London based fashion journalist Josh Walker is the Editor and Creative Director of Colourblind, a platform dedicated to the exploration of the color black. He loves nothing more than uncovering the upcoming.
We are ever so appreciative of the ongoing support Josh has had for Velvit since it's early conception, and are honored to be collaborating with him on amazing projects for Colourblind and Velvit.
Read our exclusive interview with Josh.
Vivien Chan is a London based creative who dabbles in all sorts of media. Currently studying Illustration and Animation at Kingston University, she is most interested in reportage, curation, art direction, as well as moving image. Vivien is most fascinated by the event and experience. She loves spaces and transformations, color and atmosphere, and most of all, functionality.
Vivien has an amazing point of view and has been an asset in branding our YIN and YANG collections. We are so grateful to have her as a contributor.
Read our interview with Vivien here.
Born and raised in Norway, Eleen Halvorsen moved to New York to attend Parsons The New School for Design. She interned for threeASFOUR, Vena Cava, and ERRO. Upon graduating in 2012, Eleen was selected to show at Parsons’ Benefit Gala at the Chelsea Piers. Eleen was also one of the finalists for the annual international Arts of Fashion 2012 Competition, held by The Arts of Fashion Foundation in San Francisco. On her birthday in April 2013, the day of the new moon, she launched her self-titled line, ELEEN HALVORSEN. Her first collection was a conceptual capsule entitled “Dancing Under The Black Moon”. In October 2013, she was part of the curated group show BLEND, hosted by Beautiful Savage Magazine and REVERSE Gallery.
ELEEN HALVORSEN is a dark, futuristic and minimalistic, yet ethereal line. The inspiration and aesthetic derives from the contrast between the clear winter sky and mysterious nature of Scandinavia, and the grittiness of the streets of New York. Eleen has a conceptual approach to design, and by experimenting with unconventional pattern-making, construction, and materials, she is constantly seeking interesting new juxtapositions and ways to challenge the way garments are perceived and worn.
Read our interview with Eleen.
At the age of 5, Maude Nibelungen started knitting and never looked back. Since 2010, Maude has specialized in knitwear designs. Working exclusively with her own knitwear and handmade fabrics, Maude’s design process allows her a wider range of creativity with textures. She describes her designs as “matter and anti-matter dancing on the skin.”
Every garment is handmade and unique, and although the same patterns may apply, every piece has its own character. Maude takes a lot of her inspiration from nature, as things can only be so perfect. Even perfection isn’t perfect.
Maude’s hope for her pieces is that they will evolve with wear. “The knit you are going wear is going to follow you in your evolution,” she writes. Writing and knitting patterns also involve a lot of mathematics. The development and thought process behind each creation can be time consuming. Unlike pre-made fabrics that are cut to pattern and sewn, every part of the knit Maude creates is made from scratch. Each piece is transformed from ground zero to a desired shape and size and design. She is always working on evolving as a designer, whether it be in her technique, her designs, or in experimenting with different handmade materials.
Read Velvit's exclusive interview with Maude Nibelungen.
The Stowe began from a desire to produce beautiful, functional accessories. Owner and designer Molly Spittal graduated from Blanche MacDonald Centre with a diploma in fashion design. It wasn’t until years later that she found her true calling as a leather-smith after experimenting with the material to create aesthetically minimalist accessories. Using carefully selected materials sourced in North America, the Montréal-based designer creates products to complement individual style while serving a practical and primarily functional purpose. Each hand-made item reflects the values of traditional craftsmanship and classic design. Molly continues to create small collections of beautiful leather bags and accessories that are ideal for every season, every occasion, and every taste. Tested and perfected by the self-taught designer herself, The Stowe leather goods will truly stand the test of time.
Read Molly's exclusive interview with Velvit.
Elle Heavin is not only a designer but a storyteller. Her designs are references and allusions from the intimate to the divine. Her lifestyle clothing brand is meant to capture feeling. Emotion guides her designs and she has stated "if you look deep enough [in each collection] you will know what is going on in my life". When an artist can't find the words to say, they speak through their work; Elle does just that.
