I recently tracked down Missing Piece artists Jeremy Parr, Lara Grant, and Molly Rebuschatis to pick their brains about their line, fashion, and other fun tidbits. Here is what they had to say:
Missing Piece artist Jeremy Parr
So Jeremy…
What does your label name mean? How was it chosen?
My label is Martin and Magpie. Martin is me, my middle name; it represents my physical self, on the earth, doing the work: sewing, cutting, getting my hands dirty. I sew every garment myself. Magpie represents my imagination: flying around, getting into trouble, discovering pretty things, overcoming obstacles, battling good and evil, basically; also, it represents my link to other worlds, supernatural, etc…
Tell me briefly about your path to becoming a designer.
Graduated from college with a Biology degree, became a chemist, worked many years as a chemist, unsatisfied, unhappy, decided I needed art (was not exposed to a lot of art growing up), looked to my past, my family, asked myself: what do I want to carry on that’s been familial, what do I want to pursue that makes me happy? The answer was fashion, sewing, etc. My grandmother was an exceptional artist & seamstress. I love her more that anyone and I thought to carry that on would honor her and myself.
How would you describe your clothes?
Casual, street, urban, denim-based, raw, exposed, comfortable, trashy, divine.
What was the theme for this collection?
The Business of Madness
Where do you grab your ideas from? What inspires you most when you create?
TV, walking on the street
Who do you see wearing your clothes?
Artists, gays, tweakers, homeless, pimps, children
Favorite designer? Designers you love/would love to collaborate with? Mentors?
Galliano, Westwood, Ghesquiere
What’s your favorite piece that you’ve created to date?
This classic pair of blue jeans that fits my ass perfectly.
Where do you feel upcoming designers fall in Fashion? How important are upcoming designers to be recognized in Fashion?
I rarely look at other designers, unless I happen to run into them (if I’ve been drinking). I think it’s important for upcoming designers to be showcased in some way. It’s important for upcoming designers to be aggressive and try to showcase their own wares. It’s great that there are opportunities like Emerging Stars for upcoming designers to try out for. I think upcoming designers are getting a lot more chances for exposure, especially since the start of Project Runway. I started design school way before that show came out, but since it began, enrollment in fashion schools have risen a considerable amount…yea for art! But I think the show makes designing and sewing seam easier than they really are. Kids go into school and want to become designers, but they don’t want to do the work. In reality, designing is one of the hardest jobs out there. It’s blood and guts!!!
How do you feel about the recent focus on greener/organic methods of design?
It is something that has become a fad. I think it’s going to live beyond the fad stage and hopefully become a long-lasting trend. It’s great because it makes consumers and designers more conscious about how product choice can affect the environment. Plus, organics and natural fibers are so nice to wear and work with.
Why choose San Francisco over more highly recognized cities in the fashion industry like New York or Los Angeles?
I didn’t choose SF. SF chose me. Or I ended up here because of circumstance. I love SF, but I admit, I have a strong craving for NYC. Not LA though. Too dirty and spread out. I hate driving. I’d go to NYC if I had money.
What direction would you like to see your line develop towards?
I’d like to do more womenswear and childrens wear. I’d like it to become a lifestyle line. Well-made, unique, not mass produced.
Typical day in the life of Jeremy Parr.
Get up, work out, shower, sew 5am-7am, bike to day job: chemistry, ride home (I love my bicycle), make dinner, sew until 9pm, go to bed, dream (I have dreams every night!!!)
Favorite things to do when you’re not working.
EAT/DRINK/LAYOUT/Kung Foo
If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?
New York/Milan
If you weren’t designing, what would you be doing?
Playing guitar
Book you’re reading right now, or last book you read.
The Long Goodbye, Chandler
Right or Left-handed?
Left/ sometimes ambi
If you were to create a “Soundtrack Of My Life” compilation, what songs would be in it?
Deacon Blues
Favorite time of the day.
Nap time/Siesta: after lunch
Piece of clothing or jewelry you could not live without?
Comfortable shoes
Best part about being a designer? Worst part about being a designer?
Best: there are endless possibilities. Worst: not enough time to do what I want.
What are you obsessing on these days?
The TV show Rescue Me, Battlestar Galactica, tomatoes.
If you could choose between sleeping, eating, or being clean, which would you choose? Why?
Sleeping. If I’m asleep I don’t have to worry about the other two; nor about anything else.
Favorite holiday.
