Guest Blogger: The Artist Behind Zazou

Put your hands together and welcome the second official Scarf Soup Guest Blogger: Zazou Designer Christopher Carroll!

Let's start with the few photos I have of Chris. I'll give each a little title.

"iPhone Face"

"Chris Desk Avalanche"

"Avoiding Vickie at a Photo Shoot"

"Official Web Site Shot Chris Was Forced To Do"

I asked Chris - a UC Berkeley alum, published author, prolific painter and chief designer at Zazou for 30 years - to expound on art and inspiration.

(That's a grandiose way to say I hounded him for two weeks to write something for the blog.)

Covertly, I wanted the opportunity to use all my failed photos and divulge the desk avalanche (it makes a dramatic noise I eagerly anticipate).

But I also sincerely wanted someone to address the artistic vision and craftsmanship that lives in every Zazou scarf. Preferably someone who really knows art and fashion.

Someone unlike myself.

Chris is the kind of person who talks about Matisse and Picasso like they were old drinking buddies. But not in the way that makes you think he's showing off. Not to "out-art" anyone. In fact, I'd say he's probably studied more about art and fashion for the sheer pleasure of it than anyone I know.

Like, he still subscribes to W Magazine.

Chris designs all of the Zazou prints by hand - by painting them, using cut paper, sketching and using really intricate collage techniques. Over the years, Zazou has done scarves ranging from Geishas on Mt. Fuji to Fifi, the pink poodle. As each season approaches, I can't wait to see what he'll come up with next.

But as you can tell from photos, Chris is not a self-promoter. So allow me:

Ladies and gentlemen, Chris Carroll!

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PRINTS

by Christopher Carroll

Prints and patterns define an era every bit as much as fashion does. It's fascinating that you can almost name the year when you see some particular polka dot or floral. We seem to have an uncanny knowledge of what print is in style and what is definitely not in style.

Zazou has been doing prints from the very beginning and we've seen a lot of things come and go - and come and go again. Each Zazou design is an original and drawn or painted by hand, even if it is heavily influenced by a particular period.

photos by Lena Carroll

Zazou does a lot of designs for museums and has been drawn to the work of many artists and periods. Toulouse-Lautrec has been in our line on many occasions and seems forever in style.

Le Moulin Rouge

We've also done a lot of Egyptian things - with these we really want them to be authentic as well as beautiful. This means keeping them true to the period without doggedly reproducing images.

Goddess Isis

Over the years we have been inspired by Botticelli, the Impressionists, the Ballet Russe, Fortuny as well as many others.

Palazzo

With florals we are always inspired by real flowers. We like to keep them botanically correct as well as beautiful. Florals can be saccharine and we avoid this by using bold shapes and strong backgrounds.

Orchid

Each season seems to have a flower - sometimes the trend forecasters can give a clue what it should be, but something always bubbles up anyway.

However, year in and year out the rose continues.

Rose

Then there's the entire ethnic influence. This again changes every season.

Crete

It is very interesting what captures our eye from other cultures -- or for that matter, who is influencing whom.

I just heard a true story that Matisse stopped at a little shop on his way to Gertrude Stein's apartment in Paris and bought her a little African statue. Who should be there when he arrived but Picasso.

source

The history of art took a new turn.

We have seen the wonderful influence of Japan and China, and lately African, motifs come into prominence - so decorative, strong and always the hand of the artists clearly in evidence.

Afrique

Tribal influences are the trend to follow the next few seasons.

Native Silk - available Fall 11

We seem to go through patterns like shoe styles. But there is always something which says, "this is new" and "this is great."

Whatever the trend of the moment, when we find ourselves at some event, we love to see Zazou - and we usually do.

And we like to think Zazou is helping to define the look of our time.

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Thanks Chris! I will show my gratitude by ending on some great pictures - ones showing what I think Chris is really all about.

Walking the museums of San Francisco

Climbing the steps to his studio

Designing more scarves, I hope.

Cosby sweaters, fish on bicycles and crochet

I went to a all-women, liberal arts college and I remember seeing this bumper sticker everywhere.



New to college, I was filled with a self-righteous, warm glow.

"Yeah," I thought, nodding. "Because that fish doesn't need a bicycle." I looked around for any available man in the area, hoping I could point at the bumper sticker and raise a knowing eyebrow. Maybe snicker at his expense. A man on a bicycle would have been ideal.

I was going through quite the mean phase.

But as I got older, whenever I saw this bumper sticker I was just filled with questions.

Like, why was that fish on land anyway? And maybe he (she?) had a job far away from home and couldn't afford a car? Or was concerned about a carbon footprint?

Maybe that particular fish just liked to ride bikes.


Anyway, I learned a valuable lesson from that bumper sticker, which is don't assume you've come up with a clever simile unless you've asked some hard questions.

Which got me to thinking about summer and scarves. And then Bill Cosby.

