#watchthisspace CREATURES OF THE WIND

Chicago based design duo Shane Gabier and Chris Peters of Creatures of the Wind have no fear when it comes to textiles!

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The pair treat materials, proportion and silhouette very democratically.  There's equal aesthetic value and beauty to be found in lots of different materials, be it a deadstock lame' or a couture, hand-made lace. By putting these materials next to each other, they feel they can create an entirely new context.
 
There's a wide range of women who wear their clothes, they have customers who are more mature, conservative women who put their designs together in a very ladylike way, but the clothes also appeal to much younger girls with really crazy style, who can wear it in a super punky, personal way. Shane and Chris feel that anyone with a strong sense of self can easily wear their clothes.  

When asked 'what can we expect from the Creatures of the Wind label in the next 3-5 years?' The duo replied 'We're starting to work toward developing bags, and in general, we just want the collection to keep growing.  We'd really like to expand the knits, add sunglasses, other accessories, that sort of thing.  We've got specific stores in mind that we'd love work with, and our goal for the next few years is just to grow the company organically, make careful decisions about stores and press, and keep enjoying what we do.'

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The idea behind their Autumn/Winter collection entitled ‘The Secret Commonwealth’, comes from the book of the same name, written by Reverend Robert Kirk in 1691.  The book is Kirk’s account of his extensive research of fairies, and included personal accounts of people who claimed to have encountered them. Kirk believed that the gateway to the land of fairies was through a specific tree on a hilltop; as the legend goes, this tree is said to now contain Kirk’s imprisoned spirit, after the fairies took his life in retribution for revealing the details of their world. Shane and Chris wanted to portray the idea of being in two world rather than the obvious of another fantasy collection.

Creatures of Winds' collections inspiration always begins with some sort of abstract concept, from which they look for some sort of tangible representation. They look at subcultures, youth cultures, folklore. Music is a big inspiration for the pair, always important in the development of every collection.     

They are currently focused on Spring 2013 right now, and are already developing ideas, colors, fabrics, for Autumn/Winter 2013. I can not wait to see what they next have in store for us...