The feminine pieces in the collection convey strength; made to adorn the wearer with confidence and virtue. This collection is for women who have become warriors, carrying themselves with grace and poise. The message being "Find strength in tragedy and tribulations and rise above."
An avid believer in energy, light and manifesting, Elle lives her life by the cycles of the moon, and if a crystal is not around her neck, sure there is one nearby.
Read Elle's exclusive interview with Velvit.
Designer Agathe Bodineau is a self-taught jeweler who graduated from Concordia University with a degree in Painting & Drawing and also studied at École des Beaux-Arts de Montpellier, France. Her passion for design and materials led her to launch her independent line, LaLaYeah, and to work with designers on varying projects in art and fashion.
LaLaYeah has become the moniker for creations by Bodineau. Graphic, minimalist, raw or geometric, the necklaces, ornaments and accessories by LaLaYeah combine materials such as silver, bronze, minerals and resin, as well as horse and synthetic hair. The limited edition pieces are made by hand in her Montreal studio with a great attention to details, and love for the unique nature of materials. The works are inspired by visual art, rock and roll, extreme adornments, architectural lines, and shaped by a somber and minimalist aesthetic.
LaLaYeah has been published in Elle magazine, Modo Magazine (UK), Oppa Magazine (UK), Flanelle Mag, La Presse, Papercut (NYC), amongst others, and presented at Montreal Fashion Week, Fashion Arts Toronto, and in numerous design fairs, pop-up shops, and art galleries.
Read Velvit's exclusive interview with LaLaYeah.
Sadie Clayton is a womenswear designer based in London. She attended Kingston University where she received a BA in Fashion Design, graduating with Honors. Throughout her final collection, Sadie specialized in mirrored copper metal and sculptural silhouettes.
Her exploration of daring experimentation and 3D manipulation on the stand is what informs her design process. Sadie constantly strives to push boundaries and produce something structured and fresh, resulting in an innovative outcome. She also won second place for the Innovation Award at Graduate Fashion Week 2013. Sadie showcased her debut AW14 show at LFW, at St Giles in the fields church.
Read our exclusive interview with Sadie Clayton.
Sasha Cherovsky has this utopian dimension in her head where she dreams of dark beauty. The moon, crystals, feathers, snow, orphic, occult, sharp and raw are recurring keywords in her practice. She makes pieces that bring her to that place. Nature fuels her inspiration as it is so full of symbols, textures and esoteric qualities. She values quality over quantity, uniqueness over conventional, and spiritual energy over emptiness. A true lifestyle surrounds her creations and she wishes to spread the love through her independent label, Raw-Taste.
All pieces for sale are hand-made in Montreal.
Read Sasha's interview with Velvit.
Handcrafted in Montreal, Canada by designer Audrey Cantwell, Ovate captures the synthesis between nature's elegant simplicity and the spare beauty of industrial minimalism. Artistry and functionality coalesce in a liminal space. Each garment begins with noble materials - cotton, hemp, wool, silk, linen, silver, leather - in a gradation of blacks and muted, neutral shades. Natural fibers and textures are best complemented by a desaturated, monochromatic palate. Black, the lack of color, is simultaneously timeless, mysterious, and graceful; a fusion of all these qualities. Genuine beauty lies in imperfection. Human creations, as much as those of the natural world, are given life by their asymmetries and flaws. Drawing from these essential elements, with a focus on deconstruction, distressing, garment-washing, and hand-dyeing, the end result is as unique as the raw materials from which it is wrought.
Read our exclusive interview with Ovate.
San Fran-based artists Ashley Lagasse and Zoe Cope, the creative duo that is Birds N Bones, combine their forces to design a dark collection of statement pieces inspired by gothic novels, taxidermy, skulls and bones and winged creatures, and nature in it's rawest form. From bird feet to lizard heads to python ribs, Birds N Bones offers silver casts of claws and appendages in pendants, earrings, rings and other statement jewelry that evokes the darker side of nature.
Read our interview with both Ashley and Zoe.
