Rachel Comey Interview

We first noticed Rachel Comey's work a few years ago by way of a couple of men's shirts hanging at South Willard. The quality of materials, the thoughtful details, the timeless stylishness of them had us a hooked and looking for more. So we were very excited to be able to interview Ms. Comey during a recent visit to New York. We talked to her about her path to fashion, her design philosophies and her upcoming collections.

Interview after the jump.

You received a degree in sculpture, you owned an art gallery, you did costume design. I was wondering, along the way, was going into fashion inevitable or did you kind of fall into it. Did you expect it?

I think that I was always interested in clothing and clearly interested in making things my whole life, but I never really gave it that much credibility when I was younger so it took me a little while to come around. To admit it, I guess.

When was your first collection?

It was September 2001 (for Spring 2002)

And how did that come about?

I had been making things for musicians. One of a kind things. It started with just a couple of people that I knew and worked with closely and did set design for. Then it started snowballing and stylists started calling me (saying) "Hey do you have any more of those?"

And your first collection was men's?

It was all men's because that grew organically out of doing things for men's costumes.

When was your first women's collection?

Well, the women's started sneaking itself in after four or five seasons of all men's. Some stores would say, "Do you have that in women's?" or "When are you going to have women's?" At the same time I wanted to do a lot more with print design, which was a big deal at the beginning for me. It's tricky with men's to do a lot with print design, so we started adding prints and that grew into more women's categories. Then it took over and ate its mother.

So now you do both men's and women's?

Now, for this season and this next one we are working on, we're just doing men's shoes and spending time working on the women's. The women's has been growing a lot and I wanted to give it the attention it is asking for. A lot of times in the shows I have to end up making a lot of compromises because I'm trying to get both men and women on the runway. So I end up having to take materials from one and put it on the other. I wanted to just do one, again.

What is your design process like? How do you start?

We start with materials, they are really important to me. So I spend a lot of time researching fabrics, prints, knits, stitches, whatever. We spend a lot of time with that. That works its way through color. Silhouette is always in the back of my mind.

You make your own prints. How did that come about? Is that something you did from the very beginning?

That's something I've been doing from the second or third season. Something I always wanted to do for sure. Since childhood I've always really been interested in textiles. I've always been wanting to do it and it took me a while to find the right resources.

Do you make prints with particular pieces in mind or do you make the print first and then figure out what you want to use it in--what dress or what piece?

The better I get at it, the more I think about the silhouettes before the prints, but I'd say sometimes there's just something I want to try. Since it's just me with my business and nobody there to edit me, I often just let it happen.

How do you design prints? How does it work?

It could be anything. It could be starting with a drawing or a cutout or anything, a found scrap, anything. We did one print that had all signatures of old friends and store owners. We went around and collected those. Sometimes I find other prints and archived ones and then I draw over them.

Another thing I guess you are known for and that is mentioned again and again is your attention to detail. Is that something you're cognizant of or does it just come naturally?

Well, I like when things have a little surprise to them or one more added consideration. I respond to that when I see things in the market--of any kind of thing--that it just seems intelligently considered. It's meaningful to me considering how much product there is out there in general of all kinds.

Maybe I'm just seeing things, but I think I see sculpture in your work. In particular in the simpler solid pieces that have extra bits of fabric, extra folds and things. Do you find yourself using what you've learned in sculpture in your clothing?

Well, I don't do a ton of draping and things like that which people always equate to sculpture. I do it a bit, but for me I think it's the materials aspect of it that most relates to sculpture. So much of sculpture, to me, is about the materials and how they're used. So I think that, in that relationship, yeah. Especially with the shoes which have been such a big deal and growing all the time, finding new ways to work with them.

Are there particular pieces or particular materials that you haven't used that you want to start using?

I think that's just by the season. When I go "For this season I want to do that," I usually incorporate it. I think that's a great thing about my line and also probably the challenging part for the customer. I'm not just a jeans line and you're not just going to just get the same pair of jeans every single season. If you see something you have to grab it because I am on to the next thing.

What were some of your inspirations for the Spring 2007 line. What were you thinking about, what were you trying to achieve?

I wanted it to be really airy and light at the same time. Just that ease of summer dressing, with the quirky accessories. But I also tried with a lot of the prints this time to do a play on animal prints which I know is kind of hard to get but at the same time it is there, the reference.

Can you talk a little about what are you working on now as far as the next season?

We are working on fall (2007), we just finished with making all our selects for the fabrics and all of our prints. We are at the end of selecting all of fabrics and the beginning of putting together all the silhouettes and production. We are working a lot on production.

Is this a lighter collection or a heavier collection?

It'll be the first time I'm concentrating solely on women's except for the men's shoes for fall. So, that is kind of a new thing. Often all my other collections have been really influenced by the men's which I usually have to get done earlier. Because of the men's calendar, the market opens on January and women's isn't open until February, so every season women's always trailed men's and always had to be influenced by that. Now, I just get to pick the fabrics and whatever just filling in stuff so it's exciting for me. So, I think it will be fun, but that doesn't necessarily mean color fun or print fun. I just think, maybe feminine.

The Rachel Comey collection is available at Creatures of Comfort in LA, I Heart in New York and many other retailers. For a look at her full collection go to http://www.rachelcomey.com.