Tara is a Hong Kong based jewelry designer who recently founded her sustainable jewelry brand ‘LE MANDORLE’. Having studied womenswear design at London College of Fashion and lived in major fashion capitals such as London, Paris and Milan, Tara has developed her unique sense of aesthetic and design approach. Previously, she worked for large fashion houses such as Celine (under Phoebe Philo’s direction) and Jil Sander.
Can you tell me more about your new jewelry brand ‘LE MANDORLE’?
‘LE MANDORLE’ stands for ‘almond’ in Italian. It is a jewelry design studio co-founded by Jenny (who is my best friend I met back in London) and me. Essentially, we want our brand to be like an almond seed which is able to sprout and grow into different sectors in the future. Other than that, almond seed provides a natural and organic feeling to our brand. We want our customers to recongnize us as a sustainable and eco-friendly brand.
What is your design approach? How do you normally get your inspiration?
In general, my inspiration comes from the little things that are happening around me. By observing objects, people, architecture, art or photography, I am able to get inspiration from my daily life.
After getting my inspiration, what I will do next is to develop my idea in a 3D way. A lot of people would think that when people are designing, they simply just draw, sketch and pass it through. But you know, jewelry (and even clothes) is different. Jewelry is not flat - it is 3D. When it comes to designing jewelry, you have to think about the weight, the movement, how it hangs on you, how it feels on you and how it sits on you etc. It’s like a relationship between an object and yourself. Because of that, I take effort in developing my idea in 3D and refine it until the work is satisfactory. For example, I do research on actual objects and create 3D printed prototypes made of wax or even just create certain shapes with clay. To me, jewelry is like a sculpture so my design process is never just to draw and proceed but to keep playing with it in 3D until it’s well “sculpted”.
You were doing womenswear design. How different is it when doing jewellery?
To be honest, jewelry and clothing are not only highly related but also very similar in the design process. The only difference to me when switching gears is the base materials.
To be more specific, I’ve always been working on 3D design (both clothing and jewelry design are 3D), and I can adopt the same way of thinking and designing. Other than that, having worked at Céline and Jil Sander enables me to develop my overall aesthetic and skills which are transferable to jewelry design. By giving me eyes to look into details and understanding the way to handle details in the design process, I find it not too hard to dive into jewellery design.
Can you tell me a little bit more about your work at Céline and Jil Sander?
I did an internship at Céline when I was in my second year of college and I learned a lot from it. Starting from 3D design and 3D realization, the work at Céline really helped me build a solid stepping stone to jewellery design. As for Jil Sander, I was a womenswear runway designer. Our team was quite small even though we managed the whole runway. I learned a lot working with amazing and inspiring people there and it really cultivated me to become who I am as a designer today.
Is there any topic or theme for your upcoming collection that you are working on?
Natural organic shapes (like the branches of trees, the water droplets, seeds) are something we are focusing on for this collection.
Regarding sustainability, is there anything you can tell me about for your brand?
Sustainability is everywhere at LE MANDORLE. Let’s begin with the materials we use for packaging - some of our packaging is made with handmade seed paper. Handmade seed paper is basically hand beaded with black-eyed Susan and sesame seeds, so you can actually plant it like a real plant! Our other packaging is also 100% recyclable with acid free paper and cards. As for our jewelry pouch bag, it’s 100% linen and our paper bags are machine-washable, so you can use them again and again.
To me, sustainability really starts with responsible sourcing and we treat it as a priority at LE MANDORLE.
What is your idea towards ‘fast fashion v.s. slow fashion’?
To me, fast fashion produces items with low cost and fast turnover to compete with the rest of the fashion industry. Fast fashion brands prioritize manufacturing efficiency beyond sustainability and ethical norms. ‘Slow fashion’, on the other hand, is more about quality. For instance, the manufacturers and even materials are carefully sourced to deliver higher quality products at a fair cost. To many people, fast fashion is easier and cheaper, but in my opinion this is a very wrong way of thinking. To be honest, I’m quite happy that more and more people are concerned about the way fast fashion works. This force pushes fast fashion brands to aim for better quality, uphold ethical manufacturing standards and lower environmental impact.
Can you tell me about your upcoming collaboration?
Yes, as I mentioned, ‘LE MANDORLE’ actually means almond and we want our brand to be like an almond seed which is able to sprout and grow into different sectors in the future. We would like to branch out into different sectors such as photography, pottery, floral design, art and craft and even music.
I personally believe collaboration is a very interesting way to be inspired and to inspire others. As if walking around a tree, collaboration offers a lot of different angles and views. You see a different image... and this is what makes collaboration beautiful. For example, we are planning to collaborate with a few photographers and for the later collection we are thinking of collaborating with a pottery ceramics designer to merge wearable and sculpture together.
What’s your vision for the future?
I would like more people to recognize LE MANDORLE - not only for our jewelry designs, but also for the idea of loving the planet and trying to pay back to the motherland. I would really like to create more conscious consumers. That said, to be honest, since I got back to Hong Kong, I have realized that things in Asia are moving so fast in general, including fashion. We’re not just talking about H&M or Zara. There are a lot of other boutique brands where you can actually just pay pennies to get a pair of trousers, which I was quite shocked and concerned about - thinking about where their products and materials are from. I just hope that in Asia we can also have more sustainable brands and we need artists to work together to try to push the boundaries and help the world to develop.
Tell me “Something New”.
NFT [Non-Fungible Token] is quite interesting. There are a lot of marketplaces to buy and sell and I think it’s going to be more approachable to different people soon, branching out to different sectors. I mean, it’s crazy!