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Interview: Italian Fashion Designer Jezabelle Cormio

The emerging talent speaks about alternative style, gender roles and what it means to make truthful design

Paolo Ferrarini

1 December 2023

For decades, novelties in Italian fashion were rare when it came to new brands and designers. This has changed rapidly in recent years, as evidenced by the increasingly frequent international awards attributed to the new generation of Italian designers. Among these, Cormio is undoubtedly one of the most exciting.

Jezabelle Cormio, a designer of Italian American origin based in Milan, founded the brand after studying at the prestigious Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp, Belgium, under famed director Walter Van Beirendonck. Her brand was immediately characterized by an eccentric aesthetic vision, defiant of traditional gender roles, that embraced kitsch.

Recently, Cormio was one of the participants in Forces of Fashion, an international event curated by Vogue in Rome. There, we met her to discuss fashion, family, tailoring and what it means to be a designer today in Italy.

Let’s start with your fashion education. You choose Antwerp, where creativity is seen as more important than industry.

In Antwerp, fashion design culture is based on personal DNA. The stakes are high—to find out who you are and then build this little brand based on yourself through the years. Students are not asked to think about the commercial side or propose things that they would see, let’s say, in a Versace show. No one’s asking anybody to think, “What would I do if I worked at Dolce & Gabbana?” No one cares. 

How were you able to combine this northern European drive toward self-expression with a more commercially oriented Italian side?

One thing is, I don’t really see my work as very Italian. I think many people are surprised sometimes when they find out I’m Italian. I’m not trying to look Italian, but I am also Italian; I can’t choose. One thing that I find really fun is to think about Italy from outside and inside at the same time. Because I’m half American and half Italian, I always enjoy critical thinking by looking at the other country from the outside. 

Your sources of inspiration—like Tyrol or soccer—are unusual for the fashion world. What makes those references interesting to you? Is it a way to distance yourself from tradition?

When I went to South Tyrol for the first time, I was in my mid-twenties. All the souvenir stores were filled with stuff I’ve seen my whole life, everywhere. I’ve seen traditional stuffed hearts in Puglia, pot holders in my aunt’s kitchen, Roman guys with Austrian coats, rich people’s weddings in Switzerland or Austria.

I think the Tyrolean aesthetic is appropriated by the Italian upper class to distance themselves from the Italian vulgar aesthetic that we can’t get rid of. There are codes; it’s pure, it’s clean. Also, the food, the water and the air are supposedly clean and pure there. And then, on the other hand, I also see that Germanic side that is very funny, like sausage, beer and sex jokes.

Is there anything from classic tailoring that influences your work?

I have a love-hate relationship with tailoring. Sometimes, it’s a cage; sometimes, elegance is a cage. It’s a little bit of an alibi for not having something else to say. I really like jerseys and denim now. And graphics and embroidery. I’m not saying that one day I won’t get a lot of satisfaction from tailoring, but there’s something so immediate, youthful and communicative about these other things.

The first time we saw something from Cormio, we fell in love with your embroidery. It recalled some very intimate memories from youth. I’m sure that many others recognize something personal in your products. Do you think about that when you design?

I used to think about it a lot in the beginning, and then it started rolling freely. When I was a small child, my great-grandmother was the only person in the family tree who could make anything. She would knit us sweaters and they were my favorites. Sometimes, they had these fibers that we wouldn’t see in Italy because it was from my American great-grandmother. They had magical powers to me like you can’t lose it, it can’t break.

When I started making clothes a few years ago, I couldn’t imagine somebody taking something I made and throwing it away. So, I try as much as possible to create a bond between the person and the clothing. If it has an emotional response or this tactile aspect of embroidery, if you can tangibly understand it’s been handmade, I think people develop a stronger relationship. They don’t just look at it as something that was supposed to fix some bad mood two weeks ago.

We know you have a passion for eBay, Etsy, Vinted and others.

Yeah, it’s my part-time job to find useless things!

Tell us more about that. 

It goes in phases because I need a lot of time. My latest obsession is subito.it because I find all the best things in the world. I love to scroll until I’m completely nauseous and my finger hurts. And then I find something, and I could drive to Naples to get it. I don’t care. I just moved into a new house. I went to Modena, put a wardrobe for my daughter on top of the car, and drove back home in the rain.

On eBay, I buy a lot of stuff. The good thing about eBay is that the platform has never really gotten up to date. It’s so uncomfortable to use that lazy people don’t use it. Stuff stays on eBay for longer. Whereas Vinted is so immediate that people are just constantly buying. And the shipping is pretty cheap. People buy really fast on Vinted, but eBay has remained the Amazon forest of online platforms.

In a recent interview, you said that in your vision for menswear, you wish that boyfriends could steal objects from their girlfriends.

That would be fun. It’s not gender neutral; it’s dress up. This is how I feel comfortable. It’s not if you’re a girl you wear a skirt, if you’re a boy you wear pants. It’s more like [finding] the safest area, and you can have fun outside it. There is a real fascination with stealing stuff from your boyfriend’s wardrobe or a woman appropriating a man’s wardrobe. But men don’t do it because they feel emasculated.

I noticed that in your photo shoots, there are a lot of women of all ages and many children, too. Why is this?

It has to do with the fact that I have a child. It was tough to reconcile having a family and not resigning from trying to feel young, dynamic, in touch with the world, and cool in a way.

But when I had the child, I didn’t have any references. I didn’t know anybody with kids; none of my friends had kids. I realized there was so much prejudice from my circle of people, the creative class or the new generation. People are very afraid of giving up everything that they have conquered to become bourgeois, bland parents. I found it very hard to reconcile those two things because I felt like I was being asked to abandon everything I was before and just hear, “Be on time at the kindergarten! Bring the fucking diapers! We don’t care that you have a company to run, fit in with the other moms!”

I thought there had to be more imagery about being young and having a child. I’m not even that young. I had a child at 30; nowadays, I’m considered a very young mother. I also thought one thing that was expected of me was to abandon all forms of sensuality or personal sexual identity.

