BlankBlank and the Cosmos #2

Here we are with the second part of the interview to Blank Blank: 

How many stores are currently sell your products?

Four in Latvia: Paviljons, Pop Art, Bang Bang, Taste Latvia. You could find our products also In Iko Iko in Copenhagen, a small shop, and soon in a new store opening in Estonia. In addition, we are negotiating to enter in the Lithuanian market. On the Internet, you can find us on Red Mint, the British company that pays particular attention to Eastern European designers.

What is your opinion about your brand after six months of life?

Surely it is a very demanding job. If you have any other business, you have to work something like 4 or 6 hours per day, if you have a business in the fashion world you have to work at least 40 hours a week. We are still learning, no one has experience in how to run a company, but we love what we do. We are learning so much in fashion business.

BlankBlank and the Cosmos #1

We propose the first interview with a latvian fashion brand: BlankBlank. 

How was the brand Blank Blank born, and when?

The founders are Martins Blanks (the label comes from adding the two surnames together), industrial designer, and Linda Blanks, graphic artist. The beginning can be traced to when a friend of Linda came to Riga from London, and they started talking about making some t-shirts to sell. They made thirty pieces and then went to Camden Town tried to sell them. Many pieces remained unsold, but Linda had a feeling that was what she really wanted to do. It was in March 2010. When he returned to Latvia, Linda decided to split up and continue this project by herself. We started producing only two sizes, the size of Martins and the size of Linda. We decided that there was no need for other sizes, only six months later we started to produce other sizes. The company itself, then, was born in September 2012.

What is fashion, in your opinion?

Experiment. Linda likes to say that she flirts with fashion.

We are not fashion designers, but artists, fashion and clothes serve us as a platform, as media for our artworks. It's good, for example, to have good shapes, but the most important thing is what is printed on the fabric. Once I realized a shirt with some splashes of color and received many complements by social, by important people. But it was just a second-hand t-shirt!

The shape is always changing, but what's over the t-shirt is art.

Playlist #23: David Bowie, Kavinsky, Atoms for Peace, Tame Impala e Grimes

Nuova playlist from Riga. Questa volta a cura del mio coinquilino Matteo (presto la sua descrizione per questa playlist):

• David Bowie - The Stars 
•  Kavinsky - Testarossa Autodriva  
• Atoms for Peace - Before your very eyes 
• Tame Impala - Elephant
•  Grimes - Oblivion

  

News from Riga

Io con il tipico souvenir da Sigulda

C'è un motivo nella mancanza di aggiornamenti nel blog. In realtà, sono finito al freddo. Nella lontana Latvia (che suona meglio di Lettonia) per un tirocinio. Presto avrò modo di aggiornarvi anche sul mondo della moda lettone, già in settimana avrò modo di fare qualche intervista.

Intanto godetevi una piccola carrellata di foto del grande freddo. Le foto sono della nostra escursione a Sigulda, una delle stazioni sciistiche più in del posto (ben 300 metri di "montagna"), ma il paesaggio è uno spettacolo. 

Veduta dall'alto della pista sciistica

Tutto il gruppo

Alcune rovine

Dettaglio di una chiesa

Castello di Sigulda

Paesaggio dalla torre del castello di Sigulda

Alle prese con un nuovo sport, altro che team giamaicano