Meet Helene Poulshock of Culture Consumer

As part of our holiday featured designer bonanza, we will be featuring—count them—three designers this week! We want to introduce you to so many of our favorite designers, we know you’ll love them, too! We’re psyched to kick things off with Culture Consumer. Read on to get to know the brains behind this operation, Helene Poulshock.

KREEYA: Hi, Helene! Tell us about yourself—what’s your background? When did you start designing?

HELENE: I found the back alley to design and ran into a chance to apprentice at a screenprinting shop almost 8 years ago. I had some experience with etching and drawing and graphic design, and being in the shop it only seemed a natural further step to take my own designs into the realm of apparel.

K: And what about your designs? What’s your creative process like?

H: I usually become obsessed with some object, animal, plant life, experience, texture, pattern, photo, or idea. Sometimes it all starts with a digital photo that I push and degrade into a graphic design. Sometimes I need to feel the directness of the screenprinting process, and I’ll use opaque ink and paintbrushes to draw right on vellum, which I use to burn onto a screen using a photographic emulsion.

During the design process, I think about the best lines of the apparel to print along. I like my designs to accentuate the shape or use of the clothing; to curl around the corners and up on the hoods of things; to occupy a peripheral but eye-catching space on the garment.

K: Sounds very flattering to the figure! What else makes you unique as a designer?

H: I create all my own designs for my apparel, source socially-responsible apparel for each design, and print each piece myself, by hand. I print everything in tiny editions, so there are only a few of each piece out there. You should feel special in what you wear! Lately I especially love to screenprint the outline of a design and then paint the design by hand with brushes and dyes to give it an ethereal and dreamy watercolor-like effect (like the cherry blossom print I have on Kreeya.com). There is something meditative about the processes I apply to each piece—the repetitive nature of the printing, the action of painting each shirt with dye—that I enjoy and that I think becomes imbued in the garment itself.  You will feel “at home” in my clothing.

K: Special and “at home”—sounds delightful! What inspires you to make these special clothes?

H: I’m most inspired by the connectedness of everything—the tangle of life and all its tentacles.

Also, finding drawing again in college by stumbling into an Etching class really brought me face-to-face with how important it is to keep art in my life. Suddenly I sensed my path shifting. The world of fine art printmaking continues to fascinate and inspire my work.

K: Describe for us the person you imagine wearing your clothes.

H: You are on your own path but like to be comfortable on the journey.

K: What is the most rewarding part about being a designer?

H: The most rewarding thing is to see someone out in the world wearing one of my designs. Someone likes it enough to put it on the morning! It is the highest compliment.

K: That must be an amazing feeling! What is your favorite piece you’ve designed?

H: Right now my favorite piece is a swingy top with a handpainted peacock on it. It is vibrant and has a movement and direction to it that is fresh.

K: And finally, what kind of designer do you want to be remembered as?

H: The one who made that shirt you wore everyday for a year.

Thanks, Helene! Readers, look for Culture Consumer fashions to be featured on www.kreeya.com starting today!