A Conversation with Ivy and Domingo

Paris has been long known as the center of inspiration for so many creatives. Writers, movie producers, musicians and painters flocked to Paris, and still do, to tap into the endless fountain of creative inspiration. In the twenties, F. Scott Fitzerald, Ernest Hemingway and Gertrude Stein seemingly fled the United States for the City of Love to discover or rather unveil that layer of creativity that they felt America had robbed them of. In this century, not much has changed. I find myself fleeing my beautiful San Francisco and staying in Paris longer and longer each visit, because I can’t seem to get enough of the inspiration this city has to offer. It’s no different for me as it is for Ivy Chen and Domingo Cholula, both former fashion design students from the Academy of Art University. 

The three of us being from different walks of life, different states and different areas of study can all agree on this one point: Paris is more than generous in her offering of random and spontaneous yet appropriately timed moments of inspiration. Whether it’s a sculptural fountain, flowers in Park Monceau or lover’s names etched into the trees that line the Seine, Paris is still the hotspot for creatives to be illuminated by her arousing and intriguing nature. 

Even as I find myself in Paris for Fashion Week, I make it a priority to walk the streets everyday in silence and solitude trying to find that next idea that I know lies within my heart, or my mind. I’m able to disengage and become the observer that I’m not able to perform as in my own country. So engaged and overstimulated as well as pressured to set goals and perform, in Paris I’m able to trade roles. I wonder if the ex-pats of the twenties felt the same. You become the privileged artist who can learn rather than practice and assume the romantic role of the tortured creator who will die for his or her art. 

So what can these two designers and one journalist agree on? During our conversations that took place over a few fall days in Paris, we rejected the idea that the creative process has to follow one linear path. Through it all, you can’t put a singular definition on what’s the incorrect or correct way to transmute the idea of a dress or a coat into a 3-D product. Does it really matter how you take what’s inside your mind and how it gets onto the body? My conversation with Ivy and Domingo centers around this idea and begins at KB Coffee, a crowded cafe in Pigalle. 

Waiting, seated outside at a small table that’s one seat too short for my guests, I am searching for Domingo to arrive. I know already that it will be easy for me to spot him as he always seems to be dressed in black and white contemporary silhouettes. Today he is accompanied by his dog, a three-legged miniature greyhound, appropriately named “Valentino” and of course wearing a custom made leash and sweater to suit his handicap. I swiftly ordered an iced cold brew for myself and a hot chai latte for Domingo. Fashionably, ten minutes later we’re joined by Ivy and our conversation about inspiration, process and Studio Bercot commences. 

Both of you studied design at the Academy of Art University. Can you illuminate what that experience was like for you in terms of your formal design education? What did the Academy provide you with that is helping you now here in Paris at Studio Bercot? 

IVY: For me when I first got to the Academy, the first person that I came across was Gary Miller. Since then I have been talking to him on and off and as a student representative. That lasted for about four years because I started as a rep and then he was my instructor. I learned from him, his expectation is “professional.” And then I met Simon (Ungless), last year. He was the only person I felt like, ‘okay, he actually gets our work.’ He wouldn’t be looking at your homework or how you did it, but he mostly focused on your design. He is basically a person that inspires me and pushes me like crazy. 

DOMINGO: I actually started at the Academy in 2012, I started online. And then I ended up moving to San Francisco and focused on online as well as offline. I was working full-time and was taking unimportant classes like history, all of those things and even some drawing classes, but my first year I do remember it was Gary Miller. And back then Gary was very intense and intimidating because I knew that he was teaching the fourth years and he would always say, ‘in your fourth year you’ll be doing this and doing that.’ He also had high expectations…challenging, very challenging. Yeah, he was scary to me, I kind of nicknamed him “Scary Miller,” Just Scary Miller. He told me one time that I was very stubborn and I was like, ‘yeah, I’m an Aries.’

Domingo would later go on to take a five year hiatus from the Academy and when he returned, Gary Miller would again be his instructor. Anticipating the fear that accompanied the expectations from Gary proved to be useless because now Domingo realized that this time it would be different, he had matured. He and Gary understood each other a lot better with this growth and Domingo would really benefit from their conversations and Gary’s critiques. 

