Samantha Pleet Interview

With just one collection in stores and another due to arrive in stores soon designer Samantha Pleet has already garnered a good bit of attention for her cute, clever designs. We had a chance recently to sit down with Samantha to talk about her collections.

Interview after the jump.

How did you decide that you wanted to go into fashion?

Actually I started doing fine arts before I did fashion my first year (at Pratt). Before that I wanted to do acting, and then I wanted to do fine arts, and I wanted to be a sculptor and a painter, and then I just felt like I really wanted to do fashion.

And at some point you interned at As Four?

Yeah, I worked for As Four. That was amazing. They were so fun to work with.

What did you take from the experience?

I took that you can do anything you want. You do not have to have rules, you can make them yourself. That is what I learned because they did something completely different from what I was learning in school. Before I was working for them I was like, "I do not want to do fashion, I do not want to work for a big company and sit behind a desk" and then I worked for them (and saw that) you can really just do anything, just as long as you really love what you are doing. That was great. There are no mistakes.

How did you come to start your line?

I was kind of dawdling here and there, making some things for a few stores in the area, without really having a company and no full-on collection.

Wearing my own clothes, people were like, "You can make and sell them" and TG-170 was actually the first store I sold some to. She was really encouraging.

What were the inspirations for your first (Fall 2006) collection?

I had gone to Sweden and Norway and all these places I was really inspired by Europe in general by traveling and making clothes that had a very magical feel, very adventurous. And I was also reading a Herman Hesse novel at the time, "Narcissus and Goldmund" and I was like "What would I want to wear if I was a girl, and I was an adventurer, like why does it always have to be a guy?"

What is your design process like?

It is draping, I drape it. I have a thought in my head, I do a little sketch sometimes, maybe even after, something like what I want, and then I just make it. I do it like all at once. I just work through and have the garment.

What current designers do you like?

There are so by that I love. I really love A.P.C. because I just feel like it is similar to my aesthetic. I love Karen Walker.

Your second collection (Spring 2007) has a lot of pirate imagery. Where did that come from?

I had gone to another trip to Europe where I went to Prague and Paris and Vienna. I found lots of revolutionary clothing. I saw secondhand military shops. I was really inspired by that. I wanted girls, like female droogs walking around. So that's the inspiration for the Spring 2007 collection. Boating, sailing, pirates, revolutionaries, vagabonds, pick pockets, stuff like that.

What do you imagine the women wear your clothes as? A lot of designers are designing for a very particular woman, like mine is independent or mine is conservative?

I think mine definitely is people like me. People who just want a little imagination in their lives. (Who want) a spark of make believe in the clothes, a little dark, a little whimsical, but cute.

Have you seen someone yet who you didn't know walking down the street wearing your clothes?

Yeah. When I'm walking around I'll see someone and say, "Oh look, she's wearing my striped jail bait dress" or something like that. That's cool. From the stores, since I have very close contact with them, they'll tell me who is buying them like "Oh, this person came in and she was so cute. You would have loved her." So, there are things like that.

What are you working on for Fall 2007? Have you started working on that?

I have. I've been going around Europe again and I've been getting lots of inspiration. I feel like I don't want to give too much away, because I'm still working on it. I'm still brainstorming. It's going to be a similar feel, but better. It's going to be a lot better.

Now that you're working on your third (Fall 2007) collection and you've done it a couple of times before, what are you doing differently?

I'm trying to, obviously, not just throw money around. That's one thing. I'm also learning about what's important and what's not important. I'm learning about what I need to do to make the sales and I'm going to have to find a showroom eventually.

If you could any advice to someone who is where you were two years ago, what would that be?

Just do it. If you have a vision of something, just start making it. Get connected with people you think will be supportive and do what you really need to do. That's what I did. It happened so organically and I didn't force anything. It bloomed. I've received such a good reaction from it. It's really nice. Everything just has been coming.

Were you surprised that things have just been flowing like that? You thought it might be more difficult?

I thought it would be impossible. (But I) just did it anyway. You can't just follow a path already laid out; you have to follow your own. That's the only advice I can give. Take some things from what other people are doing, like the fact that they are doing what they really want to do. All of the companies that are small and successful have something completely different going on.

Samantha Pleet's line can be found at Satine in LA and TG-170 and I Heart in New York, amongst other places. Photographs of her complete collections as well as a complete stocklist can be found at the Samantha Pleet website.