Photography of Brett Heyman courtesy of Edie Parker
“ I ALWAYS KNEW THAT I LOVED TO MAKE THINGS AND THAT I WANTED TO WORK IN FASHION...
You previously handled the public relations efforts for Gucci under Tom Ford and then Frida Giannini. What did your experience there teach you about design?
I
started when Tom Ford was there, I was an assistant, then it was Frida. She was awesome. She is an amazing handbag designer, truly, the bags she made while I was there, as the handbag designer under Tom were truly spectacular. Then I worked at Dolce & Gabbana and then went back to Gucci. Both brands are huge houses with huge budgets, so they can work with the best materials, they care about the craftsmanship, the ‘made in Italy’ really means something, the same way that we are made in America with second and third generation acrylic manufacturers that is how they work. The factories they work with are small and family owned. All of the acrylic for the brand is made in America, because I really wanted to pay homage to how the original bags were made during the post-war period in America, all with great creativity. 17