DOMINGO: He would give suggestions and go above and beyond and say, ‘you know you showed me this and it reminded me of this’ or ‘I like where you’re going’ or ‘this isn’t working, try this,’ or ‘push it further and show me later.’ It’s just the constant feedback and the constant critique, it was so rewarding.

Curious if the Academy of Art was more challenging than their current program at Studio Bercot, it was interesting to hear from Ivy and Domingo that the school is less structured but at the same time expects a lot from their students in terms of executing that process. Ironic? Yes. Confusing? At times. But Ivy and Domingo seem to have a strong self-concept and core belief in their work and vision that they aren’t jarred when it comes to receiving criticism from their instructors. Rather, they each take it in stride and stay committed to their ideas and personal processes. 

Criticisms focusing on the model as opposed to the work has come up for both design students, but they remain focused on what’s important: the design itself. Studying in a different city, let alone a different country, brings with it a set of expectations from that society. Essentially, a ‘this is how we do it in Paris,’ which only challenges Domingo and Ivy to solidify their own unique perspective in this new environment. 

DOMINGO: We’ve been taught at the Academy to draw on nine heads, the model is nine heads tall. Over here, they’ll say, ‘she’s not proportionate,’ or my drawings are too long or too tall. I’m not selling the woman, I’m selling the clothes. What we’ve always been taught is that the garments look better on a tall, skinny alien model but that this person doesn’t exist but it helps to sell the fantasy. 

IVY: For me it reminds me of the first and second year at the Academy. We focus more on the look, or the drawing style or how you style things or even the model’s makeup. I think they want us to catch up and then we move on from there. For me, the difference here at this school is that sometimes me and Domingo will hear someone say, “this is not America, this is France,” and we know that. That’s why we’re here, we’re learning this but we don’t have to make it into this, ‘we’re French, you’re American, we don’t do it this way,’ that’s why we exchanged here so you can appreciate what we do and we can appreciate what you do too. 

You’re here to not only exchange knowledge or design ideas but to exchange cultural ideas and perspectives that only you can offer from your unique point of view and backgrounds. 

IVY: Yes, exactly. I don’t necessarily like to hear, this is how we do this here.

What is the community of students like at Studio Bercot? 

DOMINGO: There are a couple of kids from Canada and China.

IVY: Yeah, some from China and some Japanese students, not in our class though.

Is it a collaborative or competitive collective of students?

IVY: It has a little bit of everything, but I noticed that there is a little bit of competition even with the French students, because sometimes they have the impression that we come from America and maybe that we graduated or they look at our Instagram and think we’re really good and maybe that’s why they don’t want to talk to us right away on the first day but later on they start to discover that we’re really easy going. 

DOMINGO: Yeah, I can tell sometimes there is slight intimidation in my case because during my five year hiatus I studied independently through YouTube and learning techniques on my own and from my own mistakes but also at Central St. Martin’s, took short courses and then came back to the Academy of Art a little bit more advanced. 

Design is such a complex process and there can be a lot that transpires from the birth of an idea or concept to the executed product, but what’s your favorite part of design?

DOMINGO: For me one of my favorite things is the design and the research aspect. Trying to find inspiration, and sometimes you’re stuck with it but then other times it just comes right away. Like you see it and you know it or you’ve had something circling your mind that you want to explore 

IVY: It’s very intuitive, it’s very spontaneous sometimes and that’s the beauty of design in general and even at school because you know they’ve had more experience, experience in the field and sometimes you have a moment where you’re like, ‘wow this is beautiful,’ you know? What I don't like is that sometimes people are too quick to judge, they don’t trust the process. We’re designers and we trust the process and even if something fails, just let it be. For inspiration I like to take walks in the park, look at the sculptures, and take pictures of them.