You are part of the new generation of Italian designers selected by Vogue for Fashion Panorama and now the Roman edition of Forces of Fashion. You all have your brands and are not creative directors in big companies. You all know each other, and some of you are close friends. Do you see yourselves as a group?

We know each other, and we are close. We get together when we have to discuss industry dynamics because we all get the same treatment, in a way. From a sociological point of view, we have our own brand because we don’t fit in with the other brands. And the other brands are so big that they take up all the space. I’m sure we were all lucky for some reason.

I’ve had this brand for four years, but I can say I’ve had it for 10 years in different forms. I started producing things under my name when I was still in university because of some lucky opportunity with Opening Ceremony. Then, I didn’t know how to push it forward for a while because I didn’t know anything: I didn’t know about showrooms or investors; it just looked very slow from the outside. 

We also live in a society that hates young people right now. The fact that you might want to go and do something on your own seems like a survival tactic in a way.

Will you be able to change aesthetics? We ask that because the things you and your colleagues make are sometimes tricky to understand and they’re not highly commercial. It is brave.

Or naive. Could we change the aesthetics? Yes. The question is how fast and how much, what does it take. When I see the big maisons, some look identical for years. There’s nothing new, and it’s also not very specific to our time. And then there is also the fact that very big brands make everything that is trending right now. They don’t pick sides. They don’t just say, “We won’t do the baseball hat.” No, everybody does the baseball hat. It’s so smooth, but it’s also a little bit bland.

I think the opposite of that is probably a brand that doesn’t do everything and does a very specific, truthful design. On a tactile level, it feels a bit different because something that is not mass-produced has a taste; it really has a feeling.

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Interview: PURPLE BRAND Co-Founder Luke Cosby

From a 10,000-square-foot NYC HQ to a fresh take on denim, this international brand is leading with innovation

David Graver

9 November 2023

Founded in Vancouver in 2017 by a collective of friends that included industry veterans Luke Cosby and Rob Lo, PURPLE BRAND is a luxury denim apparel destination that emphasizes on design, construction and details. In the last year, the label has moved into a sprawling 10,000-square-foot SoHo, NYC HQ and lounge-space and begun construction on their first store, also in SoHo, which will open in March 2024. These in-person spaces are more than retail locations—they’re immersions into the PURPLE experience and they’ve been imagined for as social spaces more than sales hubs. To learn more about the future of PURPLE, we spoke with Cosby in the SoHo HQ, as we parsed through the super-sharp FW23 collection.

What brought you into the world of denim?

Denim is utilitarian. People wear it every day, for all types of occasions. Rob and I have been in the industry for our entire adult lives. We were starting to buy denim at $900 price points because that’s where we were seeing something that was an interesting proposition: that kind of American-made, raw denim. We were getting into our thirties and we were tired of waiting a year until our jeans had shown some expression of who we were. There’s pain involved in breaking denim in. We thought we could do something in an authentic way, at a price that made sense to people. $900 didn’t make sense.

The definition of luxury seems to be changing almost every day. How do you define luxury and how does it factor into what PURPLE is doing?

Staple is a not sexy word. It almost implies boring. Jeans and T-shirts can make you feel good. They are the pieces a lot of people wear the most. We wanted to craft them at the same level as luxury brands. We don’t want to own your whole outfit; we want to own a piece of it. But we want to be your most stocked item because you’re wearing our stuff the most. Getting to feel that quality every day, as you wear it in, that’s the luxury.

We work with craftsman from around the world, mostly from China and Italy, who have generational factories. One of our Chinese factories has been in business for over a century. There’s a lot of know-how in our garments.

Are you forever on a quest for new materials?

Absolutely, because we get bored easily. It’s always changing. There’s only one way for a business to grow—it’s to make yourself consistently uncomfortable. We push our comfort zones in the way that we design. Sometimes it lands, sometimes it doesn’t—but we always try. That’s Rob’s policy on design: let’s try.

How did you expand from denim to pieces like a leather jackets or hoodies?

When we are coming up with new categories or items for the collection, it’s for two reasons generally. We either see a hole in the market and we are trying to service our customers. Or, we ask if it’s really gangster. Is it fun? Does it make us feel good? That’s what’s most important.

There’s a vocal denim community worldwide. Do you engage? Or do you just do your own thing?

People are very passionate and very opinionated and it’s hard to change those opinions. We create denim that a lot of people love and maybe a lot of people might not love—but we create denim that we believe in. I come from a sales background. I have personally sold raw made-in-America denim that’s composed of dead stock fabric. Nobody touches it that’s not American. It is sewn in Downtown LA from fabrics found in North Carolina. I’ve sold Cheap Monday denim—super high volume, fashionable denim—for $60. I’ve sold R13, luxury denim. I’ve sold lots of different types of denim and there’s something for everybody out there.

If you ask 10 New Yorkers, what’s your favorite slice, you are going to get 10 different answers. It’s like with denim, there’s something for everybody out there.

Can we talk a little bit about your epic New York office space?

We’ve been here since November of last year. Previously we only had an office in Vancouver, but I was based in Houston. My office was really an airplane. I went to LA or New York or to our sales teams in Milan or our designer in Paris. The time came when we needed to have an American hub, a home for our creative team and our e-comm. The purpose is multi-pronged. It’s a work space, but the front part is a lounge that we are building out. It’s going to be a private store for friends of the brand, and a place to showcase the goods that haven’t come out yet and our retail concepts that we plan to roll out. We have a custom sound system and in the back we have a photo studio and a kitchen. It’s a place for everybody to meet in the middle. We have so many resources here in New York. We have influential friends of the brand, a lot of them in the music industry, popping in daily. We see it as the creative hub for PURPLE. We want to be known as SoHo’s living room for people in the know.

How does e-comm factor in the PURPLE brand right now?

Rob and I come from a wholesale background. We came out of the gates heavily in wholesale. Our business was 90% wholesale. At a certain point, our customers were buying our same jeans over and over from those outlets so we began to expand our online presence and make more exclusive products for our web store and brick and mortar. We were also able to start storytelling. We’ve been able to find our voice and our comfort zone.

