Petit Mask Bringing Fairytale Dreams to Life An ang el . A pir ate . A pr inc e s s. A s u pe r her o
By Lilly Carrion
he chance to dress up and step inside an enchanted world of their imagination is a delight for every child. And costumes offer the perfect escape into these make-believe lives of valour and bravery, wizardry, magical kingdoms and happily ever after. It’s this imaginative spirit of children that inspires two Bangkok-based designers Vanessa Lipovitch and Nathalie Laplace, who have honed their design chemistry to create Petit Mask, a premium children’s costume maker. Both from France, they learned their craft in their home city of Paris, with Vanessa moving to Bangkok 12 years ago. Nathalie has lived in Bangkok for four years, continuing her 15-year career path as a corporate product designer and freelance designer since earning a degree from the École nationale supérieure des arts décoratifs in Paris. For Vanessa, designing costumes is a natural evolution of a creative life. Since she was young, she has always pursued a do-it-yourself approach to fashion and design instead buying off the rack in a shop, complemented by the arts of singing and painting. Before founding Petit Mask with Nathalie two years ago she created Pretty Little Names, where kids’ drawings are redesigned and turned into decorative art pieces including rugs, bed sheets, cushions, coffee mugs. Her own kids are her greatest inspiration, said Vanessa, and her eldest daughter’s “masterpiece” drawings are what sparked the Pretty Little Names venture as a way to transform her creations into unique canvases.
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Fashion