With a look of femininity, sensuality and utter craftsmanship, Boudoir D’huitres designed by Mimi Plange consumes that aspirational element that fashion holds so dear.  The Holiday collection is rich with detail and jewel tones but always staying true to that 18th century aesthetic.  Lynn Furge spent a moment with Mimi to find out what else inspires the promising young designer.

Lynn Furge:  How do you incorporate modern and 18th century fashion together?  What 5 key elements meld those two themes into the Boudoir d’Huitres garments?

Mimi Plange:  In designing Boudoir D'huitres, I look to 18th century historical fashion for inspiration.  There is something so beautiful about the period.  Its like a molding of dark gothic sensuality with refined feminine themes, everything is unique and curious.  Every garment has reason and meaning.  Colors are significant with a language of their own.  I like exploring the idea of the ideal body shape being defined by the corset, and the luxury of layers of fabrics being used to accentuate that shape.  There is so much fabric, yet so much accentuation.  There is this sense of being covered, but in actuality, being so overtly sexy at the same time.  I try to fuse these elements with modern clean lines that arise from my love for architecture.  I think to myself. . . how can I create this ideal with a look that is forward, sophisticated and clean?  I don't want the clothes to look dated or like period costumes.  I don't want people to see so plainly my inspiration. I like to use the 18th century influence in a subtle, indirect way.

To meld the modern with the Victorian, I start first with shape-everything begins with the thought of the bust and the hourglass figure.  How can I create this shape without a corset, how can I make the clothing accentuate without using this garment?  I think about all of these things before I begin to layout my shapes for the season. I then move on to Craftsmanship/Construction-I try and find new solutions that appear effortless based on traditional sewing techniques.  Here, I want to see how many couture techniques I can incorporate into my ready-to-wear.

While thinking of my modern day Victorian muse, I cannot forget the notion of Novelty-the idea of making each piece special, new and fresh.  I want our customers to feel excited when they see the new collections.  I want them to feel there is a personal touch to each item. My muse is always looking for something new.  She wants design.  She wants wearable fashion.

Fabric is another key element I research extensively from this time period.  I like to frequent museums to see historical fabrications on furniture and clothing.  I look at Victorian wall paper prints, color usage, anything interesting to inspire Boudoir D'huitres.  Because, I mostly like to use solid colors, I try to find variations in fabric textures to create depth in each garment.  Last but not least, is Exclusivity-some techiques I use such as shape defining piecing, delicate folds, rouching and finishing details require a lot of hand labor.  I would like to keep all pieces to a minimum, and although I would like to grow, I do not want to over saturate the market with the brand.  I like the idea that the consumer will know that they are truly getting something well made, unique, and more importantly, that our customer will not see her garment everywhere.  Boudoir D'huitres will be her own special piece with limited availability.

LF:  You seem to have a lot of experience with different elements of the fashion industry.  Please explain how working in both luxury, contemporary sportswear, and jewelry all very different beasts… prepared you to launch your collection.

MP:  Today's fashion moves so fast, especially that of the youth oriented brands.  They need to stay excited so they keep returning to buy.  I believe the foundation work I learned at the junior and contemporary sportswear level has given me insight into a fast moving business that has to constantly stay on trend, in order to appeal to a larger audience.  You have to think about price point, and stay in tuned with popular culture to see "what's next?"  What new "IT" item will take lead? and provide the consumer with your interpretation of that particular item.  You are forced to be in tune with the world.  I learned about designing with strong restraints while still trying to maintain a high level of creativity.  I saw many different consumers, different wants, and different needs.  Its nice to be able to have insight on popular culture, but also be present to the forward thinking that is required for luxury.  It is luxury fashion that has allowed me to find my single voice in fashion.  I can express my own point of view, and push my own creativity to the limit.  I feel that I can truly be myself and create without so much noise from the outside world.

In luxury, your audience is much smaller, and you must not only be on trend, but be ahead of the curve-while still making sure that you are creating clothes that are not only unique and beautiful, but can be worn.  I think the molding of these backgrounds has prepared me tremendously.  The world is becoming so much smaller.  Everyone has access to see the world from different angles today.  I believe that, with my past experience, Boudoir D'huitres will be able to appeal to a wider audience while maintaining exclusivity so that the "luxury" aspect of the brand can be retained.  We plan on expanding the line into a lifestyle brand, so with the different experiences, I hope to be able to put my mark on all aspects of the business with the confidence that I am experienced and am clear on how to make everything cohesive at the many levels we will create in the future.

LF:  Do you feel any of your California roots seep into your designs? What about your Ghanaian?

