From the Sketchpad - Part I

Designing Spring is my favorite season and where I can really express my love for color. It's the reason I moved out here to Santa Monica (I ditched all my NYC black threads and hit the West Coast.) Back in my NY days on Smith Street, you'd be hard pressed to find any black or neutrals in my store. Other than the colorful island-themed line Calypso, I was probably the only New York designer churning out colorful Hawaiin printed frocks. But here in sunny Santa Monica, color is expected and I'm happy to deliver.

For Spring 2010, I'm already starting the grueling design process of figuring out my palette and inspiration. It's not that it's hard to come up with the ideas, it's just hard to edit my ideas down to three cohesive collections. I know for sure one group will be a collection of pop colors accented with white - a clean, fresh, island-style palette. I'm inspired by the quintessential beach house that's sun-washed in white with splashes of vibrant color accents. I'm already imagining my space-dye palette of kelly green/white, cobalt blue/white, ocean blue/white, tangerine/white, yellow/white, and even a crisp black/white combination (see a few of my inspirations above.)

With this in my head and almost fully developed, I was pleasantly surprised when I walked into Calypso Home at the Brentwood Country Mart last weekend. Low and behold on white lacquer shelves were brightly displayed pillows, beach blankets, candles, and vases in pop colors of green, yellow, turquoise, and orange, all accented with white. Ahh hah! Yes, that's what I'm thinking! Bold ikat-esque prints will be beautifully translated in my custom space-dyed knitted patterns and will look gorgeous in my bamboo knits. I'm so excited, I can't wait to start sampling these new ikat-spacedye prints in the next couple months so I can see my vision complete. Stay tuned for more "From the Sketchpad" as I start pulling together the Spring 2010 Stacia collection...