Designer Negin Izad explores the space between contrast and balance; organic versus structure, ancient history versus futuristic aspiration. Multi-wearable, unisex and shape shifting layers are the backbone to creating sustainability, as the designs breath new life each time when worn. The blended use of over 90% quality dead-stock textiles, each with its own texture palette, create subtle variations between monochromatic looks.
After working in vintage and used garment industry at the age of 17, Negin was exposed to the immediate waste of fast-fashion. She started participating in the vintage industry, selling and re-working clothing to have a second life. In 2011, during her first year of University for a Bachelors in Fashion Design and Technology, she furthered her education on the extreme effects the fashion industry has on a global level. From material resources to human rights, fashion can go to great extents to cover its tracks. NOCTEX was created in 2011 as an independent initiative to produce garments with transparent practices. Individual accessories and garments were produced by her own hands, or with the help of home sewers. Linking humane values to business practices became the foundation of the business, as well as the strive to encourage consumers to educate themselves on the differences between of independent design versus the fast-fashion garment industries.
Read our exclusive interview with Negin.
Chicago native Nicole Maret has this thing for excess. It all started with too many leopard print bandaids- that's when she was 5, and she didn't even have an injury. There's something about form over function that has driven her ever since, and nothing makes her happier than plotting new ways to dramatize and decorate the human body. She is captivated by the myriad dimensions that can be forged by a single hue, with a prowess for fusing disparate textures to create garments that are monogamous in color but promiscuous in depth. Flirtatious with the macabre and reliant on shadow and sleight, her work specializes in the unorthodox and will sparkle with any counterculture coquette whose night begins when the clock strikes twelve.
If she isn’t threading needles well into the witching hour or furiously sketching on any available surface, you can usually find her deeply buried in a Tom Wolfe book or spoiling her pet fox. A typography and hairspray aficionado both shorter and smarter than she appears, she dabbles in the preposterous and has a penchant for red lipstick, magic and single-malt scotch. She snags any spare moment she can to hobnob with friends and family, dreaming up her next move in the breaths in between.
Nicole received her BA in Art Studio at UCSB, her BFA in Fashion Design at ILIA - Chicago, and operates locally as an independent graphic consultant and owner/designer of The Ørder.
Read Nicole's exclusive interview with Velvit.
Marie Bjorklund is a Swedish fashion designer and shoemaker. Graduating from Beckmans College of Design in Stockholm with a BA in fashion design, Marie studied painting, graphic design, sculpture, and textile craft before turning to fashion. Marie has worked at a number of different companies as both a designer and an assistant. She has also worked as a freelance artist in print design, editorial styling, and costume design.
Marie is a partially self-taught shoe designer who regularly consults Sweden's most reputable shoemaker, Carina Eneroth of Framåt, for both expert opinions and evaluations of her pieces to ensure the highest quality and craftsmanship of the shoes, as well as to obtain a greater knowledge of her craft.
Marie's longtime passion for shoes, shapes, materials, sculptural and graphical expressions led her to shoe design and to the launch of her independent line, NOOID. Her free and unconventional approach to shoe design creates a dynamic combination of innovative design, craftsmanship, and quality. Each shoe is handmade in Portugal by skilled artisans. All leather is made in Italy.
Read Velvit's exclusive interview with Marie.
Miguel Villalobos and Graham Tabor are multi-disciplinary artists based in New York who work in the fields of sculpture, photography, and jewelry design. Since 2009, Villalobos and Tabor have created handcrafted, limited-edition jewelry in their New York studio under the brand 1-100. Using artisan techniques, 1-100 focuses on pure materials such as sterling silver and 18k gold. As a brand, 1-100 is committed to artisanal, luxury manufacturing in New York City where their entire collection is produced.
1-100 jewelry is shown under the name Tabor - Villalobos at Cristina Grajales Gallery, NY. Through Grajales, Tabor - Villalobos designs and single commission jewelry have been shown at numerous international design fairs including Pavilion of Art and Design, Art Basel, and Collective New York.
1-100 sells to exclusive retailers internationally and their work has been featured in numerous fashion magazines around the world, such as Vogue, W, Interview, and Harper's Bazaar.