Kentucky Derby (My own personal holiday)—I get to go home; I love going home to KY
Five pieces of clothing every girl/guy should have in his/her wardrobe.
Soft footies, soft cotton tees and undies; on top of that, whatever else you feel. I love to see what people choose to where; it really says a lot about who they are.
Take away message for your line?
Use color to affect your mood; it can be as good as drugs.
Where can we find your items?
RAG Co-Op in Hayes Valley
Next up we hear from Lara Grant.
Lara Grant of Missing Piece
What does your label name mean? How was it chosen?
I design under my own name for now. I have designed under the name pickle for a year or so, that was due to an obsession I had. I am working on a new RTW line which will be the launch of my new label. the name has been undecided , but will get me back to working on transformable streetwear.
Tell me briefly about your path to becoming a designer.
I have used many mediums to build creations from , when I was 17 I decided I wanted to pursue fashion as a career, so then fabric and fibers became my medium. There are still boundaries that I feel I want to push, and as long as I have had that feeling I have been designing clothes.
How would you describe your clothes?
ummm….
What was the theme for this collection?
Home. In many ways this has been the theme. I have taken some outside details from buildings in the neighborhoods I tunnel most often, and the feeling of home within each of us that tend to travel from place to place as our physical bodies do.
Where do you grab your ideas from? What inspires you most when you create?
I research my themes for images and take my own when it applies. For my more couture pieces, such as this home line, I take more of an abstract , personal conflict , self therapeutic , approach.
When I design for RTW, I take the ever exciting functional, transformable, streetwear approach in hopes to inspire others to create their own presence.
Favorite designer? Designers you love/would love to collaborate with? Mentors?
Hussien Chalayan
What’s your favorite piece that you’ve created to date?
My most exciting pieces are always in the process of refining. Some of my favs are two resin cast purses i made, one collapsible, the other lit up on the inside.
Where do you feel upcoming designers fall in Fashion? How important are upcoming designers to be recognized in Fashion?
New designers making and breaking new boundaries. There is A LOT of talent out there that has never been publicized. let’s challenge one another.
How do you feel about the recent focus on greener/organic methods of design?
This focus has become mainstream, but has always been a concern. Anything highly publicized has two things going for it. 1- more people will hear about it, so they will be interested and want to know more. 2- thirst for knowledge sometimes leads to involvement which means exchange of papers, which then leads to the growth of a market.
I believe these are highly positive outcomes. although, on the other hand “green” and “organic” have become prized labels that you can buy into and meet minimum requirements on. In other words, it is used as another marketing tool, such as the next hottest trend or a sexy model.
What direction would you like to see your line develop towards?
A RTW line with interchangeable parts and exclusives every so months.
Favorite things to do when you’re not working.
Dance breaks, motor-pedding, felting, playing with buttons and switches, cutting hair, perusing flea markets, creating scenes, documenting, running to the hills, talking to my wife.
If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?
I have not been enough places to decide that yet!
If you weren’t designing, what would you be doing?
I would probably be doing industrial design or climbing Mt. Everest.
Book you’re reading right now, or last book you read.
I have a few in circulation…. “The Illuminatus Trilogy” by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson, “The Elegant Universe” by Brian Greene, “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” by J.K. Rowling, and I always listen to “Barrel Fever and Other Short Stories” by David Sedaris.
Right or Left-handed?
Right.
If you were to create a “Soundtrack Of My Life” compilation, what songs would be in it?
O.K.. right now , off the top of my head I would choose:
“Heavyheart” by Jeffery Lewis
“Happy” by Jenny Lewis and The Watson Twins
“Fish” by Mr. Scruff
“Strayed” by Smog
“Lover, You Should of Come Over” by Jeff Buckley
“If You Don’t Cry” by The Magnetic Fields
We know these things are ever changing, although I do think “Heavyheart” will be on the best of for sure.
Favorite time of the day.
Dusk.
Piece of clothing or jewelry you could not live without?
Ribbons.
Best part about being a designer? Worst part about being a designer?
Creating your own world/getting trapped in your own world.
What are you obsessing on these days?
The feelings you get inside when you walk down the street and see a light on in the window of your room knowing you switched it off before you left.
If you could choose between sleeping, eating, or being clean, which would you choose? Why?
Well, I already don’t take showers, so between eating and sleeping….. that’s hard, I would choose sleep cause my dreams are so vivid that I could conjure up all the flavors I would be missing out on in the waking life.
