this one goes."

Personal style

"The world of jewellery can be challenging, polarised between branded mass-market fashion pieces and the colourful, frequently vulgar glitz of the rich and famous. The more interesting scene lies somewhere in between, and that's where you will find the likes of Estelle Dévé."

Because magazine

Image from www.estelledeve.com campaign - explosions in the sky

With life and the passing of time, perceptions, life happenings and different paths tint and colour our lifestyle and aspirations. I have personally taken a more simplified approach to style choosing to reject mass consumerism and to focus on  sustainability, quality and craftsmanship.

A few of the ways I shall do this are:
1- seek independent designers for unique style and to support emerging talent or boutiques in villages .An adventure for me away from lazy Internet and high street shopping and to curb wasteful spending.
2- choose ethical brands where possible and find out more about where products and produce are from.
3- choose quality over quantity for items which I can wear until I'm old and to give away as mini treasures (sentimental) to family or charity when I am gone.

Dreams of dawn and dusk

Acne blouse degrad Cherry

Dusky pinks are the colours of my dreams.

Interview: Amanda Gerbasi, founder and designer at KATTRI

KATTRI is a jewellery brand which creates timeless pieces. Amanda Gerbasi is the founder and designer.

Amanda Gerbasi founded KATTRI after inspirations from her family and friends. Her great grandmother left Spain in 1900 to start a new life with her family in Brazil, she started designing and selling jewellery and was the first working woman in her family. Amanda's studies include Modern Languages, European studies as well as Architecture. She worked with friends from new womenswear label Isolda where she was inspired to venture into her passion for design.

Amanda sources rough gems from Minas Gerais (which translates as "General Mines") state in the heart of Brazil. KATTRI's foremost interest is aesthetics and all the gemstones used are conflict free, sourced and cut in Brazil.

1) What inspired you to create your current collection based on mathematical shapes and ideas?

 I am fascinated by the minimalism concept, where the simplest and fewest elements are used to create maximum impact and where empty spaces are equally important as "filled" or full ones.  So I started playing around with basic geometric shapes such as a circle and a rectangle.

The fact that KATTRI's pieces are designed on a 3D CAD software (for greater precision after my initial pencil sketches) also helps to visualise the exact geometric shapes that are being used to create such pieces. The names of the pieces usually come from the most prominent geometric shape used in their design. 

Another very important factor for me is that by giving these pieces such names I'm not attaching any specific meaning to them. In this way, the KATTRI customer is completely free to give their piece absolutely any meaning they want. It's completely up to them.

Hyperbola earring by KATTRI

2) How did you find and choose your conflict free supplier(s) and how easy is it to find such suppliers generally?

Well, I am lucky to come from a country that is one of the world's largest suppliers of gemstones.  Although there are still many social problems in Brazil the minerals sourced there are not used for funding any undemocratic activity or internal wars, and there is no child labour also. Using gemstones widely available in Brazil is my way of making sure I am not contributing to any such activities. 

I don't know how easy it would be to find such suppliers in African or Asian countries.  Also, my current gemstone supplier prides itself in having the highest professional ethics by giving its customers full disclosure of the origin and treatments of their gems.  

3)Do you have a favourite piece from your collection?

 My favourite pieces is the Quadrant ring.  This ring was the first piece I ever designed and the very positive feedback I got from it gave me confidence in my designing skills, so that I could develop a whole collection based on it.

The Quadrant ring by KATTRI

4)What advice would you give to aspiring jewellery designers?

 That's hard but I believe that besides an appealing product in today's market branding it's really important.  This is something that we work very hard on and there's always room for improvement! And of course, you have to really believe in yourself and not give up as it will probably be a tough (but rewarding!) ride.

Quadrant earring by KATTRI

Thanks for the interview Amanda.
To discover more visit:  http://kattri.com/

Image sources: KATTRI