Interview with Anna Maria La Blanca

Sometimes the story behind the designs can be as important as the beauty and uniqueness of the designs themselves.

When I was in New York this March me and a good friend of mine Brigitte were killing time at Henri Bendel waiting for another friend of ours. While we were strolling along the shelves without any purpose of actually buying anything we were stopped by a lady who offered us to try on one of her scarves. The lady's name was Anna Maria La Bianca and she happened to be a talented and well-known Italian designer who now lives in the USA and creates beautiful scarves that are worn by elegant and successful women from all around the world.  To cut a long story short I will say that we have spent more than an hour talking to Anna Maria and ended up buying two scarves for my friend. I can't remember if I had ever had a better shopping experience in my life. And I figured that it would be a big mistake not to share with your Anna Maria's stoty.  I will present it to you in Q&A format because I really want you to get the idea of her personality out of her own words.

Anna Maria and Brigitte

Me: Please, tell me a little bit about how you started your career as a designer. What was the turning point when you realized that you like creating beautiful lingerie and clothes for women?

Anna Maria:  Since my early age I have been passionate about Art and Design. I recall very vividly that at the age of 5  I was drawing silhouettes of little girls and their whole wardrobe in the background. I was dressing them from head to toe. At that time I had no idea what Fashion was or what career to pursue.  By the age of 11 I knew I wanted to be a fashion designer...which was just an utopia back at home, in Sicily, a never heard ambition.  But I was very determined and with the support of my wonderful parents I went to the School of the Arts and I graduated five years later with the Bachelor Degree in Fashion Design. As I said fashion at that time  was an utopia in Sicily so I fulfilled my need for creating Art architectural and interior and design (all my projects were actually built in Sicily)  and as a graphic designer I was creating logos and billboards and advertising campaign for companies. I also worked as a tailor making bespoke tailoring for elegant women.

Hovewer fashion was my passion and couldn't see myself working in this industry in Sicily so one day I decided to give it a try and come to the U.S. One week after my decision I was in Miami where after a long struggle I met the owners of Cosabella and started working with them.

My amazing friend Brigitte wearing one of Anna Maria's scarves

I learned a lot and grew passion for a whole new world: the lingerie. After many years of creating collections for well known brands as Calvin Klein, Victoria's Secret and some of the largest retailers in the US and abroad I decided to launch my own collection of high-end lingerie and swimwear, in 2009, in Paris. Along with my swimwear I designed the pareos to go with it. And one fortunate day I decided to turn them into silk scarves. I have been successfully selling my scarves at Henri Bendel since 2010 and now also in high end boutiques across the country as well as in Canada and Japan, all of which I design by hand and then print in the finest silks in Italy.


Me: This is truly inspiritng story how you can just have a go and succeed. But now you live in New York. So why did you make a decision to move from Miami and how did it help your career?

Anna Maria:  When I moved to Miami I realized that in terms of fashion this city was a good place to be for photo-shoots, models and PR people. I wanted to create fashion and felt like NYC was the best place for that.  So just as I decided to move from Italy to Miami one day I took the first airplane and dared to come to magical New York and the magic has never stopped ever since .

Me: What are your sources of inspiration? Are there any special travel destinations or some other things that inspire your creative process?

Anna Maria:  Mainly I am inspired by the gift of being a Woman.  I love beauty and love being a woman, so I design for us and take inspiration from us within, from the natural shapes of us - women. We are all so beautiful!  And of course I am so inspired by the passion, the colors and the smell of nature in Sicily - the island where I grew up. It is in my soul, indeed.

Me: You said you worked for Victoria's Secret? Can you tell a little bit more about your experience there?

Anna Maria: With pleasure. I launched in 2006 the "Very Sexy" label giving a "European vibe" of sexiness yet sophistication to the world of VS.  The styles were flying off the shelves. Working at VS was one the toughest experience in the lingerie industry but I certainly learned a lot.

Sorry for the blur, this is just to capture the moment.

Me:  What do you consider to be the biggest success in your career so far? Some achievement that you are the most proud of?

Anna Maria:  I believe that designing clothes is Art, I get lost in my designs and think about my scarves as the frames for the most beautiful painting ever created...the Woman, and so I do for my lingerie.  I feel that it's a learning process...you never arrive you just "feel it" and grow.  I have designed and launched collections for many prestigious designers and brands that have been very successful, for example, the "Black Label" collection for Calvin Klein worn by stunning actress Eva Mendez. But I am gratuful when my own brand was selected to be at three out of four trend forums in Paris. A team of international experts and icons in the fashion world as well as international press named me "the designer of the year" and a "trend setter"  for launching the trend of "Lingerie Inspired Swimwear" adopted across the globe.

Me: And now looking back at the beginning of your career what piece of advice would you give to young designers?

