Makers Mixtapes - Gabrielle Karnycheff
We are so thrilled to share a wonderful Makers|Mixtapes playlist for March, created for FAIRE by French designer Gabrielle Karnycheff.
“Music is a pillar of my creative life. It accompanies me in the creative process. It is there from the beginning until the end”
After many years of travelling the world, French designer Gabrielle Karnycheff has returned to the ‘source’, her family home in the countryside of the Luberon region of Provence, France.
Just before the pandemic hit, Gabrielle presented a luxury leather collection in Paris that she called "Super 8", inspired by the shapes of camera bags from the 1970s and the colours of that period.
Today her work is influenced by surrealism, Bauhaus and cubism, and the colours of Provence. She draws on skins in vibrant tones of purple, red, orange, green and yellow that reflect the lush nature that surrounds her country atelier.
Gabrielle first fell in love with leather when she lived in the Camargue region of Southern France and this experience led to her training in saddlery and leatherwork at the celebrated Parisian school Grégoire Ferrandi. Today Gabrielle creates a variety of bespoke, made-to-measure luxury leather objects, using traditional hand-sewing and hand-cutting techniques. Her collection includes toque hats, slippers, handbags and cardholders, as well as exploring decorative items such as vases and furniture.
Words by Gabrielle Karnycheff
I live in an old, traditional Provençal house, which is made of dry stones and old tiles. The walls are thick, made of plaster and lime, to protect from the summer heat and with exposed wooden beams on the ceiling - which are known as ‘plafonds Marseillais’.
My house faces the small mountain range called Le Petit Luberon, and I have a small, very wild garden. I’ve installed my studio working space in front of a large bay window which lets in so much precious natural light, and lets me watch over the two big acacia trees as they bloom and grow with the seasons.
Vovo, Gabrielle’s beloved dog and atelier companion
I’ve set up my easel next to the studio table and on the mezzanine area upstairs floor, I have my skins and music area. I would say that my house is one giant workshop. Every space is very inspiring and when I'm not at my table in front of the window creating a leather piece, I can find myself painting, playing music, drawing or even creating a setting for photography anywhere in the house or garden.
My creative process
I sew by hand, I cut all my leather patterns and pieces by hand too, whether it is the soles of my babouches or my leather bags.
My hands are my most precious tool. I would say that this process is very important to me because I sometimes feel like a mad scientist - or perhaps a witch who in the end will find the perfect potion or the exact formula.
I learned during my year of training (at Grégoire Ferrandi) that the cutting of the leather pieces is the most important step if you want to get a perfect finish.
I was trained by craftsmen who had worked on special orders for Hermes among other haute couture houses and they always told me that the process of preparing the piece to be built was even more important than the actual assembly of the piece.
When I create my pieces, I feel closer to the sculptor than to the leatherworker in front of his sewing machine or press. This choice allows me to be more in tune with my creative rhythm.
Inspiration
I am obviously influenced and inspired by what defines my world: a mixture of colours, material research, flexibility, rigidity, music and smells. Above all, I want to offer people my vision of leather, I want to give the people who wear my pieces confidence and empowerment in their everyday lives.
My pieces are colourful and are accessories that you decide to wear. When you wear a red super 8 bag, or purple slippers embellished with a gold moon or even one of my black and yellow toque hats, you immediately decide to put yourself in a colourful character. All the pieces I create are accessories that I also wear and that makes me feel confident with presenting these to the outside world.
Photo credit @edouardplongeon
I would say that I want to give this feeling of freedom and confidence to as many people as possible. That's the feedback I get from my customers every time and I'm so happy that I've managed to convey that. When I choose yellow for example, this sunny colour will allow the wearer to transmit some light and warmth around them. I am convinced that colours convey a message, an energy, just like form and material.
When I was younger, I spent most of my holidays in a house with horses, chickens, a goat, dogs, sheep, and two humans too, one of whom was an old school ‘Gardian’. He showed me from a very young age how to build a saddle or how to repair the bridles of the horses or even just how to maintain the leather so that it would stand the test of time.
For me, leather is an enduring, precious material that must be handled with care. It is a material that allows me to build shoes, bags, hats, furniture and even flower pots. This material has no limits and will resist time when it is correctly and carefully chosen. The fact that it is animal skin pushes me to do my absolute best - there is no room for error or sloppiness and I have so much respect for my raw material.
Setting the mood for creating
I need light, nature, animals, and calm around me to create. I also need space and music.
In the mornings, I usually drink a coffee while looking out at the mountains. I will read, draw, and then when I sit down at my atelier table I don't stop.
I will work on a piece by starting to make cardboard templates and then play around with materials and colours until something inspires me. Sometimes I will pull myself away from my work to go for a walk in nature. When I am surrounded by the wild thyme, pine and oak trees, and ochre, my creative trance is even stronger and more peaceful.
There are days when I am surrounded by my friends at home and create with them, at which point I am in a different process and more into sharing ideas. But I am a lone wolf and my work as a leather craftsman is my oxygen, it is what gives meaning to my ideas. And then, of course, there are days when I take my car and my dog and go and visit places, friends, museums, buy books, go to the market.
These are days when I'm more in-between creations and I can disconnect a little from my studio. I think I need to be alone to really create, but I also need to feel that other artists are also busy in their studios. I create to share with others too.
Photo credit @edouardplongeon
The importance of Music
Music is a pillar of my creative life. It accompanies me in the creative process. It is there from the beginning until the end. I have had a passionate relationship with music since I was a child. Music will obviously give a rhythm to my work, but it will also give a colour and a particular emotion which, I am sure, has made me change sometimes at the last moment, a detail on a piece.
I am as sensitive to lyrics as I am to the sound of a guitar or even a theremin. I listen to all kinds of music and listening to music allows me to travel all over the world but also in time. I would say that every creative moment and every piece I create has its own music like a poem, a film or even a painting. I see shapes and colours but I also hear certain music in everything I create.