Read our exclusive interview with Graham and Miguel.
Lykanthea is Lakshmi Ramgopal, a musician and University of Chicago Ph.D. student who currently lives in Rome, Italy. Lakshmi grew up in northern Massachusetts, where she trained as a Carnatic vocalist for ten years before moving to Chicago. There, she picked up the guitar and began writing music in several bands bands before breaking ground as a solo musician.
Under the moniker Lykanthea, Lakshmi pulls influences from ancient lore and goddesses like Inanna, the muse of her debut solo EP, Migration. Lakshmi used her research skills to explore and reinterpret Inanna’s world by reading translations of tablets inscribed in cuneiform with the goddess’ story and examining archaeological artifacts from the ancient kingdom of Sumer. She also mined her own experiences during a dislocating year of travel, imbuing the EP with a serene, yet hollow sense of isolation. The result is a densely textured album that explores the concept of rebirth in and across lifetimes.
Lykanthea’s siren sounds and hypnotic vocals perfectly encapsulate the dark feminine, blending complex themes with haunting synths and guitars to take you into the deepest waters of Inanna’s story.
Read our exclusive interview with Lakshmi.
Originally from Orange County, California, Jas Helena has spent the last two years working out of her hometown and Los Angeles, and currently living in Savannah, Georgia. With a focus on light and dark themes, geometry, ornate detail, nature, life, and death, Jas Helena illustrates artwork exclusively in black, no matter what her medium.
Read our exclusive interview with Jas.
Laura Prieto Velasco is Hunter Gatherer.
Laura studied Metalworking and Design at the Tyler School of Art (BFA) and San Diego State University (MFA) and currently teaches at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She formed Hunter Gatherer in 2011 to challenge the idea that ready to wear accessories, art and couture cannot happily co-exist in an affordable unisex product. About her design process and philosophy Laura says:
“I want my designs to challenge people and allow them to be part of something larger than a trend. My goal with Hunter Gatherer is to use the format of jewelry as a platform for a dialogue about how antiquated ideas and practices continue to shape modern life. To wear my work is to acknowledge and confront a collision of ancient and modern worlds. My designs don’t permit ideas to play a second fiddle to product. My work is not based on marketing images and manipulating taste, and good content drives the decision as to whether a product is ready to be released into the world.”
Hunter Gatherer celebrates the tangled heritage of the metropolitan by telling its tales and looking to our ancestors. Hunter Gatherer adorns the urban nomad with limited edition designs inspired by ethnographic research to complement an elegant minimalist wardrobe.
Read our exclusive interview with Hunter Gatherer
Created by designer-maker Sally Leung in 2014, Lyleu jewellery is handcrafted in a small studio in Sydney, Australia. With a background and life long passion for Art, Sally is influenced by everything from modern art, contemporary illustration, alternative rock, horror movies, and architecture. She completed a Bachelor of Fine Art at the College of Fine Art, Sydney in 2012.
Aiming to fuse these influences with a minimalist approach, Lyleu jewellery combines asymmetry, geometry, and stark contrast, with a subtle, dark intricacy.
Lyleu jewellery is handcrafted by Sally using recycled sterling silver sheet and wire. Each time a piece is made, there is the intention to improve upon and progress in her metal and silversmithing knowledge.
Read our exclusive interview with Sally Leung.
.
Cindy Leper is an independent jewelry brand by Isabella Rosa crafted in Bologna, Italy. Cindy Leper is focused on handmade, one-of-a-kind and limited edition pieces, supported by the invaluable knowledge of Isabella's father, Andrea Rosa, carpenter and cabinet-maker.
Isabella has a Fine Art and Anthropology Degree, but as of 2012, has journeyed into jewelry making and is a self taught designer and crafter.
During her studies, Isabella became fascinated by symbolic and ritual history of adornment and enjoys the challenge of opposites and syncretism: primitive/contemporary, natural/artificial, folk/pop. She has used these elements as inspiration in her collections, where she focuses on simple and clean geometric shapes. All materials used in Cindy Leper are reclaimed or come from FSC sustainable market. All bones are found by Isabella or proven sourced responsibly and professionally cleaned.