Anna Maria:  In many years of working in fashion I rarely saw true designers designing their mind out of their old loved pencil. I would love to see a return to that. I would love to see young designers "feel" fashion as it is meant to be: ART and not business.  Be yourself and love what you do, because in the toughest times your strength will come out from your believes and passion.

Me: I absolutely agree with everything you just said. I thing being yourself is very important especially in fashion industry when you can put so much of your personality in your creations!

Thank you Anna Maria!

P.S. You can follow Anna Maria La Bianca on facebook, twitter  and instagram to learn more about her designs.

What goes around comes around

I think I made my choice of the shape of this spring glasses
Round is new black

(source: http://louiseharford.tumblr.com/)

I choose to buy my own sunshine...

Due to the lack of sunshine in Moscow I decided to bring some back from New York. And I wrapped it in this little JCrew across body bag. So if I can't fight the wearther I'm buying it.

New York reflection

To be honest the last 15 months of my life have been really generous in terms of traveling. If you have been reading my blog for a while you have probably noticed that already. This travel itch started last January when I flew to Barcelona for the reunion with one of my closest exchange year friends from Switzerland. I don't know what they do there in Spain but starting from that trip my travel thirst has never stopped. The same week I went to Paris for the first time in my life. And as predicted I fell in love with the City of Light, promised to come back and I did later in July. In between two Paris trips I also had a deep love affair with New York. And it is still #1 on my list of the most amazing cities on Earth. Therefore I have already been there twice within the last 3 months.

Although my relationship with New York is mostly emotional I have been trying to find some kind of a logical explanation why I keep coming back. Why do I want to fly over the ocean for 9 hours, dive into a completely different time zone, speak foreign language and then suffer from a horrible jet lag after I return back to Moscow? Firstly, because friendship is worth going through all of the things mentioned above. And I definitely have some truly amazing friends in New York. And secondly New York is the only place where you can smell the freedom in the air. I don't mean political freedom. Let's not touch upon this often controversial topic. 

What I am talking about is freedom to be who you are, not to be ashamed of your desires and your career goals or even dress as you like. I feel that in New York people are less judgemental of your appearance than in majority of places I have been to. The way you dress should reflect who you are. And if you dress like a peacock maybe you are a little bit of a peacock inside and you just want to celebrate it. But uniquely new yorkers manage to express themselves with still a sense of style. 

On board of my flight from New York to Frankfurt I read an interesting article by Meike Winnemuth —journalist who won 500,000 euros in the german version of «Who wants to be a millionaire» and decided to spend it on a year trip around the world.  In her article she writes that: «Feeling at home the moment you arrive, as I did in New York, has a lot to do with knowing a place before you even get there — through hundreds of films and television series, from books and songs …<> And once you arrive in a city you know from afar, you become the star of your favorite film. It's intoxicating and surreal to recognize a place you've never actually seen, to feel intimately connected to something new. It's like being in love; like hearing the word Yes, but not knowing who uttered it».

I have to agree with every Meike's word. And what makes New York even more exciting is that everything that I know about it from movies and books is actually true and it proves so with my every new visit to the city. 

Brooklyn Flea: jewelry finds

I have written a lot about the Brooklyn Flea since my February trip to New York (read about the atmosphere here and my finds here). Now I decided to limit the words and maximize the amount of pictures. This time they will be all about vintage and hand-made jewelry that was for sale at the market. I know that a lot of people are half-hearted about the idea of wearing vintage (or simply "used") clothes. But I have never met anyone who was indifferent to vintage jewelry. 

Enjoy! 

I bought these clip-on earrings and can't wait for warm and sunny days to wear them.

Red riding hood

Life is so much about contrast. And it is exceptionally noticeable in Moscow. Just exit a luxurious hotel or a futuristic office building in downtown, turn around the corner and you will stumble across a ramshacle house that used to be some nobleman's residence back in the XIX century. 

It wouldn't be too posh to say that the essence of Moscow is this antithesis in everything: between rich and poor, great and mediocre minds that equally "inhabit" the city, between winter and summer temperatures and even between moscovites' insides and outsides. 

We often play with this antithesis effect in our outfits mixing dark and bright colors. And I believe that the most daring, passionate and even eccentric combination is red and black. In anticipation of spring which is running late this year it feels that these colors match perfectly for me.

See more hat looks from some of my favorite streetstyle photogrpahers here, here and here

Maria Obernina Photography

In November Maria, good friend of mine and the author of Maria Obernina Photography, offered me to have a photoshoot "en plein air" in the historic center of Moscow. I would say that the shoot was one of a kind experience and especially significant because afterwards the photos were used to make my blog theme.

Yesterday Maria shared a few more photos with me. And I feel like sharing them with you, guys, because I really think that Maria besides being good at catching beautiful facial expressions is also very talented in depicting the unique atmosphere of the moment.

Make sure to click "see more" in the bottom of this post to view the whole set.

 If you have a minute let's make this girl feel a little more special and like her new official facebook page.  Trust me, she will be happy to have more people see her photographs.