Love these flattering sites
dutchy got another write up yesterday from a fun site called gretchen’s closet. Check out the review of the cute coin purse…
http://www.grechenscloset.com/index.php?category=2
Sites like these are great places to find tons of cool indie designers who have the greatest most unique stuff that not everyone and her mother has. Besides the fact they give such designers a place to be found and with the web as vast as it is, it won’t take long–so get it while the gettins’ good.
Handbag designer 101
There’s a new site that just featured dutchy last week and it’s pretty cool… http://www.handbagdesigner101.com/designer/11/dutchy_halasz_audree
The name sort of reminds me of going back to school and with one of the questions being “if I had any experience in fashion prior to starting dutchy”, I really felt under the microscope. But those are my hang-ups. I actually consider the experience I did have with sewing costumes for fun, and growing up with parent’s who owned a boutique experience in fashion. But I think the question was geared more towards education and experience in the field getting paid for the work; but that’s just me.
Check out www.dutchy.net
Artist inspiration
My last night in Mexico was spent watching my friend Clay (well not only watching, but drawing, too–if you can call what I do drawing) draw different designs and concepts for dutchy. Clay is a fabulous illustrator, he takes a concept and breaks it down into the micro and abstract form. For example, in thinking about a peacock feather he drew simple lines that to most wouldn’t even resemble a peacock feather, but the way he brings the lines together and adds depth with a pencil is mesmerizing.
I think this type of artist has a special way of thinking that doesn’t come naturally to most of us, and definitely not to me. If someone says peacock feather my mind goes straight to a literal looking peacock feather; I try to draw the entire peacock feather and it ends up looking like a, well, not a peacock feather. The artists’ mind, the conceptual mind can take an object and break it down to lines and images within the peacock feather. I am amazed by this and by Clay who is fun to watch and learn from.
I can’t wait see how learning from Clay will change the Fall ‘07 collection!
Check out www.dutchy.net
Color
People often ask me how I chose my colors for dutchy bags and I tell them honestly that there’s no true method to my madness. In fact it is one of the choices in the design of dutchy that is at the top of the importance list, yet it seems to daunt me each and every season.
Of course I am always drawn to the same color palette–the subdued colors seen in nature; I would make bags of olives, browns and creams every season if I could. I think each of us has an eye for a particular palette-some for more subdued natural colors and others for colors that ‘wake-up’ the eyes, like the fuschias and the chartreusses. Even though I am pulled to the softer colors, I know that I can’t always create bags in that palette; people like to see color and at this point the trend is to have a splash of color with more subdued clothes. While there are forecasters that tell all designers of the trends in color, that information is hard to come by when you’re a small designer and really have an intuitive cord running through who you are and how you create.
So they say Victorian grays, brasses and ambers, and deep blues with true red; we’ll see if the trend reports win over my intuition for Fall 2007, or if I can’t incorporate both.
Visit www.dutchy.net to see the current collection.
It’s all in the details
There is nothing more amazing for design inspiration than the day I spent yesterday. My friends and I are still in Mexico and we went to visit two true artists de Mexico who we had never met before—Nacho (short for Jose Ignacio) and Maggie (short for Margarette). Nacho and Maggie live on a huge compound in San Miguel and have been there for 10 years. When Maggie first moved there with her daughter, the owners were renting it for $300 and before Maggie arrived no one wanted it. But the artist in Maggie looked past the rubble in the yard and knew it was a gem (now the yard is a lush garden).
As I think about what Maggie and Nacho have done to make their home ‘home’ and what they create everyday with their art I am reminded that the details that come from the larger whole are the essence of design. Their works cover every wall (and there are a lot of walls) and range from a small card size image to a huge 4′ x 6′ foot image. Their medium is mostly paint, but they take other mediums and blend them into the art to a varying degree. As I looked at their art surrounding the walls I noticed that even in the most abstract piece you can find detail.
A simple line can create a bird shape, or a nose, or a horseshoe, or a wrinkle, yet still only be a line. It is in this thought of lines as a fundamental element that I will consider the stitching, leather pieces and other details of the bag. How it will manifest is still to be determined.
Visit www.dutchy.net to see the current collection.
Inspiration in Mexico
I’m in a great artist town in central Mexico called San Miguel de Allende getting ideas for my Fall 2007 designs and spending time with good friends. My boyfriend, Tom, reminds me that these friends, my best friends ever, are ‘great minds’. And they are; the creative type who have endless ideas about art, color, design and of course, many other things, but those are most relevant as I set out to create the absolute best collection I’ve done thus far. Off to the town to be inspired.
Visit www.dutchy.net to see past inspiration come to life.