Favorite holiday.
Holidays are slanted and over-rated, but I do like all the food smells of holiday feasts and the twinkle of Christmas lights, and the dressed up debauchery of Halloween.
Five pieces of clothing every girl/guy should have in his/her wardrobe.
A nicely tailored suit jacket/vest
striped scarf
hoodie
battered, beaten 50/50 tee from the 70’s
sock garters
Take away message for your line?
Make it and live in your own.
Where can we find your items?
Check lara’s-home.com for updates.
And last, but most definitely not the least we have.
Molly Rebuschatis of Missing Piece
What does your label name mean? How was it chosen?
I am part of the Missing Piece collaborative show, my label is just my name at this point
Tell me briefly about your path to becoming a designer.
I have always loved to draw, and have always loved beautiful and fun clothing. I studied costume design in both my undergraduate and graduate programs. I started out designing costumes for plays and it grew from there
How would you describe your clothes?
Edgy, fun, chic, playful
What was the theme for this collection?
JuxtPOP
Where do you grab your ideas from? What inspires you most when you create?
Art , Film, History, my subconscious
Who do you see wearing your clothes?
Girls with taste and a sense of playfulness.
Favorite designer? Designers you love/would love to collaborate with? Mentors?
I don’t have one favorite. Worth, Elsa Schiparelli, Patou, Madeline Vionnet, Halston, Vivienne Westwood, Jean Paul Gaultier, Miuccia Prada, Prada, Prada, Nicolas Ghesquiere, Helmut Lang, Anna Molinari, Proenza Schouler, to name a few.
What’s your favorite piece that you’ve created to date?
I try and treat all my pieces equally.
Where do you feel upcoming designers fall in Fashion? How important are upcoming designers to be recognized in Fashion?
I don’t really understand this question… small designers are vital to Fashion, they diversify the market and they can be more approachable financially speaking
What do you think the effect on fashion is of popular shows like Project runway, What Not to Wear, etc.? Do you think see these shows as a negative or positive thing?
I have never seen “what not to wear”. But, I do think helping people find what sihouette’s flatter their figure is never a bad thing.
I think project runway is fun, but it is important to understand that it is a reality show first. There were plenty of good designers that were kicked off because he or she was unable to create a garment out of garbage that could also unfold into a studio apartment, and be seen as tasteful in the eyes of Michael Kors and Nina Garcia. On the other hand, there were plenty of talentless hacks that endured week after week as he or she was good for ratings. I am sure it has helped some careers progress, and hurt others.
How do you feel about the recent focus on greener/organic methods of design?
I think it is great and needs to grow. However, it can be limiting artistically at this point.
Why choose San Francisco over more highly recognized cities in the fashion industry like New York or Los Angeles?
Why not? So it can to become a city of fashion…
What direction would you like to see your line develop towards?
Up, up, up
Advice you’d give for people trying to break into the industry.
Work hard, have fun.
Typical day in the life of Molly Rebuschatis
Depends on the day.
Favorite things to do when you’re not working.
Laugh
If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?
Exactly where I am living right now.
If you weren’t designing, what would you be doing?
I would like to say painting or writing a book, but being a professional socialite sounds fun too
Book you’re reading right now, or last book you read.
Holy Terror, Andy Warhol Close Up …by Bob Colacello
Right or Left-handed?
Left
If you were to create a “Soundtrack Of My Life” compilation, what songs would be in it?
Depends on the Year
If you could have anyone’s wardrobe (dead or alive), whose would it be?
Do I have their figure also?
Favorite time of the day.
Depends on the Day… usually not sunrise that means I am worrying about something and I can’t sleep, or its time to go home from the party
Piece of clothing or jewelry you could not live without?
Shoes and Shoes
Best part about being a designer? Worst part about being a designer?
Designing
What are you obsessing on these days?
I obsess about everything I like…and dislike for that matter
If you could choose between sleeping, eating, or being clean, which would you choose? Why?
Sorry to repeat myself but depends on the day. Am I going to a party, am I staying in, am I hungover?
Favorite holiday.
Thanksgiving for the people. Christmas for the presents. Easter has the best candy selections…very rococo in palette.
Five pieces of clothing every girl/guy should have in his/her wardrobe.
Every drag queen needs a fur, a little black dress, size 12 heels, a NARS compact and a smile!!!!!!
Take away message for your line?
To each their own.
Where can we find your items?
Through missing piece for now.