How would you direct a new consumer to the brand?

I recently read articles on the demise of skinny jeans. It’s not true. I personally wear jeans that are all shapes but our sales are still 80% skinny. Skinny might sound like a naughty word for people 40 and up but our skinny doesn’t hug your calves. It’s a nice shape. It’s all about the shape. I would start people with our 001 skinny jean in black. You cannot go wrong with a black, slim jean. You can wear them to events at night.

A lot of our customers graduate to what we call a full flare. It’s kind of a boot cut, it’s kind of a flare. It’s the jean of the moment. We are making super-wide fits, too, because we know they’re in style. I don’t like going back to trends that I wore in high school but this one I’m enjoying.

What are your hopes for the next five years?

I am mostly interested in sustainable, meaningful growth. Dollars are a byproduct of those things—doing right by people, offering something to the customer that is meaningful. We are expanding into womenswear; it will launch in February. We’re extremely excited about that. We also see a strengthening of our brick-and-mortar experience.

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Interview: Herschel Supply Co’s Co-Founder Jamie Cormack

From opening a first-ever NYC store to reinventing the classics with consumer input

Evan Orensten

24 October 2023

Since its inception in 2009, Vancouver-based Herschel Supply Co has designed a coveted, easily recognizable range of travel bags, backpacks and accessories. With the onset of the pandemic, more than a decade after their debut, the brand decided to redesign every single silhouette in their roster—with sustainability, finesse and future-forward fabrication at the core. More than 70 classic products, in various colors, were updated and upgraded. Coupled with the opening of Herschel‘s first-ever NYC store, the brand is reinforcing their identity for the future. To learn more, we spoke with co-founder Jamie Cormack about their push into travel gear, the enduring power of NYC and more.

Let’s talk a bit about Herschel’s journey. We are really interested in where the brand is going—but we do think it’s important to nod to your past.

We always talk about having a good foundation to build off of. During COVID, we were told not to go out and to stay home. It was a tough time for us. We do best when we go out our front door, travel the globe, go back to school, be active. But this was the first time in our lives that we probably slowed down enough to look back at our origin story. The interesting part was just prior to COVID, we had a 10 year anniversary. We had already been pulling all the old archives, and really taking some time to reflect on them and where we had been. Then COVID hit.

As we were coming out of it, it was interesting for us because it was one of those moments where we thought “hey, let’s let’s go back to the very beginning and reintroduce ourselves.” We actually decided to refresh our origin story. We wanted to redo our “about,” and go back to what Herschel means. It’s fun to tell that story because I don’t know if we did the best job of telling it 13 or 14 years ago. We haven’t really ever done anything like that before because, especially over the last five years, we were so busy just keeping up with everything going on. It was nice to pause, to go back and reintroduce the brand. We don’t do that enough. We just assume that people know. You need to make sure your brand means something, that you know your label and your product stand for something.

How did you do that? You live with this story every day—how do you step back from it and say, “Hey, wait, maybe we need to revise how we’re talking about it.”

I’m a pretty practical person and I love founder stories. Everyone loves a founder story because there are ups and there are downs; it’s super-big wins and momentum. But there are also a lot of hills to climb and a lot of big, big steps back. For me, it was like let’s veer upward from the founder story and just talk about mindset and the real feeling of why it is named Herschel—so people can understand it when they say it. I want people to know what that white woven labels stands for.

Can you share some of this with us?

Herschel [is a place]—my great grandfather homesteaded there, my grandpa was born there. My dad was born there. My mom was born 10 kilometers from there. We still have tons of family (there). So I went back there with four individuals, a photographer and videographer to capture it. My uncle was there. My dad ended up driving out for the day. You know, it’s just one of those things going back home looking at all the stuff. It’s just fun to get together. Every single person we’ve brought out in a big Herschel van from Vancouver. It’s just funny how many people stopped to talk with us that we almost couldn’t get any work done.

How does this align with the redesign?

When you’re first designing, you’re trying to get everything done at such a crazy pace. This time, we actually looked at ourselves. We always look to the past to try to move forward. We started with this idea of the classics with a modern twist, right? I’ve always respected what’s been done in the past and I really wanted since day one to be a classic brand—and a brand that had style, that had quality, that had purpose but truly would be timeless.

We’ve since talked a lot about sustainability and impact. We knew that was going to be our journey for Herschel, but it’s hard to make changes on products. We just had to take the handcuffs off and look at the entire image. And we had to do that with sustainability at the forefront. So we looked at every single one of our silhouettes. And of course everybody in the company got super-excited about that. But I don’t think we knew how heavy the lift that was going to be.

How have you addressed sustainability?

We came from being about 6% recycled fabrications, now up to 95%. To have that big of a switchover, in one season, that’s huge. It’s just the right thing to do. And, we started the entire impact department to really look at every single aspect of our footprint globally.

Can you share more with us about the new classic designs?

We got a modernized feature set. We got a better bag overall—we have a bag that’s built for the future. As far as fabrication, it just looks and feels better. There weren’t a ton of tweaks. Our biggest pain-point was that it would have been easier if we didn’t have to have our bags look so familiar to how they were. We didn’t want to pay homage to what we call our classics. Our biggest thing was that from across the block, you would look at it and it would all look familiar, although the lines might be slightly different. We can modernize it by colorblocking. We can make it a little bit more efficient, just by looking at every component—like the way zippers work, just so you can have the right action. Every single detail, I was like, we need to redesign.

Why keep the visual impact so similar?

We know who we are and we know who we’re not. I think that when we started the brand we wanted to make sure we were democratic. There was nobody out there that was telling that story. Most people talk about their bags or their accessories, they talk about the product. They didn’t talk about why that company did it. They didn’t get people to love the brand, they got them to love the product. Of course, I want people to love our product, but I also want them to love our brand and I want it to be democratic. I want it to be good design. I want it to be classic design. I want it to feel timeless. And when I say timeless, a lot of people might think well that’s boring, but no—within that there’s so much innovation. We do that through the people we work with, the artists we work with, the collaborations we do with them, the new categories we bring to market. I hope people can see that.

