Gabriela's atelier

“Each piece has a feeling, a deed, a sensation…a smile” says Gabriela Horvat.

This latin based designer gives us proof that art and design can live in harmony and absolutely in love with each other. Her pieces are like tales of your childhood immersed in cocoons and silver. Gabriela lives in Buenos Aires, Argentina…and opened her first store in August this year. Her work comes from a very primitive, almost raw form, giving space to creativity and sensitivity of an artist. She expresses passion and as a storyteller she makes them objects of desire!

Gabriela Hovart’s designs can be purchased at B’aires.

photo’s credit: gabrielahorvat.com

Painter, sculptor, multimedia artist and producer. Alex Hornest started his career out of scratch and became a huge influence in the urban scene of Sao Paulo capital. Using discarded objects from the streets and the most unusual materials for his sculptures and paintings he transfigures all that to the screen, originating movies that captures people in the everyday chaos of the big city. Known for more than 15 years as “Onesto” his character that represents his artwork.

His new book is out this week called “Onesto“, gathering his many works and urban influences to this brilliant collection.

We all have our defining moments when one can no longer ignore the world’s larger problems.

Here we focus on fashion designers and artists who are trying other options in textiles and production.

Honestly, I’ve been trying myself to meld my artistic expression with the environmental , but as Philip Lim said “It’s not going to change overnight…but , at least I can try to reduce what I’ve done”.

So here are our picks on going green…designers from this Latin World choosing organics and recycled products.

Nº01

Tee from Mocuin, crafted from Hemp

Hemp – from the cannabis family, hemp can be used instead of cotton to make clothes. Hemp grows easily without heavy use of chemicals and is not as harsh on the soil as cotton. It needs less water than cotton to grow but it does take more energy to process and can involve chemicals. As it’s anti-bacterial, you don’t need to wash hemp clothes as often as cotton ones – better for the environment.

Nº02

Santaconstancia on eco-friendly textiles

This brazilian textile company launches the Take Urucum Care – fabric in bamboo fiber and dyed with “Urucum” .The urucum has long been used by natives to make body paint, especially for the lips, which is the origin of the plant’s nickname, lipstick tree. The inedible fruit is harvested for its seeds. Fashion Designers like Simone Nunes and Erika Ikezili presented their collections based on santaconstancia’s textiles.

Nº03

Argentinian designer Martin Corujo…el Verde

These lamps are made by designer Martín Corujo with recycled material. They are old lamps , re touched and new again … giving old thrown away products a new re incarnated life. Found in Buenos Aires at Puro Diseño fair. The fair is a Must-see in the argentine design world and brings emerging talents in design, arts and culture. It happens from March-April every year. So, if you’re around…run mi amigo! They have more than 200 exhibitions and around 37.000 visitors.

These are our picks for this month! Enjoy~

“Os Gemeos”, the Brazilian brothers whose murals and characters have become world famous in the so called street art world are planning on going BIG on a castle in Scotland.
“The twins” are from São Paulo, Brazil. They started to paint in 1987. They do a magazine, called Fiz, that reflects the graffiti and many other art forms from all the South American cities and their next step is put out a website for graffiti artists. They always paint together — the characters, background and letters. Sometimes, on some murals they divide the piece so that one completes what the other one starts. They materialize their thoughts and silence.

At first they were the same as the others, painting b-boys and generally staying close to the themes in hip hop culture. As time passed, naturally things changed. They never forgot the roots, but decided to go their own way.

Something that has been created with no intention of being sold will always be inspiring.