Read our exclusive interview with Isabella.
Lvnea is an indie perfume company based out of Montreal, Quebec, by April Engloner.
All natural and botanical perfumes are made using rare and authentic essences to evoke the primal smells of nature. April's unique blends are inspired by the natural ambient scents from the world around us.
Read our exclusive interview with LVNEA.
Sam was born in Marseille, France in 1986. Her drawings with pen, pencils and ink on paper, have been described as ''neo-gothic'' and ''Glam-Gore'' and have been released under the moniker Ectoplasm.
Sam's work deals with the vulnerability of material existence confronted with the timelessness of ecstatic spirituality. Her work is characterized by thin lines, vivid portraits, and nudes ripped open in sacrificial postures, surrounded by waves of organic motives and hair. She is inspired by symbolism paintings, psychoanalysis, mythology, and religion.
She is a member of the subversive art collective Usine 106u. Her artwork is part of private collections in the USA, Canada, Sweden, and France.
She lives in Montréal, Canada, with an eccentric painter and their two kombuchas.
Read our exclusive interview with Sam.
Young Jae Cho, or as we at Velvit know him by Joe, is the menswear mastermind behind the fashion label CHAOS FROM UNDERMIND. His label is based on inner darkness which every human being has - fear, depression, trauma, insecurity which came from his personal interest & background.
"I have been thinking that all human beings a have secret chamber of darkness in their mind, controlling it by conscious so that they can maintain themselves as a member of society.
“But sometimes it can be out of control, ooze out from the subconscious and makes that person themselves feel chaos. Spontaneously or unavoidably, sometimes we have to face with our own darkness. By facing it, we can gradually learn about ourselves, what we are."
By reinterpreting this psychological approach, CHAOS FROM UNDERMIND using eyelet details as a main symbol of the brand, which stands for ideal material of connecting conscious and subconscious. Using unique details & cut, fine fabric & subsidiary materials CHAOS FROM UNDERMIND suggest another way of menswear culture.
Joe currently creates his label in South Korea, and is a clothing and textiles graduate from the Catholic-University of Korea.
Read our exclusive interview with Joe.
Mike Årsjö and Emelica Lidman met in 2007 when they were studying metal craft in Stockholm. Both went on to complete a Bachelor degree at Konstfack in 2010. Following this, Mike continued at Konstfack and completed a Masters degree in 2012, while Emelica moved to London and completed her Masters at Royal College of Art.
In 2012, after Emelica moved back to Stockholm, she and Mike discussed the absences in men's jewelry, and the fact that so many jewelry makers specifically go into women's jewelry. This realization was a stepping-stone for the pair to start MURKY, along with their mutual appreciation for a darker aesthetic of silver.
MURKY sees the hand as the origin and centre of its vision. The hand embodies the silent/unspoken statement. MURKY determines the hands to be the forefront of its movement. The human strife comes alive in the hands. Their line is handcrafted in Stockholm, and values the permanence of precious metal and craft.
For more on the MURKY team, read our exclusive interview with Mike and Emelica.
Age Decay is the downer-rock solo project of Bristol-based musician and artist Chris Nicholls. Chris has contributed to various musical projects in the last eleven years - from instrumental post rock in When They Know You They Will Run, to arch and darkly romantic post-punk rock'n'roll in An Axe.
With art as his first love, and a background in English Literature, he has pulled a dark aesthetic and lyrical thread through each project he's been involved in,
Age Decay's first release - Pavor Nocturnus - is cyclical and claustrophobic. It deals with themes of sleep disorders, black holes, creativity, nature, and existential dread. Written, performed, recorded, and produced by Chris, the EP has been digitally released on Bandcamp and with a cassette release later in 2015 from Breathe Plastic records.
Age Decay is the nocturnal sound of something creeping slowly, inevitably toward you in the dark.
Read our exclusive interview with Chris Nicholls.
Captve is jewelry carved with a sculptor’s hand.