What are your thoughts on travel bags?

I always say that our luggage has to be perfect—it has to feel like a new handbag. You always want people to want to carry it with them all the time. If you can do that, it just has to feel like part of you, like it can be easy. You shouldn’t have to think about it. It also has to have a bit of a personality.

Do feel a personal connection with NYC?

l love New York, but I also love Vancouver. New York is one of those cities where I just about ended up. I was 21, on an internship for Sony BMG, and I think I probably would have never left after a few months but I think it would have turned into something different. You know, it’s one of those cities that grabs you and tries not to let you get out.

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Proto Collective is Defining the Future of Footwear End-to-End

Their debut sneaker, the IRIS-D, is made in the US with full supplier and manufacturing transparency

Josh Rubin

6 October 2023

Some of the most famous names in footwear—including Jeff Staple and Jeffrey Henderson plus advisor Melody Ehsani—have banded together with pioneering creatives like Katie Longmyer and WeWork’s cofounder Miguel McKelvey to form Proto Collective, an organization dedicated to the design, production and culture surrounding the future of footwear. Formed back in 2020, Proto debuted a low-top sneaker named the IRIS-D in April 2023. In the time between, Proto enacted critical change around industry representation and was meticulous about their supply chain and carbon footprint. The brand continues to be deliberate in their development—slow, carefully considered and transparent. In fact, the label inside of the IRIS-D lists every single US vendor, factory and manufacturer—from the ball and chain tag to the sock liner.

The earliest wisps of Proto Collective began to form in December 2019 and January 2020, with Staple and McKelvey conversing about the future of footwear and, as the former describes, “sneaker culture nerd talk.” When the pandemic began to spread in early 2020, and as Black Lives Matter commanded international attention and WeWork went through a very public change, Staple and McKelvey observed the conflict between sales-y brand attention on social media and the critical social change that was being broadcast beside it. McKelvey wanted to buy sneakers from a brand that not only paid attention to broader cultural movements but represented the change he desired. He couldn’t find one—neither could Staple.

“We started to think about this triangulation of brands that try to do their best to not have a negative impact on the earth, brands that are owned and operated by people who look like their consumers—versus the two biggest powerhouse brands in crunchy Beaverton, Oregon and Nuremberg, Germany—and brands that have a cool factor,” Staple tells COOL HUNTING. “These three things were existing in separate pockets, but not triangulating. I wanted a dope, BIPOC, female-majority lead organization that makes desirable shoes that are not negatively impactful to the planet. It didn’t exist.”

McKelvey and Staple decided to partner up and do it themselves by assembling the perfect team. “Miguel doesn’t want to do super-niche things. He wants to do things on a global scale that really move the needle. And frankly, for something like this, you kind of have to do it on a global scale or else like you’re not doing the right thing,” Staple continues. “You kind of have to go big or go home on this. We knew we’d have to pretty much assemble like an Avengers-level group. Miguel said, ‘let’s start looking.’ I was assembling the team more from a footwear-style standpoint, cultural, and he started to assemble them more from an operational administrative standpoint.”

It went from a conversation to a brand quickly—though they toyed with producing something other than footwear. During the development process, McKelvey got passionate about producing in the US. “With sustainability, that’s 50% of the battle—of lowering your carbon footprint, right. And then, as we all know, a lot of factory workers were laid off because of the exporting of work to Asia—and a lot of those people that were impacted are Black and Brown people. If you bring production back here you’re helping out with some of the other values that we really wanted to embody.”

Proto began to reverse engineer their designs. “We were saying okay, ‘America, what do we got? Who’s making stuff?’ And we found a factory that only makes fire-resistant boots. That’s all they do. But we we’re like, ‘Hey, you make boots. Maybe can we work together to now use your technology and innovation to make something lifestyle fashion and wearable?’ Right. So our thing is like: let’s find out who’s in our toolkit to be able to make stuff in America.”

The IRIS-D is completely assembled in America—and 90% of the components are manufactured in America. “The only thing that is not really is the outsole because we were working with Vibram. Their soles weren’t made in America, but we bought their soles that were already residing here,” Staple says of their choice to use deadstock material. Now, they’re working with Vibram’s innovation lab to develop their own Made in America products from scratch.

“Our first foot forward is this shoe,” Longmyer adds. “Through it, I want to have a conversation that’s like ‘this is actually the way to be, what people have been asking for, for a long time, and the spotlight is moving, and we can lift each other up.’ There’s a cultural shift happening.” Katie Longmyer is a life-long culture-maker and as the CEO of Proto brings her multi-hyphenate skills to a company that’s equally about enacting change as it is about creating products.

Longmyer credits the strength of the collective for Proto’s initial success and its unbounded potential. “I think this team is indescribably magical and filled with alchemy,” she says. “But we also have a bunch of people with technical and design and industrial experience that we need to lean into, and we need to make something and show everybody that it’s doable and that we are, you know, tasked with solving the biggest design challenge ever. We have these resources and this limited amount of time and money—and we’re trying to do it in an ethical way here in the US.” It’s a tall feat but the IRIS-D is already an inspiring example of success.

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For its Debut Event, Skylight at The Refinery Hosted NYC’s First-Ever Hermès Menswear Runway Show

Entitled “Walking on Air,” the men’s Autumn-Winter 2023 event closed out New York Fashion Week 

David Graver

15 September 2023

As the sun set over the Manhattan skyline, an intoxicating blend of blue and orange hues filtered into Skylight at The Refinery, a crystalline crown atop The Refinery at Domino. A 19th-century brick landmark, restored by the developer Two Trees into an architecturally significant destination for office space, The Refinery at Domino will open to the market from its pristine position along the Williamsburg waterfront in a matter of days. To usher in its arrival, Two Trees partnered with Skylight (the women-founded and owned development firm at the helm of NYFW’s venue relocation for the past 15 years) for an utterly astonishing event. Entitled “Walking on Air,” the exclusive spectacle was the first-ever “see now, buy now” runway show in NYC by French luxury maison Hermès. Featuring a star-studded roster of attendees, the menswear event saw the likes of acclaimed filmmaker Taika Waititi, AD100 interior designer Andre Mellone, New York Giants running back Saquon Barkley and NYC-based star chef Rōze Traore (who recently opened the La Fourchette de Rōze boutique hotel in Côte d’Ivoire) strut through the space in the impressive winter 2023 collection.

