RENATA ESTEFAN
INTERVIEW by Adelaide Goetz
This collection is the result of combining everything I love and believe in, embracing my fascinations, obsessions and desires. It aims to create a world and a statement that a woman would want to be part of.
The collection uses classic English Tweed in an unconventional way by combining it with luxury white satin fabrics and by pleating the wool in ‘Crystal’, ‘Accordion’ and ‘Butterflies’ styles. The formal severity of the collars, the ties and the white satin combined with the casual feeling afforded by the Tweed, bring life to a fairytale world I have visited in my imagination for as long as I remember.
" I like the elegant, the chic, the classic. I love elements of menswear in women's fashion. They asked me once on a critic : What kind of a woman wears a bow tie ? The bold ones"
"Chic, timeless, modern, and ethical. This was the only sustainable collection produced on the MA Fashion 2017 at Central Saint Martins. It is 100% free from PVC, leather, fur, angora, cashmere, skins and feathers. The garments are lined with 100 % ORGANIC COTTON and are fully recyclable.
" (....) I wanted to reinvent the tweed. Instead of casual I wanted it to look luxurious and modern. So I combined them with satin fabrics and the contrast was beautiful and unique.
I decided to pleat my fabrics after I saw the picture of the Queen playing with her dog. That was on the 23 of December. I had been looking for the key factor that I felt was missing on my work and it hit me. I wanted special pleating , not the ordinary ones we normally see on wool. For me, something ONLY works when people see it from a distance and ask themselves: "what is that? How was it done?" And they will want to look closer and will go: "Oh! That is what is it? So simple."
" I am obsessed with lengths, 2 cm wrong and you go from Chic to - there is something weird- . It took me a full week of experimentation to find out the perfect length for this collection.
One of the most important thing to me was to do something beautiful. I didn't want to hear people saying it was cool. I didn't want to hear people saying it was interesting, or great, or nice. The only word I wanted to hear coming from people's mouth was the word : BEAUTIFUL. It would mean I got it right. Beautiful is a special word.
"I DIDN'T WANT IT TO BE COOL. I WANTED IT TO BE BEAUTIFUL."
"Amongst a cohort of incredibly loud, youthful designers, Renata designs for an elegant woman with a quietness that will stand out."
1Granary
(...) She is the right woman. Who doesn't want to be or at least doesn't secretly admire this woman? The style brings together a new and unique balance of features, not yet seen in the industry. Formal , modern, chic, clean, feminine, quiet and classic.
When the students ask me what was the most difficult thing I went through on designing this collection I explain them that it was to accept that perfection is unreal. I would redo something so many times because of insignificant imperfections that I can almost say I have three of the same final collection in my room right now.
" My biggest advice is this: aim for the perfect understanding that it will bring you the excellent. If you aim for the excellent you will end up with the good and if you aim for the good you will end up with the mediocre. "
"Everywhere I go and everything I see I tend to analyse how would I possibly improve it in order to make it look more beautiful."
Pleated Wool and acetate based satin.
The hardest thing I have heard on the MA was that my style of work looked like this specific designer style of work. ( it was said with a negative tone meaning what I was doing was not fashion ). It was hard, not because the designer was bad, but because it was one of my very favorite designers, one of the greatest ones in the world. The one I look up to and always wanted to work for. How can one not like his work and what would I do from that moment on?
I love to play with lines. There is a perfect place for every line. If beauty was in the eyes of the beholder we wouldn't be able to work in teams on an aesthetic industry. Everywhere I go and everything I see I analyse how would I possibly improve it .I have a notebook with fully detailed explanation and sketches of every single change I would do in my hometown if I was to become the the Major of the city one day.
" In order to master something one must do it over and over again , refining it and polishing it. All my projects are extensions of the previous ones. I have never started a work that wouldn't include the essence or something from what I was doing before. That is why when I am asked how long did it take me to do this collection I say: 5 years."
" In order to master something one must do it over and over again."
" I love to play with lines. There is a perfect place for every line."
My favorite part of this project was drawing the shapes on the tweed and seeing what would happen by placing the panels on the body. All the lines were inspired by Oskar Schlemmer work and I would draw and sew the same curve so many times until it would look just right.
To see the full portfolio of work please contact at : estefanrenata@gmail.com