An amazing opportunity, or should I call it Serendipity?
Sometimes the best things happen when you are less expecting and when you need them the most. Almost a year ago, out of the blue, I decided to reach out a favorite Instagram influencer. She is everything Gilt Design is about, Sustainable, Zero Waste, Conscious and Honest. I was not expecting a fast reply, and even less a “yes” to my proposal. But soon I got both and I couldn’t believe how well it turned out. Despite not being able to meet in person (we were meeting in Portugal, but her trip had to be cancelled due to new quarantine measures) working together was surprisingly easy. We navigate smoothly through distance, different backgrounds, deadlines, obstacles and all the craziness that comes with creating a collection. Now when I look back I am so grateful for the opportunity to “meet” and work with such a lovely person. She is beautiful inside and out, and I am just happy that I had the chance to share this adventure with her. The result of this collaboration with Chloé Kian is a capsule collection that is meant to fit in anyone’s closet and last many seasons. Due to the nature of my business, only small quantities are produced, but restock will happen if there is a demand.
Natural dyeing experiments
For quite some time I have been interested in natural dyes and how to transform what we usually consider waste in a new resource. In our kitchens we have so many possibilities, onions, turmeric, beans, cabbage, tea, coffee, and my favourite, avocados. There any many order possibilities when it comes to get beautiful and natural colours on our fabrics and yarns, and I plan to use more of it in the future.
Silk dyed with avocados
Christmas 2019 Capsule collection
For the Christmas 2019 we designed a small collection of black dresses, specially created for a Lisbon shop - ICON . This amazing shop specializes in the work of Portuguese designers from different areas, like jewellery, painting, ceramic, accessories and fashion. Each one of these dresses was made in the Berlin atelier using organic materials.
Hand pleated vegan silk dresses
Mixed material dresses, organic velvet and vegan silk.
Ribbed jersey and silk bamboo dress.
Decisions
Lately I have been feeling as if standing in a crossroad. Although Gilt Design is a fairly young brand, I came to a point where I have to rethink the way I have been working. Being a fashion designer, and specially having your own brand, is nothing short of exhausting. You have to be ready to deal with many obstacles, many “no”, many answered e-mails. You feel that you have something to show but no one is watching. You have to be able to deal with injustice and disappointments . All of this is worth it if you are true to yourself. And I wasn’t. Due to outside pressures and to what I thought others might expect from me, I started steering in the wrong direction and I ended up feeling lost. It was never meant for Gilt Design to be up to date with fashion week calendars, to deal with the pressure of producing a certain amount of new looks every season. That was not my initial intention, but I eded up doing exactly that, thinking that by doing so I would get the desired recognition of my work. Nonsense. I ended up far from what I wanted Gilt Design to be, and that feeling would eventually show through my work. Luckily is not too late to get things on track and turn Gilt Design in what I have always imagined.
6 September 2019
Gilt Design
Gilt Design- the story behind the name
The journey of having your own brand has many challenges, you will stumble on some right at the beginning, others will come along the way.
One of them was to chose the brand‘s name. It had to make sense, it had to be personal, it had to be easy, it had to be alluring, it had to give hints about the product…. It was just impossible. So at one point, I chose something really close to home, Gilt.
Mendes is an European surname, with its origins in Portugal and Spain. It means “son of Mendo” or “son of the sacrifice”. Mendes was initially Menedo, which is a abbreviation of Hermengildo, being that name composed by two words: Ermen, that means Whole and Gilt that means Sacrifice. Thus, Hermengildo means “total sacrifice”.
Sometimes you don’t need to search far for something meaningful.