Spectacular venues have long been integral to New York Fashion Week, from the iconic tents at Bryant Park to insider access at secret spots each season. Over the years, Skylight itself has become synonymous with locations throughout the week. “Our mission is to activate or revitalize historic spaces with energy through programming, events, culture and arts,” Skylight’s CEO, Stephanie Blake, tells COOL HUNTING. “Programming brings dynamism to static spaces. It enables a venue to move into the future. We work with landlords to identify a canvas where fashion brands can celebrate. These brands care most about physicality. They want to know, ‘how do you create an unforgettable experience?’ They look to Skylight for this.”

Skylight led New York Fashion Week’s move from Lincoln Center to Moynihan Train Hall, before it was revitalized. They were also staging events on the west side long before the High Line or Hudson Yards became attractions. “Back in the day, we had the Skylight Soho warehouse at Dominic and Spring,” Blake says. “We brought Steven Meisel to shoot Madonna for his Louis Vuitton campaign there. It became his private studio. We got Ralph Lauren to come down from the Upper East Side, to go to this little known space so far west when people were still asking ‘who would go over there?'” Skylight moved to Clarkson Square. Years later, Google followed.

“Fashion sets the tone,” Blake says. “Hermès being here, in Skylight at The Refinery, it makes a statement to all other industries. Fashion has an air of inaccessibility, and people want access. When fashion brands come to Skylight, they know we are offering inaccessible spaces. ” Skylight at The Refinery is the perfect example. Although The Refinery opens this 27 September, the Skylight penthouse space won’t until September 2024.

Skylight had been interested in the building for some time. Blake understood that as the west side developed, fashion would likely shift east—and to Brooklyn. “We always want to stay ahead of the curve,” she says. “Meeting with Jed [Walentas, principal at Two Trees], we understood he was a visionary and saw these neighborhoods before others. For Skylight, we want to be first to identify a location with bones and history—because our brands want to be the 21st century patrons of the arts, of community and culture.”

Hermès made for a fitting launch partner. Much like The Refinery itself, the maison weaves together an illustrious heritage with a quest for innovation. “I can’t imagine a better global brand than Hermès,” Walentas adds. “It’s their mixture of authenticity and old world history, while at the same time being so pioneering in their spirit and what they do, it all speaks to what we are trying to do here.”

Aside from the uninterrupted views of Manhattan, The Refinery’s other great success comes from its visual connection to Williamsburg. “You’re not just up in the air,” Walentas points out. “There’s an integration of the building into the park and the surrounding neighborhood. I like to think we do as good a job as anybody at creating real New York neighborhoods. We try to be intentional about that.” For a fashion week debut, partnering with Hermès and Skylight is as intentional as it comes.

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Pippa Small’s Ethical Jewelry Brand

The British anthropologist and entrepreneur tells us how she created a bridge between local communities and international markets

Paolo Ferrarini

22 August 2023

The world of jewelry is as fascinating as it is controversial. Although many people own and wear jewelry pieces, there are often ethical concerns associated with exploitation, colonization, pollution and depletion of resources. Pippa Small has found an alternate way to make—and make sense of—jewelry, something she’s loved since she was little. A trained anthropologist, Small worked for human rights campaigns. During research trips, she came into contact with many artisans around the world. Small was able to create jobs that employed these artisans and develop a sustainable jewelry business in the process.

“I’m coming to design from human rights,” she tells us. “In the process of working with communities, particularly in Southeast Asia, I constantly came across people who would say, ‘will you take these baskets or beads or bracelets and sell them for us?’ I’d always be trundling back to London with these things that I would try to sell, but not very successfully.”

To Small, an idea grew from the challenge. “At a certain point, I thought of becoming a [sort of] bridge. The materials and the talent are there, and the need and the market are here. This little area between these two worlds really needed someone to be alongside. So I started doing that 25 years ago, and the first project I did was with the Bushmen in Botswana, and South Africa.”

From the very beginning, her approach was deeply rooted in her anthropological background. “I carried on being someone who could sit alongside artisans and get a sense and an understanding of their life, of their experience, of their challenges, of the community’s political history. [I started] doing a lot of research around the material culture and how it fits in as an identifier, then working with them to keep their voice but translating it so that it could become something in London, Paris, New York, Tokyo.”

For Small, jewelry is more than a beautiful object; it has a story. “Jewelry has always had financial value but emotional importance as well,” she says. “It becomes something we’re very attached to. We wear it close to us. It’s quite a universal thing. It’s very challenging to be able to give voice and give respect to the artisan in a way that’s compact, quick and biteable.”

To channel this, Small began to make films and share insightful stories on the Pippa Small Jewelry website. “I think film is one way that is really wonderful because you get a sense of sound as well,” she explains. “You hear the language; you hear the voice. I remember particularly when I first started working with the Bushmen in Botswana. They have a click language, and it felt as important to hear that, to see the landscape, the hands, the faces to understand.” 

The process by which she discovers different local cultures is fascinating. “There are some places that I chose to go to, like in Panama. The Guna People [have] a very strong sense of identity and have been very much in control of their destinies for a long time, [with] a lot of self-determination that other groups haven’t,” she says. “I went to Guna Yala and met with some artisans and saw that gold was a massive part of their heritage, tradition and sense of identity for hundreds of years.” 