But one thing at a time.

Chris, Zazou's designer and resident fashion enthusiast, is an avid reader of style.com. He's always alerting me when they announce the "return" of something.

Like the return of the turban. The return of velvet. The return of everything - as anybody knows, fashion is cyclical. And reporting about fashion is slightly more cyclical in that you have to be a few months ahead to announce that something is returning so ensure that it indeed returns.

This month, style.com announced that summer crochets are back!

Crochet! magazine will be so pleased.

When you think about it, crochets are perfect for summer because they have all those little holes through which your sunkissed skin can breathe. It reminded me of one of Zazou's coolest scarves of the moment, the Metallica.

No, not that Metallica.


This one.



It's a crocheted piece with tiny, silver lurex threads running through it. It's airy, it's bright - it would look GREAT over a simple white tank top this summer - and it's ON TREND! Thanks, style.com for noticing!

(And it can be yours in citron, gun metal or wild rose for $25 at Zazou's online store.)

But how does Bill Cosby play into all this?


While Chris was using his allotted 15-minute morning break (no more, no less) to browse style.com, I was taking mine and discovering this new blog called The Cosby Sweater Project.

It's exactly what it sounds like: a rundown of sweaters seen in episodes of The Cosby Show. The author is an artist and next to each screen shot capturing a Huxtable in a sweater is a drawing of that sweater's pattern.

Somehow the style.com crochet piece and this odd but delightful blog on pop-culture sweaters collided in my mind and resulted in something beautiful.


This blog post.

I don't really know how the fish on the bicycle got in here. That was very random.

Zazou - the movie

I had to share this amazing video taken at our photo shoot for Fall 11. It was made by our fabulous photographer Rico Schwartzberg. You can learn more about Rico here.

The model is Jennifer Beaty. My favorite thing about her is when she breaks into spontaneous, flirty laughter.

Like, I really believe it's just for me. Because maybe I delighted her on set with a witty observation or surprisingly good dirty joke.

It could happen.

After all, I did get her to strike this pose with an interestingly placed clothes clamp.

She's in my good book now.

Guest blog alert!

My first guest blog goes to (open envelope, taking way too long of a pause)... Claudia Koch!

Claudia Koch, owner of Zazou, fashion original, drinker of ouzo.

Claudia Koch, half of the Zazou design team of Chris & Claudia.

I've known Claudia since I was a wee sprite of 23 (14 years ago - don't do the math). I started working for her as a data entry girl, went off to live my life as a journalist and came back a year ago to this crazy world of accessories.

But Claudia's no newbie like me - she's been in the apparel game for almost 30 years. And twice every one of those years, she and Chris design a whole new collection (that's 60 collections - I did the math for you).

I've always been fascinated with their consistent originality -- combining the designs Chris draws and paints with the knits and woven pieces Claudia sources on her many trips overseas. And their colors always seem to be so spot-on.

Turns out they've had a trick up their sleeves.

So without further ado, I give you Claudia Koch with her inside take on color in fashion.

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COLOR INSPIRATION

By Claudia Koch

Who decides what colors are “on trend"? The answer is not simple.

I have asked many people over the years and my favorite response was from my eccentric friend Monique, the quintessential Parisian. She swears that the flowers planted in the Luxembourg gardens in Paris are the best indicators of what will be hot the next season.

Jardin de Luxembourg, Paris

As good an answer as any, really. Although I’ve yet to see a warm grey flower…

For years at Zazou we went our own way, to howls of protests from our sales people. We did what we found beautiful and there was a time when it worked for us, but an accessories company needs to follow fashion, for the sake of the look of the stores.

We used different projection services, but of course, ultimately the customers decide if they really don’t want to wear the “color of the year” after all.

There are tears (and unsold merchandise).

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NOT a good look...

In the last few years we have used Peclers, the Parisian fashion projection service founded by Dominique Peclers in 1970. We love their books and have found a lot of interesting colors and ideas in their presentations.

We fell in love with a Persian miniature painting in one of their forecast books and constantly referred to it while working on our Fall 09 collection. The accent colors, the details -- it was all perfect. That was one of our most beautifully colored collections we ever produced.

We were hooked.

source

At the Mogul Court inspires:

Gold Foil Velvet, $68, (found here)

Why? Why not? In the end we found our collections worked better. And the customers liked how they looked in their stores.

Color, like everything in fashion, is influenced by so many things in culture. Movies, nature, art exhibits or just the feeling of the new. Some of the trends are organic, like the wonderful season of the fruit colors - lemons, limes, oranges - but change is the name of the game.

The fruit colors of the 90's inspired:

Orchid, $25, (found here)

When Zazou was first working in Paris I was told very firmly that French women did not wear plum, ever. A couple of years later plum burst upon the Parisian scene and was greeted like a new discovery.

