Q &A
Mathew
BOUDREAUX
“...WITH HER INTUITION AS OUR GUIDE,
I SAW AND FELT THE EXPERIENCE ALMOST THROUGH HER EYES” 1. Hi Mathew! Congratulations on releasing your second collection, “Aura!” We understand you drew a lot of inspiration for these prints from traveling to Hawaii with your daughter! Can you elaborate more on how those travels turned into fabrics? Well, Helena and I flew to Hawaii on a whim because she wanted to go and I was like “Um okay, why not?” Now before y’all start thinking I have a money tree, I travel a lot for my day job and had just enough airline and hotel points to take her, so I was all spontaneous and decided to take advantage and create some memories with my daughter. And for much of the trip, I totally disconnected and tried to be as present as I could with Helena and let her make a lot of the decisions. With her intuition as our guide, I saw and felt the experience almost through her eyes, recognizing that we were seeing many of these things for the first time, and we were perpetually in awe and wonder. The visuals were so vibrant and the experiences were so full that my brain was flooded with inspiration when we arrived back
home, and I immediately got to designing with the experience fresh in my mind. I even knew exactly how I wanted it to feel and the colors and was brought back to Helena and my one consistent ritual on our trip. Every morning, the first thing we’d do is get me come coffee, and her some cocoa as we sat in our chairs on the balcony of our hotel room watching the sunrise...and then every night, we’d both have cocoa, sitting in those same chairs watching the sunset. 2. What are your top 5 destinations on your “Travel Bucket List?” The only place I’ve ever been overseas is “Paris” and it absolutely changed my world, so I’d love to go back there again to share it with my husband and daughter. I have to travel to “Australia” at least once before I die..and I’d love love love to go to “London.” Spending some significant time in “Tibet” has always been a fantasy to me, and then “India”... the food, the culture, the colors, it all sounds fabulous. 3. If “Aura” was a person, who would they be? At first I was all like “Um no one,” it’s chill and cool and sexy and stylish and like no one can be all those things, it’s too much pressure, but then “Lenny Kravitz” popped into my head, so let’s say him. 4. After creating your first fabric collection, “Loved to Pieces,” was the design process much easier this time around with “Aura?”