“Equally, the Mapuche in Chile are the same; their jewelry is, again, such a symbol of resistance and continues to be,” she continues. “If you go to some protest in Santiago, the Mapuche will come out wearing silver jewelry because that’s very much a political statement. And I was interested in that. So in those cases, I was working directly with communities, and I was fascinated that in both cultures, the jewelry was a sign of their identity as opposed to the colonial experience.” 

Small has worked a lot with Turquoise Mountain, an arts charity started by King Charles III that looks at traditional architecture restoration and craft. Recently, she’s also “been working in Colombia, which was very much me looking for alternative sourcing for gold through different mining organizations. So it depends from place to place, different motivations, different relationships of how we found each other.”

Small has seen substantial change while convening with various cultures, including mindset, particularly in Afghanistan. “As a young person there, you would learn from your master to copy and copy their work as exactly as you could,” she says. “That would be a sign of respect for your teacher, and it would be a sign of your ability as well. There wasn’t this western individualist notion that you would create something that was yours, your innovation, your design. It was very much a collective movement. Of course, things changed and developed in Afghanistan, but it is not a traditional concept to come up with something.”

She’s also witnessed attitudes toward work change quite radically. “When I started working in Asia particularly, the idea of making things—whether it was building roads or making jewelry—was all about using your hands, and that was considered a lowly, dirty thing,” she says. “Even if it was working with gold, it didn’t matter, at the end of the day, you were in a workshop making things, and there was mess and noise, and it just wasn’t considered the very high-status thing to do. People I worked with used to say, ‘I don’t want my children to do this; I want them to work in an office and have cleanliness around them.’ Now I see that their children are working for them because it’s risen in stature, they’re respected. It’s become an industry. Now, in most places I work, people have their pride. They would have been laborers, basically, as opposed to artisans. This shift in title [brings] increased pay and increased respect.”

Sustainability is a crucial consideration for Small, who admits the biggest hindrance. “The word sustainable is really problematic for jewelry,” she admits, “because sustainable by definition means it can go on. And jewelry is made of finite materials. There’s only so much gold, so many gems. When they’re all gone, they will all be gone; they won’t regrow. They’re not going to harvest and plant again. This is not, unfortunately, a word for jewelry. It’s not compatible.”

“However, I do use the word sustainable—perhaps a little oddly—for jobs,” she continues. “For example, in Afghanistan, in 15 years, young men who started in the workshop are now fathers and have children. It means that they’ve kept a job, and jobs are increasingly so crucial. The only way I would ever use the word sustainable is regarding jobs because that’s something that is really, really important in so many parts of the world. A safe job that allows you to be creative and express yourself, work in a team and work from your culture and heritage.”

Design, business acumen, human rights considerations, history and anthropology are all present equally in Small’s work. “I’d say I’m just like an incredibly curious person who’s got an endless fascination with people and places,” she says. “Entrepreneur is such a funny word. Is it a negative word or a positive word? I suppose it [means] looking for opportunities and finding ways to make things happen. So maybe that’s a bit of it. I find ways to make things happen.”

Pippa Small’s pieces are sold online and at her London and Los Angeles flagship stores.

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Advisory Board Crystals and Vans Present: Miracle Conditions

A collaboration—years in the making—draws inspiration from Fire Opals to create a deeply unique limited edition EVDNT shoe and accompanying apparel collection

Josh Rubin

16 August 2023

For over 50 years Vans has made products that inarguably symbolize a Californian vibe of style-forward sportswear. More recently Advisory Board Crystals (Abc) has upped the ante by leaning into a playfully ethereal aesthetic. The two Cali-based brands have now come together to design a collection inspired by counterculture and the mysticism of crystals and symbolized by the fire opal. Fire opals, among those who feel stones’ energies, are known to activate the crown chakra and assist in bringing clarity and inspiring wonder. The collaboration collection is called Miracle Conditions.

At the core of this collaboration is the EVDNT, a newer shoe model from Vans, which has undergone a dramatic transformation under the artistic influence of Abc. Drawing inspiration from the kaleidoscopic effect of fire opals, the shoe mirrors its multi-hued shimmer and depth. The technical construction of the EVDNT was ideal for this re-imagination, allowing for intricate layering, innovative transparency, and the blending of a medley of materials to capture the abstract essence of the stone. Cobranded easter eggs hit on the shoe and packaging at an unprecedented level of collaboration for either brand.

Attention to design detail is palpable throughout the shoe. Custom Swarovski eyelets provide a hint of elegance, while varying suede colors, mesh tones, transparent holographics and opal patterns come together to evoke the shoe’s sculptural, gem-like feeling. The matte silver components complement the riot of colors, while the vegan leather lining ensures wearability isn’t sacrificed for style. An Abc lace lock cleverly transforms the EVDNT into a slip-on, ensuring it’s not just an art piece but a practical wardrobe addition. And with transparent holographic covers on the foot bed insoles the idea of a direct connection to the stone is suggested.

Beyond the EVDNT an apparel and accessory line, crafted in Abc’s factory, seamlessly extends the fire opal design narrative. Swarovski rivets, fire opal graphics and special multilayered holographic patches are design highlights that harmoniously echo the shoe’s opulent theme. The earth-toned apparel, versatile in its aesthetics, is embellished with references to the opal, making each piece a statement in itself.

This collaboration between Vans and Advisory Board Crystals is not just a tribute to counterculture and creativity, but a masterclass in design innovation. It’s where meticulous attention to detail, rich artistic influence, and product functionality converge to create a collection that’s as much art as it is attire. The EVDNT Vans are a limited release available via raffle today. Join their mailing list to find out how to enter. The apparel and accessory collection drops at Advisory Board Crystals on 17 August 2023 at 10:30am EST.

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Athletegy Apparel

Enhancing performance through good design

Josh Rubin, Evan Orensten

14 August 2023

Andrew Morrill is a former model with big legs who works out a lot. He was exposed to many brands over the years both through his work as well as his personal interest in being comfortable while working out, and it became obvious to him that 5″ shorts were the most functional to wear but always the most difficult to find, with 7″, 9″ or longer filling the displays at stores. Over conversations with his friend Mike Tedesco, who is also an athlete and has a background in finance and operations, the two realized that they couldn’t be the only two guys who sought out better fitting gym wear that was functional, performed well and met an underserved need. Athletegy—a combination of the words “athletic” and “strategy” launched in 2021 after a year of product development, and the brand is just hitting its stride.