If it’s REALLY out, it might soon be in…

Bamboo Rib Muffler, $60 (found here) and Bamboo Fingerless Gloves, $30 (found here)

The fashion world has come a long way from matching shoes and handbags but there is no question that some colors compliment each other and some drag each other down.

But the world of fashion should be fun. It should be provocative and it shouldn’t follow rules. But of course many of us urbanites play it safe by wearing black which isn’t, strictly speaking, a color at all.

We live in a world of color and most of it is delicious. Bite into it!

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Thank you for that, Claudia!

I, for one, am very fond of plum.

As you all know.

Drum roll (bum, bum, bum) - Fall Preview!

Now I know it's April and the sun is peeking out and everyone is thinking about squeezing into a swimsuit soon.

But I present you this:

We call it style 6402 Leon Loop and it's one of my favorites for Fall 2011. It's a circle scarf with a whole bunch of side fringe. Kind of like a lion's mane, don't you think? (Hint: lion in Spanish is leon. It has an accent over the 'o' that I don't know how to add - but imagine it there.)

Yes, I'm talking about things not available until next Fall - you know, the time you're once again ready to bury yourself in layers and let the body hair resume its growth.

source

Why am I talking about Fall in April?

Because fashion time is different than regular-people time. Spring is Fall and Fall is Spring.

Got it?

Fabulous darling.

(only "fabulous" shot I could find of myself - yes, I may have had a cocktail and borrowed someone else's hat and took a ridiculous picture of myself with my phone - AND sorry you might be able to see up my nose.)

But really, at Zazou - like any other fashion house - by the time we finish designing Spring over Christmas, we start thinking about designing Fall in February.

So here I am with all this new fabulous Fall stuff to brag about and an audience who just wants to throw on some flip flops and barbecue an oyster.

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(Not that any of these gentlemen would be interested in scarves anyway.)

But this is an opportunity for you to be ahead of the game. While all those other fools are out there putting endless tank top/shorts combos together, you will be planning your accessories attack for Fall.

And let me tell you, Fall at Zazou is looking good!

Style 6419 Popcorn knit in peacock blue

This blue is new. Did you know they're always coming up with new blues? And greens, reds, oranges - you name it. The "they" being Peclers Paris. If you don't know who they are, I will explain more in another post, but in short they are THE style forecasters who decide what colors are the good colors for each season and they are SO GOOD that you have to pay them for their super cool Peclers Paris color book.

Which Zazou does, by the way. See?

The authenticity of this photo actually coming from our office is proven by my inferior iPhone photo. (See how it says "couleurs"? Those French are crazy for extraneous vowels.)

Back to Fall.

Style 6418 Lattice Knit in green. (This green is also a Peclers couleur... a deep grassy hue they somehow know you want before you do.)

And outside the knit family:

Style 6400 Tradewinds Gauze in paprika.

Now as the copy writer at Zazou, I'll give you a little inside story about this Tradewinds Gauze piece. First of all, it's got so much going on but the mixed- up effect adds up to cool. Can you imagine describing to someone: "well, it's a scarf, it's textured, it's kind of gauzy - plus it's got dip-dyed ends and these nubby circles that run into knotted fringe. And the whole thing is a bit deconstructed."

Huh?

So when trying to name this scarf, we kept referencing Mad Max - Beyond Thunderdome.

It sort of has that tattered, end-of-civilization kind of appeal. So I wanted to call it Apocalyto. As in:

The Apocalypto Gauze

in paprika, tarragon and grey lavender

So breathtaking you will think it's the end of the world!

That idea yielded a resounding "no!" Though I did squeeze in the name Metallica last season under everyone's nose.

Style 1113 Metallica in citron, which turned out to be a best seller. (Watch for two more colors: violet and golden sand...)

And we had a few other tricks up our sleeves:

Style G110 Blossoms Fingerless glove in grey. Also comes in black, red, purple.

Style HB109 Blossoms Headband in grey. Also comes in black, red, purple. (I tried this on and FELL IN LOVE. It is so flattering. I'll get a picture of myself in it asap. It will be much more glamorous than the drunken hat picture, promise.)

But check this out.

We did the same shape in black with just a few sequins - style HB10 Sequins Headband.

We left off the flowers because, as our designer Chris said, that would be "gilding the lily." (And now I can't stop saying "gilding the lily" - it's addictive.)

Anyway, the effect is sooo chic. I can't wait to throw on a little flapper-inspired dress and this headband and sit in a smoky night club in SF, feeling ultra-sultry and slightly mysterious.

So that's about all I'm willing to tell you at this juncture.

Except that all of these pieces are better than any summer clothes because they don't care if you have cellulite.

That's because we love you.

Even so, I think this piece would look great with a bikini.

Style H106 Snowball Hat in bone.

In fact, I'm wearing the same hat in grey with a bikini in this photo (underneath my clothes.)

Can you tell?