knight cat: May 2009

5/28/09

no.magazine6

no. magazine
zippora seven
photography karen inderbitzen-waller
fashion ed- zara mirkin
tfs

summerschool

shirt-lover
shorts-lover
blazer- erin wasson x rvca
wedges- cynthia vincent

mackenzie and rachel are the owners of a really sick jewellery line called littersf, and they were sweet enough to take the time to answer a few questions. thank you!

1. for those who don't know, can you explain what LITTER is?

LITTER is a creative house out of San Francisco where my sister Mackenzie and I make jewelry, accessories, and clothing for men and women. Most everything we make comes from deconstructing old costume jewelry, belts, vintage chains, and then we rework them into new pieces. We love taking the age old idea of jewelry and giving it new life and new places on the body to wear it.

We started it officially in January 09 and have been enjoying the ride...

2)where did you get the idea of making chained shoulder pieces?

Mackenzie and I have a studio space that we work out of in SF. There is this table in the middle of the room with a mountain (not even kidding, a MOUNTAIN) of chains and trinkets piled high. We just pull from the table and let the creativity take shape on its own. One day Mackenzie just put some chain over her shoulder because she was going to make something to go over the back, and ended up with the idea to strap the chains to the shoulder using a stretchy vintage watch band. Now, we make them in all different styles, and have found that you can wear the shoulder pieces on a bare arm, or even over your clothing if you want.

3.) if littersf was to be a designer/fashion label what would it be?

I guess we never thought about that. We really like the idea of building our own brand with ideas that are new and haven't been done before. There are plenty of designers we love to death, and get inspiration from, but overall we are hoping to see LITTER become a strong name in the fashion world all on its own.

4.) where do you get the inspiration for your jewelry?

Most of the time it starts at the flea markets or thrift shops where we find the chains and belts, etc. If we find something amazing, the wheels in our heads immediately start turning. We can't wait to get back into the studio and start designing with it. We use the body form to drape and we use each other as models, and just start mixing and matching with what we have.

5.)have you always been interested in making jewelry?

Our Grandma was a jewelry designer, so when we were kids we would go into her studio and make stuff out of beads and such, but that was the extent of it. It wasn't until 15 years later that we came to start LITTER and showed any real interest in jewelry making. In fact, we never really even wore jewelry because there wasn't anything that ever really caught our eye.

6.) aside from litter sf what else consumes your time?

We love to travel, and have really decided now that we've started LITTER we want to do it more. I think we would get so much inspiration from other parts of the world, and I am sure we could find some amazing new materials to work with. As far as consuming our time, we love animals, and have had our apartment compared to a farm before! We have 2 huge dogs and 2 cats!

7.) have you thought of introducing your jewelery to devendra banhart?

Of course we have! He's so dreamy to us! We love his music and his look. We have had some close opportunities to get the jewelry in his hands, but they didn't come to be. Stay tuned for that.....

finally, random fact about you/littersf

Hahaha. OK, here's a good one: Our Step Dad was one of the founders of Crocs (the ugly shoes, yes) Its not like we were ever huge die hard fans of Crocs, but we have taken a lot of good out of seeing it become what it is today. Crocs was something new and something people hadn't seen before, and in turn it became a huge success. That has been a really motivating story for us, because we feel like we are trying to do something new as well. Some love us and some hate us, but it might just be the ones who love us that help make LITTER into a brand that people recognize.