MP:  Hmmm. . .Yes, there is definitely Californian and Ghanaian inspiration in my work, because I believe that you are a product of your environment to a certain extent, and your influences stay with you and manifest somehow in your work, even if you aren't trying to be influenced by them.  When I think of California, I do think of easy styles, glamour, red carpet, casual sexy, or bohemian luxe.  I do see these influences in my work, because these influences are what people want right now.  We are in the height of celebrity pop culture.  Even though, California is not the Capitol of Fashion, California is directing fashion today.   As far as Ghana, I spent some times there this summer.  It was amazing!   Beautiful, new, and bold.  I remember going to a grocery store in a Mall with my mother, when we bought soda, we had to return our old bottles before we could get new drinks, so they could recycle them!  I thought wow?  This is great!  If they could start a great idea like that with the limited amount of resources we have here, we should be doing much more.  So, I started researching more into sustainable fabrics and sources.  I will be incorporating some into my Fall 2010 collection.  I will always be inspired by Ghana.  It is where my mother was born and where I was born.  I love the country's interpretation of Dutch wax printing, and their own couture techniques they use to personalize their own garments.  The Ghanaian sentiment, seems to correspond with that of the Victorian-"I want my own unique dress and hat"  What can I do to make it my own?  There is much to be discovered with the sewing techniques and fashions of Africa as a whole.

LF:  What do you think of first when starting a collection: color, texture or shape?

MP:  Today, I start with the shape.  What do I want to make her body look like?  Do I want to alter it?  Or do I want it natural?  Do I want to see it?  Or do I want to hide it?  Most importantly, how will I accentuate it this time.  Fashion is so fun to me, because you can do so much!  You may have some restrictions, but you will always have way more options.  I know that I have a foundation that I will comeback to, which is the corset, and I play on the opposite ends of "show and tell" or "hide and go seek".  I look at the body, like I am building on it in a soft and familiar way.  The overall idea is to accentuate as much as possible with or without the corset with the emphasis always being about highlighting or creating the hourglass figure.  Once I figure out the shapes, I think of textures, and then color.  Today, shape is inspiring me more.  I want to play with the shape of the body.  I want to use volume, but I cannot say that every time I begin the process, it starts with shape.  There have been times that Color has inspired a collection, so it really depends on the season, the time or day or which direction the wind was blowing that day.  Anything can set off an inspiration that leads to the start of a collection, and that inspiration will dictate if I should start with color, texture or shape.

LF:  Who is the Boudoir d’Huitre Muse?

MP: The Boudoir D'huitres Muse is a "ageless"  28-50 year old woman.  She is my modern day Victorian muse.  Victorian in elegance, curiosity, mystery, and love of self.  She is a dream, a jet setter with ability to balance her career and social life.  She is traveling the world, closing the deal, attending the new art opening.  She is the tastemaker, the aristocrat, the leader.  My muse is charming and witty with a life of constant movement.  She does not stand still.  Our Muse dose not require a label, nor does she want to be labeled.  She does not need the assurance of a logo.  She has an interest in the historical past, but is curious on how that past will touch the future.

She is the woman who loves The Arts.  She happy, secure, confident, radiant, and beautiful.  She has the means to purchase whatever she pleases, and when she chooses to do so, she chooses quality, beauty, fit, Boudoir D'huitres.

Our Muse is woman who can move forward without forgetting about the past.  She does not want to forget things of quality or art from the past, and neither do I.

LF:  How do you feel Boudoir fits into the trend of fashion companies really becoming lifestyle brands?

MP:  Boudoir D'huitres is aspiring to become a lifestyle brand some day.  Branding is a key component to getting out your message.  When you create lifestyle through a scent, a bag, or a show, you give consumers a sense of the complete package.  I believe lifestyle branding in a more global and technologically savvy way, is the future.  People have the choice to buy into certain brands, but can you really buy into a lifestyle?  The Boudoir D'huitres woman knows who she is, when she walks through the door.  She makes the purchase because she is already living that lifestyle. I don't know if Boudoir D'huitres is selling a dream, because, its a reality, a reality that can be yours with plenty of hard work and focus.  We are selling the truth, a reality, that appears to be somewhat untouchable, but altogether real.

LF:  What aside from Fashion inspires you?

MP:  History, culture, make-up, Museums, traveling, the human body, music, plays, talking to people around the world. . . Sometimes when I'm listening to people they may say something in the conversation that may trigger my mind, and make it drift-for like a second or two, or ten or twelve, and then an idea pops up, I just remind myself to write it down and explore later.  But I do pay attention to what people tell me-sometimes.   Other times, when I am  researching for a current collection, I may come across something that may not work for the line I'm working on, but I keep it in my head for a future collection.  I also tend to day dream a lot, and fantasize about life.  I would say most of my inspiration comes from my day dreaming of scenes and stories. I usually have many things inspiring me at once, and I sometimes have a hard time narrowing down my choices, because there are so many things that I can pull from.