Their story is similar to that of many creators featured on COOL HUNTING over the years—if you don’t see what you’re looking for in the marketplace and you have the passion, make it yourself. With Morrill’s creative vision and Tedesco’s operational skills they realized that in addition to the passion they had the insight, skills and talent to develop and launch product to a competitive market. That they are both good looking guys with social media-friendly fit bodies is an additional asset.

Athletegy’s design philosophy intertwines aesthetics and function and is best summarized in their signature Quad Short which offers ease of movement while also showing off a bit of leg. “I have big quads and I need a short that has a wider leg opening, otherwise it looks like sausage casings and it’s not a good look,” says Morrill with a laugh. Tedesco adds that “you frequently see people hiking up their shorts when they are working out and showing off their legs, so why not create a short where you don’t have to do that, where it works with you while you’re working out and has the right sized leg opening.”

They learned a lot after their launch, and have brought a lot of market insight and customer requests into the short’s second generation. A mesh brief liner and chlorine and saltwater-proof anti-microbial 4-way stretch fabric ensure maximum versatility while exercising, and zippered side pockets—the right pocket also includes a handy phone sleeve so your phone doesn’t swing around—make them easy to wear before and after a workout. The rear rise of the short and seams are reinforced, and a wide waistband offers comfort.

We’ve been testing the Quad Short and several of the brand’s tank tops and have been impressed with their comfort and performance. We’ve even noticed something that Morrill pointed out—that where the shorts sit on your thighs offers the best balance of functionality as well as making your legs—regardless of how meaty they are—look their best. The laser-cut rear ventilation panel not only keeps air moving, it also gives a slight lift to your butt.

Athletegy shorts start at $68 and tanks at $54 and are available in a range of colors and prints.

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Presented by Bugatchi

Thursday, Friday and Saturday in Bugatchi Clothing

Whether in the office, working remotely or off the clock, the stylish brand has you covered

CH Studio

20 July 2023

As we approach the weekend each week our outfits begin to shift along with our frame of mind. From buttoned-up Thursdays to casual Fridays, whether we’re in an office or working remotely, our clothing expectations have changed and often align more with what we wear on our time off. The stylish menswear brand Bugatchi—through continued material innovation, as well as a unique blend of staple items and fashion-forward pieces—is one of the few ready-to-wear destinations that covers all of the requirements of this weekly cycle. To prove this point, we dove into this one-stop shop for men’s clothing and accessories, and put together three outfits which we paired with professional items we’ve already integrated into our daily lifestyle.

Thursday

For Thursday, we dressed it up for some office time and a client meeting. Bugatchi’s collared James Solid OoohCotton Shirt paired with the brand’s dressy and comfortable Solid Flat Front Chino Pants. A tote was perfect for all of our gear for the day.

James Solid OoohCotton Shirt

Crafted from Bugatchi’s beloved proprietary OoohCotton material (which is wrinkle resistant, breathable, quick drying and offers eight-way stretch and thermal comfort), the James Solid OoohCotton Shirt ($179) looks classic but feels comfortable. Stylistically, the long-sleeved shirt features a pointed collar and a French placket along the buttons. It comes in many different patterns and solid colors, too.

Solid Flat Front Chino Pants

Made in Italy from a cotton blend that stretches for comfort, the classic Solid Flat Front Chino Pants ($179) can be dressed up or dressed down and go with the flow of your day. Plenty of pockets—angled side pockets, a coin pocket and buttoned jetted back pockets—offer enough areas to stash whatever you need on hand.

Utility Tote – Landscape – Dyneema from DSPTCH

A tote should be as light as possible, and yet still provide ample organizational tools. That’s what we’ve found with DSPTCH’s lightweight, durable and thoughtfully designed Utility Tote ($266). It’s made in the US from proprietary Dyneema Composite Fabric, as well as Ballistic Nylon with DWR coating. Inside, there’s plenty of space to store a laptop and your daily carry..

Friday

Fridays no longer look like they used to. For many people, there’s greater flexibility in working hours and telecommuting in (arguably even more so during summer Fridays). For work on the go, we selected Bugatchi’s Jackson Abstract Print Short Sleeve Shirt, which underscored the seasonal vibes. We complemented it with the brand’s relaxed Linen Bermuda Shorts (also available in a range of colors). To keep up with video calls from our remote workspace, we popped our iPhone into the Snap Stand Power Set from MOFT, too.

Jackson Abstract Print Short Sleeve Shirt

An elegant take on a floral shirt, Bugatchi’s Jackson Abstract Print Short Sleeve Shirt ($179) speaks to summer daydreams and supports the season’s weather, too. The latter is thanks to a material that’s a blend of viscose and linen. Aesthetically, the shirt sports a wide camp collar and incorporates genuine shell buttons. It’ll work in an office, out for dinner or a drink as well.

Linen Bermuda Shorts

Composed of 100% linen, Bugatchi’s Linen Bermuda Shorts ($139) pair a straight-leg design with an elasticized waistband, a drawstring and zipper. They service the warmer months best—or vacations all year long. They’re chic enough shorts that wearers wouldn’t mind being seen in them by a professional colleague.

Snap Stand Power Set from MOFT

Despite being slender and pocket-sized, MOFT’s Snap Stand Power Set from MOFT ($80) delivers a lot of functionality. It can act as a sleek, magnetic phone stand while simultaneously providing backup power. The minimal, faux leather set is s a three-card wallet, too.

Saturday

A sunny weekend spent in or beside the water is one we’d consider a success. To get to the shore, we slipped into Bugatchi’s highly functional UV50+ Performance T-Shirt; for swimming we wore the brand’s playful Max Floral Swim Trunks. The perfect accessory under the sun’s rays is Utu’s SPF30 moisturizing sunscreen.

