Meet Miranda Caroligne

Kreeya launches this week and we’re kicking off with established designer and local San Francisco fashion staple Miranda Caroligne. We had the pleasure of sitting down with Miranda this week for a one-on-one interview about everything that makes Miranda such a wonderful addition to Kreeya.

KREEYA: What is your background as a designer?

MIRANDA: I’ve been sewing ever since I could hold a needle. I started with the plastic safety needles and worked my way up from there. Designing started for me when my mother began teaching me to use patterns. I hated it, refused it, and went on doing my own thing from scratch: draping and reconstructing.

With time and a lot of hard work, I made my way across the coast to San Francisco in 2005 and within months opened my own “living construction” boutique in which I created clothing live in the shop. In 2007 I opened another shop, a cooperative gallery and boutique featuring all locally made design and art.

K: Tell us a little about your designs. What types of fabrics or textiles do you prefer to use?

M: Through random happenstance, I began getting requests for a fleece pullover that I whipped up for myself on a chilly San Francisco day. Today I have a full line of fleece womenswear, sourced from a California mill, and am looking to duplicate some of these pieces in wool.

Dismayed by the immense amount of scrap offcut, even in my own small-run production, I have developed yet another collection that I call my “offcut” collection. These pieces, featured in various “green” shows, are made entirely from the fleece offcut of my own production and other re-use minded local designers. Each piece is one-of-a-kind and tailored to fit. I also alter and customize everything to fit, usually with no extra charge.

K: What is the inspiration behind your designs and collections?

M: I rarely look at “fashion” as it pertains to elitism and glamour. What I know of clothing is what passes me by in my daily life: on the street, in my shop, on my friends. I am inspired by other art forms: music, paint, food, and sculpture. Hardware stores and salvage yards are like crack for me. Art fuels me in an intangible way that I sometimes only notice in its absence. People need art in their lives like they need food and water and shelter. It is essential.

K: Who do you design for?

M: I create clothing for people, mostly women, who want to express themselves in a unique, artistic, and self-motivated way…pioneers!

K: What is the one fashion essential you cannot live without?

M: I’m torn between my scarf and my boots. There’s a romantic bad-ass quality about each of them, and an inherent functionality that rings true with me.

K: What kind of designer do you want to be remembered as?

M: I would like to be remembered as a designer who worked hard and struggled to do things differently…who did things with a high standard of ethics and heart…who inspired individuals to be their true superhero self.

Thanks for chatting with us, Miranda!