Rawaan Alkhatib
A genius poet, master pastry chef, and scarf-designing superstar—yah, we’re talking about one person. Born in Dubai, Rawaan Alkhatib spent her early days surrounded by peacocks and gazelles. “This definitely contributed to my animal obsession, which you can find in my writing and design,” she says. In 2002, she headed to Brown University, eventually landing in an MFA program in Iowa. “It’s the only place where you can be at a bar and a stranger says, ‘So are you a poet or what?’—and you can say yes and own it,” she recalls.
In 2011, Rawaan found herself in New York with a fancy degree and, while poking around for jobs, started making scarves. In 2012, this side project went official (oh, and she landed a 9-to-5 at a luxury flash-sale site, too).
Scarves appeal to her for two reasons: She wears them a lot and comes from a culture of headscarves. “Silk is so magical—it keeps you warm when you’re cold and cool when you’re warm. It has a history of being used in luxury items, but it’s functional,” explains the designer, who hopes to add bags, clothing, and stationery to the mix down the road. “I have no real artistic training—merely boundless enthusiasm,” she says. “But this feels the most right of all the harebrained schemes I’ve had.” —alisha prakash
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Ali Golden
Ali Golden the designer is as straightforward as Ali Golden the line. With a background in graphic design and fine arts, she just sort of fell into the clothing world in 2011, discovering an attraction to flowy fabrics and clean lines. Of course it doesn’t hurt that she is an expert on the sewing machine, still making patterns and sewing her own samples, and is highly involved in every last aspect of her production, a rarity that totally shines through in her simple, thoughtful collection.
Meandering her way up the West Coast, Ali spent her childhood surfing and soaking up SoCal’s carefree vibes and now calls Oakland home. The offbeat neighborhood where her shop-meets-studio is located happens to be one of the coolest scenes in the city, with a vibe speaks to the sort of girl who would be drawn to her pieces. As Ali explains, that’s someone who “wants comfort foremost, but still wants to look good and unique. I like the idea of displaying my style with a lightness and a sense of humor—nothing too serious,” she says. Another key feature of her mostly silk label: “Almost everything is one size fits 0 to 10, so it literally is for everyone. It’s utilitarian and inspired by the notion of a uniform: anonymous with an edge.” —carly pifer
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Of a Kind
When the weather’s not right for a real cable-knit, go all trompe l’oeil with this Rachel Comey silk situation. —erica
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Of a Kind
Just when you thought you were over the whole crazy-silk-pant thing, these bad boys from Tabernacle Twins come along. Very Looks Good to Me, no? —erica
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Of a Kind
Not that I have any business thinking about what I’m going to want to wear next spring, but, well, these Shabd pants. What color don’t they go with? Enlighten me. —erica
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Corinne Gets Nostalgic
The L.A. designer has been using flowy silk and rich leather since the beginning.
Society for Rational Dress has a distinct point-of-view: Once you get to know the line, you can spot designer Corinne Grassini’s creations—and its masculine-feminine, tough-delicate balance—anywhere. And the really cool thing is that the traits that make her work so stand-out have been in place since the very beginning—2004. As proof, four styles from the early days, back when she had time to make all of the patterns herself and do custom pieces.
“I patterned it, I cut it, I pleated it, I sewed it—I did everything to it. It was a total labor of love because it took days, months to perfect the pattern. I was always recreating it for different women’s bodies. It was a tailored piece—it was never mass-produced—which is something I really love about it as well. When I pull it out of a garment bag, I know there’s only one of them just like this.”
“I did the leather component on this with a guy that I used to work with in the Valley. We would talk forever—just shoot the shit about how much we loved leather. It was amazing what he could do with leather—he was totally magical—and he probably thought I was crazy doing this little silk undergarment with the harness on it.”
“That’s an actual army-surplus harness. You can see it’s much more industrial and raw than the other one. Every season, I like to go back to the one-shoulder pieceto re-inspire me—to see where I want to go next and also to bring me back to what I love about fashion and design.”
“This is one of my favorite pieces—just for the simplicity of it. Anybody in the world could make it. You just cut a circle on the bias and two circles for your arms. I used that shape a lot when I was getting technical with all of the other patterns and wanted something that was super, super simple. Depending on the fabric that you choose and how you decide to close it, it can be a really beautiful piece.”
Don’t miss out on Corinne’s newest creation: the versatile silk dress she made exclusively for us.
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Rachel Makes 20 Very Special Shirts
Each one is hand-painted—which ups the odds of the Virgin Mary showing up in the inkblots.
When Rachel Rose gets in the zone, it’s just her, an eyedropper, a couple of bottles of silk paint, and her blank canvas: a loose, unfussy white silk tee. Here’s how she made the show-stopping edition she created just for Of a Kind, from start to finish.
Impressed? Scoop up one of Rachel’s pieces before they’re gone.
“This is Tinfix—it’s a French silk paint. They take it very seriously. They won’t really disclose any information about how it’s made, but I think it’s an acid-based dye.”
“I like how by using the inkblot technique the design takes on its own shape. I start with the coral color on the shoulders. It’s a combination of red and yellow.”
“Then I do dots of red—it adds a little depth to the coral.”
“I have to let the shirt dry before I use the blue paint. Otherwise it mixes with yellow in the coral and makes this green color that doesn’t really work well.”
“Now I’m just doing more dotting with the blue. I’ll let the first layer dry a little bit then do another on top for a splotchy, more saturated effect. I saw a heart in one of the blots the other day.”
“Then I let it dry and wrap it around the coil of my steamer for two hours so that the paint sets. I take it to the dry cleaner when it’s done, just to finish it—so it’s perfect for the person who buys it.”
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Rachel Takes the High-Sodium Approach
She demonstrates that painting silk can get salty.
The finished paint job, at center.
It’s pretty amazing what you can do with a few bottles of vibrant silk paint and a container of rock salt. It’s one of designer Rachel Rose’s favorite techniques—although she currently relies heavily on paint brushes and eye-droppers for creating her stunning silk shirts. Here, she shares the how-tos of the technique—which would also happen make an appropriate grade-school chemistry lesson—just in case you have a couple of silk scarves that could use some DIY-ing.
“First, I coat the fabric with dilutant. It spreads the paint around.”
“Dark colors are better to use for the salt—light colors don’t get the same effect. This is a blue that I’ve mixed. It has some black and some red in it.
“Then you place the rock salt. It takes a little while to work.”
“You can see it’s already starting to pull the paint. It’s really cool!”
“To finish it, I use this enormous steamer. It sets the paint permanently and also brightens it, brings it out, and saturates it.”
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Rachel Rose
For Rachel Rose, it all started with a class. The Brooklyn-based designer had been doing production and textile design for mega-retailers since she moved north from Tampa in 2003, but the itch to create her own pieces became impossible to ignore after she enrolled in a silk painting class at FIT, where she learned how to make magic with beeswax, rock salt, sponge brushes, and batik tools. “I knew I wanted to do something on my own eventually, but I had become discouraged—it takes a lot to start a collection,” she explains. “I was trying to figure out how I could do it on my own terms, let it grow naturally. When I learned how to do the silk painting, it clicked. I’ve always loved easy-to-wear pieces, and colors are just so beautiful on silk.”
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Of a Kind
We’re really liking the idea of throwing on a silk kimono instead of a regular ol’ cardigan, and the ones from Winter Kate are especially stellar. (Have said this before: Both of Nicole Richie’s lines are pretty kick-ass.) To see how to wear this to an event involving floral headresses, check out our post on Guest of a Guest. —erica
