Interview

Up-and-coming designer Jen Kao's got clutches like Kryptonite and chain maille shoes that ring themselves up. Fabiola Beracasa is on the case.


BERACASA: How do you come up with a chain maille clutch with a resin diamond on it? Does it just come from a dream?

KAO: Chain maille is such an interesting medium for a clutch. We were talking to this Lucite furniture lady who was like "I can do anything!" so we gave it to her and gave her the specs and then she made a mold for us.

BERACASA: Is this a diamond?

KAO: It's quartz—like a fragment.

BERACASA: Like all of us-fragments. I speak for myself at least. Did you start the collection with clothes or did you always want to do accessories as well?

KAO: It's something I always wanted to do, but I'm taking it slowly and being patient because the focus is really on the clothes

BERACASA:  Do you feel like that's your first passion the clothing?

KAO: Yeah, I mean I love accessories.

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Fabiola Beracasa captures front row and backstage at New York Fashion Week. She's got tan Misshapes at Preen; she's got cover girl Tavi. She's got man of the hour Alexander Wang. You heard it here first!


For more of Fabiola's Fashion Week coverage for Interview, click on. See her video work on Stylelist, too.

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Kimberly Ovitz couldn't stand up when she met Karl Lagerfeld, and she couldn't make Brad Pitt laugh, but she's ready for a fashion empire. Fabiola Beracasa asks her how she's getting it done:


FABIOLA BERACASA: How did you get into fashion?

KIMBERLY OVITZ: Every summer since elementary school, I tried to find jobs in the fashion industry to get experience and teach myself.

BERACASA: Are your parents involved in fashion?

OVITZ: Not at all. My dad is in entertainment and my mom breeds horses. (LEFT: FROM SPRING/SUMMER 2009)

BERACASA: You have a little bit of an equestrian flair in your collection. Is that from your mom?

OVITZ:  Absolutely, I grew up riding horses. I'm trying to build the brand-the core of it by being around an equestrian lifestyle.

BERACASA: So tell me, what was your first job in fashion?

OVITZ: The first one was J.Crew, when I was 15 or 16. I was in New York for the senior women's designer Jenna Lyons, who is now the creative director. It taught me a lot about merchadising meetings and doing color stories and fittings.

BERACASA: What has been your favorite job in fashion?

OVITZ: The coolest experience I had was working with Herb Ritts. I'm also a photographer. He would stop a whole shoot to let me look through the lens. Not snobby and just totally cool.

BERACASA: Any kind of most embarrassing moments from any of these jobs-where you were like "Oh my god."

OVITZ: I don't have any shame. There was one at Chanel in Paris, when they first introduced me and another intern to Karl.  I was in such awe that I literally—he came so close to me, and I didn't stand up. I wrote him an apology letter. I could tell he thought it was disrespectful to me.  

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By the time her first runway show (Sunday evening), Scandinavian-born, New York-based designer Elise Øverland is tired of leather-on-leather. But she isn't tired of Mexican fighting masks, "erotic yoga," or Rachel Feinstein on her doorstop, a bottle of tequila in hand.


FABIOLA BERACASA: How are you?  I'm sure this is complete madness for you.  I'm catching you in the middle of fashion week which is a disaster

ELISE ØVERLAND: I do acupuncture every three days. I actually just came from it. And Kundalini yoga. It's like getting free drugs.

BERACASA: I've read about it—it's like meditating.

ØVERLAND:  It's totally addictive—it's like sexual yoga.

BERACASA:  Sexual yoga? So you feel centered right now?

ØVERLAND: Yeah.

BERACASA: Tell me the story behind you becoming a fashion designer

ØVERLAND: I started with music, because I've always been so passionate for music. I started dressing musicians for the stage. So it had nothing to do with fashion-it was just one outfit for one rock star, onstage. I did that for a while and then I outgrew it.

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