Ultimately,  I think just about anything at any given moment in time can be inspiring.  Just depends on how you look at it. Or what day it is, or how the moon was positioned on the night of the 3rd Friday of the month!

LF:  What is next on the horizon for Boudoir d’Huitres?

MP:  There are so many things coming up for us!  We are showing our collection during fashion week NY this February 2010.  I am truly excited about our next presentation, it is much darker than I have been before, and very expressive.  We will be shooting another fashion film for this collection and it would be something special and I am very excited about it.   I will be incorporating much more eco-friendly fabrics into the line, and am also working on an all eco-friendly collection for resort.   We also have plans to participate in South Africa fashion week during the world cup in June.   The focus right now is to generate an online presence and building the brand artistically through our site, in which we are adding user friendly rooms, so we can interact more with our consumers.  I really believe that Boudoir D'huitres has something new and different to offer.

David Peck and Laurel Anderson make up the design duo of Untitled 11:11. Having met at Parsons in Paris, the started Mastering textiles at a young age and with a mix of European High End ready-to-wear and American sensibilities they are producing a line made of sustainable, fair trade and eco-friendly fabrics.  Lynn Furge spoke with the duo just before Mercedes Benz Fashion Week New York to see where they are heading.

Lynn Furge:  You are both friends from University… how did you come up with the idea to start Untitled 11:11?

David Peck: It sort of came about naturally. We had worked together in Paris after I graduated. Laurel moved back to the States before I did and I would come stay with her when I was interviewing for jobs in New York. I was frustrated with the types of jobs that were available to me after coming from such a creative and responsible position in Paris. I have always known that I was going to start my own line, but the thought of doing it alone was a little intimidating. The fact that I knew I clicked with Laurel and could trust her in terms of both her creativity and work ethic made starting Untitled 11:11 together a logical choice.

Laurel Anderson:  I agree that it did come very naturally.  I always seem to pick the hard way to do something.  I suppose I want to really prove to myself I can, and if you are going to go, go all out.  So if I was going to design, I was going to do it for myself.  With that mentality, starting our own line allowed us to work how we wanted and do what we wanted.

LF:  With combined efforts as a design team where do you share roles, where do you do your own thing and how do you balance the partnership?

DP:  We are very different and similar at the same time. What really unites us is a passion for making clothes that are beautifully constructed—even if we approach the concept of design from different viewpoints. We both like to solve puzzles and pattern making and garment construction is just that. Each season has been a little different in terms of how we design the collection. We try to design the collection in a way that reflects our inspiration. This season our inspiration was the golden ratio and geometry, so there was a lot of cutting up of the pattern pieces. Last season (Fall ‘09) we were very much inspired by couture in the 50’s, so it was very natural for us to do a lot of experimentation with draping. No matter who comes up with the start of an idea for a particular garment, the other person always acts as an editor of sorts or a springboard for new ideas.

LA:  We do indeed work very differently, and most of the time we are able to work past these differences.  The filtering process is a very important step in the design process, as our aesthetics can be very different.  For example, I always lean towards a more muted palate, black, gray, blue, ivory… and David likes LOTS of color.  Its in that balance that we create the collection.

LF:  Your collection seems like something that Katherine Hepburn would wear today if she were a current star, please tell me about the design aesthetic?

DP & LA:  Our aim is to create clothing that is timeless, but relevant to today. The Untitled 11:11 customer is looking for practical luxury. Katherine Hepburn was very much of her era, but yet at the cutting edge at that same time. Our collections play with an ease of dressing that hopefully transcends age or time period. We hope women see our clothes as aspirational, but accessible at the same time. If we have achieved that balance then we have accomplished our goals.

LF:  Untitled 11:11 works hard to maintain an eco-friendly practice, what types of fabrics and dyes, where do you manufacture?

DP & LA:  Something that has become increasingly alarming to us is that lack of social responsibility in the garment industry.  So little thought is often given to how a product is produced. By aiming to be socially conscious with each decision that we make we inadvertently make clothes that are also eco-friendly. We use many fair trade fabrics that are custom hand woven for us. The idea of fair trade is to give the workers who produce the fabric, from farmers to weavers, an equitable wage for their work. Our hand-woven fabrics use about 28% of the energy it takes to make machine woven fabrics.

LF:  The blog is lovely and really stands to the testament of the attitude of the brand with Zip Cars and Power Saves on the Computer, tell me about your muse and the Untitled 11:11 lifestyle?

DP: We started the blog with the company to help keep our friends and family update with our progress. As the company has grown, we have had less time to blog, but we have transitioned into using Twitter and Facebook as platforms of communication. The Untitled 11:11 lifestyle is one of transparency. By sharing with our customers the ways that we have found reduce waste and lead more efficient lives, we are doing a small part in helping to educate people. We don’t know how to do everything right, but we do try to make even the small decisions meaningful. In the end it’s the small steps that we take that will help us take giant leaps forward in terms of creating a product that is completely sustainable.