Montreal based artist, Jade Boutilier, draws her process from the Old Masters, carving each piece from a single block of wax as if it were marble. In 2010, she spent a year working in Florence, Italy studying and refining her craft in the shadow of the Renaissance. She was mesmerized by the countless marble masterpieces scattering the city. Their stories, their symbols, and their technique quickly became the inspiration for her work.
Each of her hand-crafted pieces contains a persona expressed through the wearer, so she sculpts her pieces to respond harmoniously to many distinctive styles, ideals and memories. Jade reworks each piece before she casts it in silver, making even her 50th cast as unique as the first.
Read our exclusive interview with Jade.
NUIT presents a marriage of the sacred and the profane, other-worldly shapes in an urban landscape. Each garment is designed to shroud and strengthen the body, ennobling and mystifying the human form.
Founded in 2012, by Anastasia Ikonnikova, NUIT began as a project which aimed to connect the mystical with the everyday. Anastasia seeks to create conceptual garments which are both, wearable and flattering while featuring dramatic silhouettes which empower the body. Fabrics and materials with innate beauty are a starting point for design, with subtle, intricate details adorning the final garment. The colour palettes are harmonious and neutral, allowing the natural beauty of the wearer to be the center of focus. Black is often the language of NUIT, for black is infinite, like the night-sky. Each collection is made-to-order in limited quantities, distancing the label from modern fast-fashion models, and embracing the traditional, sustainable and ethical process of an atelier.
Initially born into the world of music and performance, NUIT weaves a dreamscape of mysticism, nature, and art into each collection, distilling these inspirations into talismanic, physical form.
Read our exclusive interview with Ana.
Born in the early 1980's in Montréal, Martin Dhust is greatly influenced by minimalism and functionality. Raised in his grandparents studio, he started learning his craft at a young age. After graduating from Collège Marie-Victorin in fashion design, he moved to London to refine his technical and conceptual vision.
In 2010 he opened Atelier Martin Dhust in Montréal, rue Parthenais. Offering Private tailoring and costume design at first, it quickly grew into a brand. The Atelier now offers minimalist ant classic leather accessories and ever changing capsules of ready-to-wear and objects.
Read our exclusive interview with Martin.
Amy Goh is a Singapore-risen artist and weaver of worlds specializing in black and white illustrations in the surrealistic and sublime vein. Her ink-layered illustrations stitch together an encyclopedic visual repository wherein she scrutinizes and navigates memories, dreams, and the nebulous crevices of the mind.
Amy is currently based in Montreal where she is masquerading under the cover of a normal human mask while actively exploring the potential for cross-medial artistic collaborate.
Read our exclusive interview with Amy.
J. D. Doria, an interdisciplinary artist, works and lives in Tel Aviv. He has exhibited his works internationally in Tel Aviv, Rome, Milan, Paris, and Munich among many other cities world wide. His work explores through ‘matter’ the questions he deems fundamental in a human becoming, and matures at the intersections between art and technology, and between art and science. His background in cinema allows him to capture unexpected dynamic qualities in his works, which stem out from painting, and evolve through technology and photography into generative art. Among his exhibited projects are: Painting as a multitude, Organic Memory, and the Petri Dish Project.
Read our exclusive interview with Doria.
Cassie Meder is a model, filmmaker, and illustrator from Portland, Oregon, currently based in Nashville, Tennessee, creating under the moniker Casstronaut. Cassie obtained her knowledge and craft through eight years self discipline and study; she has never been formally trained.
Her illustration and film work lend to her background in the fashion industry aesthetically, although the inspiration behind her work contrast with nearly the opposite - lying heavily within the religious and philosophical questions of purity and evil. With a natural inclination toward the macabre since childhood, she challenges the adopted norms for pleasing aesthetics and unattractiveness, good and bad, asking the viewer to seek out the beauty of suffering in sacrifice, and to question the shallowness in earthly beauty.
Cassie has embarked on her adventures almost entirely single-handedly, but her lifelong creative support from family and friends and the persistent encouragement of her husband are responsible for where she is in her journey today.
Read our exclusive interview with Cassie.