In this ongoing story series, we are talking to designers and brand founders about their designs and companies: how they began, what inspires them, process and artisanship, sourcing of materials and more.
Dusen Dusen
Ellen Van Dusen launched her brand Dusen Dusen in 2010 with a line of womenswear, and in 2015 she expanded with the introduction of towels, a bathrobe, a tissue box and a trash bin. The designs are characterized by vibrant colors and stripes, inspired by fine art and Van Dusen’s research into how our brains react to color.
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Haricot Vert
Headquartered in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, Haricot Vert was founded by designer Kelsey Armstrong, where she and her team handcraft their collage-inspired jewelry. It all began when Armstrong took a mixed media and collage class at university in France, where she became fascinated with Robert Rauschenberg and the medium’s accessible form. A few years later, that fascination persisted as Armstrong moved from France to New York and decided to start experimenting with collage as a form of jewelry-making.
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Jag Nagra
Jag Nagra is a queer visual artist who is passionate about ending the stigma against LGBTQ+ people within the South Asian community. She focuses her art practice on concepts that depict a sense of confidence and fearlessness.
Jag Nagra Phulkari Watch
Joidart
Joidart began in 1981 when founder Jaume Julià converted a small gold and silversmith’s workshop in a rural village near Costa Brava, Spain into a contemporary jewelry brand. Their jewelry channels the spirit and culture of the Mediterranean, with designs inspired by Joan Miró, Antoni Gaudí and Salvador Dalí.
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Morgan Cros
Parisian native Morgan Cros founded Original Duckhead in London in 2012. Struck by the amount of rain in London, she vowed to revolutionize the umbrella industry. Through her research, Cros discovered that over 1 billion umbrellas are discarded globally each year. To combat this, the brand developed eco-friendly umbrellas made from recycled plastic.
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Panisa Khunprasert
Hailing from Bangkok, Thailand, Panisa studied industrial design at Chulalongkorn University. Her design aesthetic has been influenced by growing up in her family’s toy business. She later moved to NYC and graduated with an MFA in The School of Visual Art’s Products of Design program, where she collaborated with MoMA on designs and continues to design products for our store today.
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Paulin Watches
Founded in Glasgow in 2013 by three sisters and now part of anOrdain, Paulin makes high-quality, design-led watches inspired by art and architecture. With every element transparently sourced and carefully crafted, each watch is a joyful celebration of color, collaboration and innovation.
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Style Jieum
This Korea-based studio was founded by Soojeong Shin and Jiseon Park, two designers who majored in floral design, landscaping and interior design. For Style Jieum, Shin and Park create designs that allow people to coexist with flowers and plants on a daily basis. “Korea is a beautiful country with four seasons,” Shin notes. “We choose the materials for each of our designs based on how we want to cherish these changing seasons.”
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Takao Inoue
Born in 1970 in Fukuoka, Japan, Takao Inoue was involved in the fields of cinema and advertising in the 1990s. In the 2000s, he embarked on his career as an artist and began his series of embedding dandelions inside of acrylic.
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Verloop
Founded by Ella Lim, Verloop (Dutch for “process”) is known for utilizing deadstock material and challenging themselves to make something new out of fabric remnants, instead of sending them to landfills. The brand uses its expertise to turn deadstock yarn into quality, colorful knits. All of their products are made in a family-owned factory in the Philippines, where design and production all happen under one roof. The factory is run by Ella’s mom and has been producing knits for international brands since the 1980s.
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Wooj
Sean Kim is the founder of the Brooklyn-based company Wooj. The brand utilizes a combination of robotics and craft manufacturing techniques to create products at a low cost without exploitative labor. Kim loves 3D printing because it empowers ideas to become physical products in a matter of hours instead of weeks, and eliminates the need for mass production for factories. His Wavy Lamp has become a social media hit.
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YAM
Based in Queens, NY, Yam is a handmade jewelry brand founded by designer Morgan Thomas. This Black-owned, women-operated brand produces designs that combine deadstock materials with vintage silhouettes.
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