Vert et Vogue | Anna Maria
/
With her great sense of humor, spirit, talent and creativity that one can only be born with, Anna Maria, a US based designer and owner of the fabulous label Rehcy Vonne, is in my opinion “notre créateur de l’haute couture moderne.” Striving for perfection with every single design, she creates pieces that are sophisticated, feminine and simply gorgeous. I am no fashion critic, but anyone who can design a classy garment while keeping it “green”, goes down in my books as talented.
She may just be an emerging eco-friendly designer today, but I know her name and label will be recognized and talked about in years to come. Paving her path to the top, she is on her way to joining the likes of Giorgio Armani, Valentino, Oscar deLa Renta. Check out my exclusive interview with Anna Maria, to learn more about her clothes and the driving force behind her talent.
Until next time, this is Kilse from Vert et Vogue bidding you adieu and Happy Shopping!
Hmm, guess, we’re going to start this interview on a serious note. Well in high school, I knew I wanted to start an empire, a fashion empire, and use the success of the company to help underprivileged children and victims of human trafficking in third world countries. I have always considered this my calling in life. The eco-friendly aspect is out of respect for the gift of Earth. That makes me sound majorly hippie, haha, but I do look at the world as a gift to and responsibility of humanity. Treating it as if it is trash just makes us seem spoiled.
How did
you come up with the name Rehcy Vonne (Very pretty name by the way)?
Thank you
very much! The name came to me super late one night, when I had been working on
creating the perfect name for the line. I was in a slight state of sleep
deprived delirium, which is when I normally get my greatest ideas, and it just
hit me. I had wanted a name that portrayed recycling but sounded elegant and
could also be a bit gender neutral. So the name ended up a combination of
recycling and my mother’s middle name, Yvonne.
What
are some of the eco-friendly factors you focus on and how do they affect your
design process?
Oh,
everything, fabrics, dyes, and even packaging and labels. This doesn't
necessarily affect the actual design process, as I can always find a fabric
that works for whatever I've designed; it more affects the manufacturing
process. As with eco fabrics, I find that finding the colors I desire sometimes
proves a little difficult, and I end up having to dye the fabric myself. This
adds extra steps to the manufacturing of a garment, especially if the design
has more than one color included.
Your
collection embodies pure high fashion; please tell me a little bit more about
it?
What a
compliment! High fashion is exactly what I started out wanting to create. A few
years ago, when the concept for Rehcy Vonne came to me, the only eco-friendly
clothing I could find were t-shirts and laid back kind of fashion. I wanted to
prove that you can be a high fashion girl and still live a green life. You do
not have to choose one or the other!
I was
blown away by your Sea Cargo dress and your one shoulder blue dress featured on
NYRunways. Love them….. Can you please tell me who you consider a target
audience when designing?
Thank you!
Really giving me a big head here. This question always makes me chuckle a bit
because I design for me! I want to be able to walk out of the house in the
morning and look freaking amazing without too much fuss. Just grab one of my
designs from the closet, throw it on with a vintage belt, and go conquer that
day. So my target audience would be people like me-- people that have a
constant desire to achieve their dreams and a yearning to make significant
changes in the world and the lives of others...and look fabulous while doing
it.
I think the biggest challenge right now would be the economic state of the world. Eco fabric and “made in the USA” ain’t cheap! This makes it difficult to compete with the clothing companies that get their garments manufactured in sweatshops and factories that are not the most reputable, as this allows them to sell at a much lower price. People want to buy and wear lines like Rehcy Vonne, but a lot of them currently just are not in the economic position that would allow them to do so.
What are
some of the attributes you hope your client will exude when wearing one of your
pieces, especially knowing that the piece they are wearing is a product of
green fashion?
Awesomeness,
of course! Confidence, determination, and a bit of their inner celebrity, as
well as, a satisfaction that looking fabulous in Rehcy Vonne enables them to
make a positive impact on our environment.
Oh, there are many. Let’s see, where to start? I’ll have to say, why Miss Scarlett O’hara, Angelina Jolie, Rumi Neely, women from the Victorian era, and Madams Mary-Kate and Ashley (these two for their eccentricity). I like women with a personal style that embodies both strength and beauty. Oh, and vampire slayers, naturally.
Each
designer usually has a motto or a set of rules they abide by when designing, do
you have one and if so what is it?
My motto is “Live
fast, live hard, and die young.” No, just kidding. My design motto would be
something along the lines of “design the awesome, and be legendary in life.”
The rule would be, if you can’t look at your design and think “Wow!” then throw
it away and start again. I’m not in the business of mediocrity.
My advice goes out to all emerging designers, with a warning to eco designers. Love every design you create. In truth though, if you are a perfectionist like me, you are probably going to end up hating about 60% of what you sketch, so don’t get discouraged by this, just keep tweaking and revising until you love the design, and then create something you can be proud of. Design for you, not for anyone else. Now a warning to Eco babes, sourcing eco-friendly fabric is a pain! But worth it
