Foto: Mirta Rojo
She is a woman full of secrets. Her work is Surrealistic. It's hard to imagine that pink-haired designer, INÉS FIGAREDO was born in Madrid and was a law school graduate who fled to London to become a broker. It was the artistic side that took over and in 2011 Inés Figaredo formed her own label. Inés creates timeless, wearable objects, conceived for the distinguished woman seeking to express her poetic attitude. Each carefully crafted piece is made to be passed on for generations to come. The bags are a smash street style hit.
Joliegazette: Where were you born?
Ines: I was born in Madrid, Spain.
Joliegazette: What triggered passion for designing?
Ines: It was an automatic reaction to my inner nature.
Joliegazette: Why bags?
Ines: For me, it could only be bags. My need of contention, the obsession of having a containment, which hosts, holds and secures shelter to the everyday requirements, led me to the bag. To its shape and its nature. Taking that as a starting point I shape them and use them in order to tell stories and freeze emotions.
Joliegazette: Do you think a bag can be an extension of your personality? Why?
Ines: Yes, all the choices we make about the things that accompany us reveal plenty of information to the audience. They draw the image people get from us. Among the hundreds of choices one could make, why the bag? Any answer to that indeed says something about a person.
Photo courtesy INÉSFIGAREDO.
Joliegazette: What is your design process like?
Ines: There are designers who sketch and then there are designers who can sew and construct. What do you do best?
I have never had a needle in my hands (yet!). I live in a world of ideas although, I paint and build up pieces of art and use them for the bags all the necessary means the idea requires for its materialization.
Joliegazette: What or who inspires you?
Ines: Stories inspire me. Stories about people mostly, the complex web of relationships that surround us, and how we deal with them. Overcoming, desperation, sacrifice, will, thirst of acceptance, and need for connection.
Joliegazette: What materials are used for your bags and where do you produce them?
Ines: We produce our handbags in Spain with the most exquisite materials from each sector. Leathers, silks, metal ware, precious or semi-precious stones. I want my ideas to have the best possible vehicle.
Joliegazette: Who is your muse?
Ines: There are a lot of different things that inspire me - from works of art to mythology and other types of storytelling as well as personal experiences, however I don’t really have a “muse”. There isn’t anyone I think of when it comes to my creative process. It comes a little more from the heart!
Joliegazette: How interested are you in what's going on in the fashion industry and the whole buzz around it?
Ines: I really don’t pay much attention to it. It’s all noise to me. Joliegazette: As an accessories designer, what are the greatest struggles you face when creating new collections?
Ines: Urgency. Everything nowadays seems to be urgent. There can be lot of restrictions when it comes to designing, whether its pricing, practicality or marketability. I welcome those challenges but I think it’s important to be loyal to yourself if you want to convey the right message. It’s important to know whose opinion you trust and can turn to for guidance.
Joliegazette: What piece of advice do you have for young entrepreneurs?
Ines: I would say to them understand what your vision is and stick to it. Be humble of course, learn, listen and revisit strategies every now and then, but there are too many gurus out there. And the compass should always be inside you.
Joliegazette: What is next for Inés Figaredo?
Ines: I'm excited to launch my Spring/Summer’17 collection and working on an exhibition event to debut my Fall/Winter ’17 collection later this year.
“I would like my bags to give individuals the wonderful freedom to dream of being a different person, living in a different time with a different name. Luxury to me is the ability to create our own happiness through the way we reinvent ourselves, in whichever way that may be”
Text Juliet Belkin
Photo courtesy INÉSFIGAREDO.
SHOP MODA OPERANDI
The unique handclasp to slide in your hand is extremely functional design. Since it’s debut, the crowd is going totally nuts for it’s arrival in stores and by the holy grace of God it’s now available from February 27, 2017.