LA:  It is David who has the real passion for Twittering, Facebook, blogging, etc…  I’m a little clueless when it come all that, but he works hard to try to update them regularly and hopefully, if we can share our little tricks and encourage people to make the same decision we have, then we are moving in the right direction.

LF:  Where do you see the label heading in the future?

DP & LA: We are both passionate about is textiles. We would eventually love to develop a line of textiles for the home. In the meantime, we are actively developing partnerships with other companies for accessory development. Our focus in our first few seasons was intentionally small as we tried to perfect our vision and voice. As those elements are becoming a natural part of our design vocabulary, it’s easier for us to see how that can translated into a broader vision. For instance, this season we kept the core of our collection true to our roots with our cocktail dresses, but we also worked really hard a creating a line of separates that related to those dresses. You should see the collection gradually expanding its scope—especially over the next few seasons. We’re very excited to be able to offer a collection that can be integrated into each moment of a woman’s life.

Graduate of the School of the Art Institute Chicago, trained graphic designer and recipient of the The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation's Award in 2006, Melissa Serpico founded her label SERPICO with the vision of linear quality and spatial integrity of modern and classical architecture with fine fabrics and a quintessential “Made in Italy” quality that is rarely found in young designers today.

Lynn Furge:  What about fashion made you veer from the path of graphic design and go back to school to become a fashion designer, and what did you learn from the graphic part of the design business?

Melissa Serpico:  The textures and richness of the fabrics and materials and the 3-dimensional/sculptural quality of garments really drew me to the field.  Also, what you put on your body is a very personal thing.  It is the most immediate way to express yourself to others.  To be able to create pieces that become so personal to someone is very interesting to me. 

Studying graphic design gave me a tremendous sense of how to balance a page, or a look, or any arrangement.  The basic rules and fundamentals of design can be applied to all mediums and is very helpful and inspiring in fashion.  I feel that the bold sensibility of graphics and type are also somewhat reflected in my designs. 

LF:  What comes first for you, inspiration, fit, fabric or function and why?

MS:  Inspiration always comes first.  Whether it is as vague as a mood or as specific as a certain color or cut.  A collection comes together best when there is an overall feeling or mood that touches each piece.  Otherwise, it can look like it does not really belong together.  

LF:  What inspired this current collection?

MS:  The FALL 09 SERPICO collection was inspired by my travels in Europe that season previous.  I visited many romantic baroque gardens in northern Italy and France and completely fell in love with them. The gardens were a part of extraordinary palaces and were filled with exotic plants and fruits but were manicured very precisely.  They were places for lovers to steal a moment alone and hide amongst the mazes of flora.

LF:  Being an American designer, why did you decide to produce in Italy?

MS:  We do currently produce in Chicago and Italy and decide which items will fit best where.  The decision to produce in Italy was made for several reasons.  First, I was having a lot of trouble finding production locally to produce at the quality that I wanted and at the quantity that I currently produce.  It is very difficult to find a manufacturer that is the right fit for your line.  While I was looking and contacting many factories in the U.S. and in Europe, I came across a factory outside of Lake Maggiore in Italy that had a tremendous history and client list and was interested in working with us.  My husband and I traveled to the factory, met the owner and the workers and viewed their process and techniques and could not have been happier.  The owner is extremely nice and down to earth, which is so important in this business, and he was excited to work with us.  It just fit.  We also source about 99% of our materials from Italy and Europe so it is much easier to ship them all to the factory for production and then ship the finished goods to customers, so we did cut down on shipping quite a bit.  The factory is also full service so we can have all steps in production done in one place instead of shipping items from the grader, to the plotter, to the cutter, etc.

Lastly, we travel to Italy quite frequently and hope to spend more and more time there in the future, so it is a little personal too!

LF:  Who is your muse?

MS:  My muses are the fabulous everyday women of the world who are not afraid to take chances with style and are always trying to push the envelope.  I love when I unexpectedly see someone on the street that has it goin’ on and it is new and fresh!

LF:  Where do you see the SERPICO line heading in the next five years?

MS:  In 5 years we hope to be producing four STRONG collections a year that are quite a bit larger than current collections so that we can expand our offerings to clients.  I hope to open a minimum of 100 new doors in 5 years and have a stable and happy company.   Having a few key SERPICO boutiques in the best-suited international cities for us is also in the plans.  There has also been a lot of requests for a men’s line and we hope to tackle that when the time is right.  We want to expand greatly but at a pace that is realistic and that we can keep up with for quality control.  The only way to go is up and our dreams are big!

Serpico.com