UV50+ Performance T-Shirt

From fit to functionality Bugatchi’s short-sleeved crew neck UV50+ Performance T-Shirt ($89) over-performs as an everyday basic—and while the lilac is our favorite colorway, we’d recommend snagging a few different hues. The soft, stretchy fabric provides UV50+ protection and dresses up or down alongside the rest of your outfit.

Max Floral Swim Trunks

With the pattern featured on the Max Floral Swim Trunks ($149), Bugatchi strikes the perfect balance of playfulness and sophistication. Composed of 100% comfort stretch polyester, the bathing suit is quick-dry and resistant to UV rays, chlorine, salt and sunscreen. With an elasticized waistband and a drawstring closure, as well as a breathable stretch mesh lining, it’s as functional as it is style-forward.

SPF30 Moisturizing Sunscreen

A fragrance-free, broad spectrum SPF30 Moisturizing Sunscreen ($44), Utu’s formulation aims to protect against rays but also nourish the skin. It does so with a proprietary blend of Hyaluronic acid, squalane and sea buckthorn, as well as 20% non-nano zinc oxide. The water-resistant product comes in recyclable packaging—and the brand is committed to sustainability.

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Interview: Kristina Blahnik on the Ethos Behind Manolo Blahnik Menswear

The maison’s CEO outlines the future of the brand

Mike Tommasiello

23 June 2023

When people hear the name Manolo Blahnik, they often think of the iconic high heels immortalized by Carrie Bradshaw on Sex and the City (and, of course, And Just Like That). However, there’s far more to the brand’s global reputation and continuously pioneering collections. We recently sat down in Accord, New York’s INNESS to discuss the brand’s past, present and future with Kristina Blahnik, who not only serves as the maison’s CEO but is also the niece of brand founder Manolo Blahnik himself.

Can you tell us a little bit about the history of Manolo Blahnik menswear?

Actually, it’s a longer history than the women’s history of Manolo Blahnik because he started with menswear. He told me one of his first shoes was a shoe called the Hockney, which was a lace-up Derby with a very, very thick cream rubber crepe sole. I’ve seen pictures of it. Then he did boots in it. Then he did his first women’s shoe in crepe as well—but it was inspired from the Hockney shoe.

His attention was pulled toward womenswear because he was able to be more creative, wider; it was unboundaried. I think the boundaries of menswear tightened for a certain number of decades and they’ve widened again. I think now menswear can be anything. It can be colorful in some instances, it can be high heels, it can be lace-ups, it can be slippers, it can be ballerinas.

You have dedicated menswear stores, as well?

In 2018 we decided we wanted to open our first dedicated men’s store, next to our women’s store in Burlington Arcade in London. And that’s when we really looked at our men’s collection and our archives and really took it all apart and rebuilt it for the modern man. Then we opened stores in Japan and in Paris. But the iconic space for us is our Madison Avenue store. When we were looking for space, we were introduced to 717 Madison Avenue and I stepped back, I went to the other side of the road and said, “this building is magnificent.”

How would you say the brand has evolved since to fit the modern day consumers? Has the design or the aesthetic remained classic?

I think we’ve really carefully looked at our passions. There is an element of classic. Manolo [himself] is a very classic tailored man, but equally, he’s a classic tailored man who will wear a lavender suit. It’s about being slightly unconventional and uncompromising and sticking to what really matters, which is comfort and quality.

I think at this point now, what you want is something you can put your foot in immediately and walk out of a store or walk out of wherever you are and go, “I’m happy, I’m comfortable. I don’t need to worry about that part of my body, but if I do look down, I’m going to be happy about it.” I think our view on that is if you put a bit of color in there, which is Manolo’s passion every season, that’s where we set ourselves apart from your more traditional brands.

Where do you draw inspiration from with the bright colors and the patterns?

My uncle starts with a really intellectual base. That can be a collage, with all sorts of reference points disparate to the point where you’re going. I don’t understand the connection between them. It can be Babylon meets Gore Vidal—you can’t even bring those two things together! But he has this amazing ability to bridge two disparate elements and bring them together and create a whole new aesthetic. When I started joining the family business, I asked him, “what is your personal motto?” And he said in Italian to me “Without tradition, we are nothing.” And then his own take on it was “but with fantasy we are free.” This was a quote that he was given by Luchino Visconti in a dinner that he was at with Anna Piaggi in 1971.

I think that’s a really important point about who we are and what we always strive to be: we’re not trying to be fashion. We’re trying to be something that is relevant to the past, present and future without being transient.

We see ourselves as a timeless investment brand. I personally don’t want to acquire something for the sake of acquiring it for that moment in time and then discarding it because it wasn’t a considered choice. I want us to be able to offer something to someone that in 10, 15, 20 years time is still relevant to them and their wardrobe. We heavily invest in what we do because, as I’m a previous architect, I believe the more energy you put into something like building a cathedral that took a hundred years time, it’s more likely to be standing in a thousand years than something that took a week to build and is probably not as stable.

What would you say to somebody who is looking to get their first pair of Manolos?

I would say be curious and be ready to be challenged in terms of “can we make you smile?” Because there’s no point in getting anything ever unless it genuinely makes you smile.

It’s extraordinary in that sense that you offer so many options for so many personalities that you can choose. 

What you have now is a bit of renaissance toward classicism and traditional footwear, because everyone has a lot of sneakers. But Anything goes now. You can mix anything with everything. And this is what I find really interesting because your ability to create your own identity is much wider now than it ever was. You don’t have to subscribe to the suit, tie and Oxfords.
That doesn’t exist anymore. Those rules have been rewritten because it’s more about individuality and having style. That style doesn’t require a certain set of criteria or rules.

Our best-selling colors are pink and electric blue. It’s not brown, it’s not black. It’s not gray. That is what the people that come to us are looking for.

Anything new we can expect coming up?

More color, no surprises. More places where you can find men’s shoes. More storytelling, more fun moments, because that’s really what we’re about.

Images courtesy of Brett Warren