For both Ivy and Domingo, criticism is a part of finding that inspiration and a large part of the research process. They both agree that listening to their peer’s opinions and criticism from their instructors is beneficial even if at first they reject their ideas, they take them to heart and perhaps draw from it later on. Domingo credits this as having an “openness” to taking suggestions which is needless to say, crucial to have in this industry. The ability to communicate criticism is just as important and for Ivy and Domingo, they equally exercise their talent for receiving criticism just as much as giving it to their classmates. Whether it’s suggesting a different stitching technique or demonstrating on sewing machines, there’s something to be learned from receiving commentary as well as offering it. However, both Ivy and Domingo agree that this is a stark difference from the, “this is how we do it here,” attitude that some of their instructors predicate. 

Paris is a plethora of inspiration. Do you often draw on this city’s natural offering of inspiration or do you follow trending silhouettes and themes that are currently circulating the fashion industry? Essentially, where do you seek inspiration for your collections? 

DOMINGO: I don’t like to follow trends. For me music is a very emotional thing. One of my current projects right now is a felting project, and the inspiration just came to me as I was walking along the Seine, and the trees that are all carved with people’s initials and just knowing that there’s so many people that have become lovers, just makes me think, ‘wow we are in the city of love.’ I started exploring that on felt and wanted to make a coat. Sometimes things are stored, ideas are stored. I also have tons of photos that I’ve taken over the years and sometimes I’ll be reminded of that and refer to them and go from there. But music for me adds that emotional element to that as well but not necessarily translate the lyrics but the emotional aspect.

IVY: For me it’s similar. I’ll go out and about and if I see something I like in the moment, I’ll take pictures of it and not necessarily know what it’s going to be, but I like it and I’ll save it in my phone and it might be an inspiration later. I like to take pictures of flowers, flower arrangements for inspiration and place it in Photoshop and have fun with it. I think since my third year at the Academy, I stopped going on Pinterest and saving a bunch of pictures and calling that “inspiration.” 

DOMINGO: Right, you’re drawing on your own personal experiential inspiration. 

What designers do each of you admire or aspire to?

DOMINGO: Earlier Alexander McQueen. More for the daring and the bold aspects of his work. The beautiful romanticism within it. I also like simplicity, and vintage shapes so I take a lot of inspiration from Dior, the Dior silhouette. I love the nipped waist and the larger hips and then from that stems Mugler because it was very “Dior” but extreme with eroticism, sexuality and power. Now it’s also Schiaparelli with Daniel Roseberry where it’s bold but simple, elegant and playful. It has a lot of the same elements that I like. They play around with sexuality in a cheeky way but not an oversexualized way and my designs feature that as well. 

IVY: For me, I like Dries Van Noten. He loves flowers, and so do I. I love the way he lives, he’s very humble. As a person he’s very inspiring. As a designer I also like Glenn Martin for Y/Project, he’s very into deconstruction and he knows what the “street” loves. He adds fashion to it. My all time favorite is Balenciaga. Historical Balenciaga with the shapes, the fabric and the choice of colors. Nowadays, with Demna, he really knows what the younger generation likes and he communicates it to us. We love cyberculture and thrifting and he incorporates us into his designs. He really pushes us all to just go for it. It’s the way of fashion, we just have to go for it. 

As we conclude our conversation at KB Coffee we make further plans for me to come visit Studio Bercot and see their intimate workspace and view some of their current work and projects. On a sunny Thursday later that week I made my way to Studio Bercot, which is only a few minutes away from where we met in Pigalle. Walking up a few flights of stairs with Ivy, she is soon showing me her substantial pile of inspiration photos and Photoshop collages. I’m reminded of her love for flowers she previously mentioned and I’m impressed by her ability to pair contradicting patterns and textures to mold designs from chaos to surprisingly appropriate pairings. Domingo soon joins us and he’s showing me a dress that is practically complete except for a ribbon that needs to be just right in terms of width to cinch at the waist. Before I know it, he’s ushering me behind a makeshift room divider to try it on. I’m honored, and we make future plans to collaborate between stylist/art director and aspiring couture designer. 

My impressions of Studio Bercot is that it’s an intimate learning setting. Students are casually draping and sketching as they wait for their instructors to show up for their various courses on the troisieme etage. Ivy and Domingo show me where their classes take place and it seems to be general knowledge that there’s a certain lackadaisical discernment as to when class actually commences. I’m greeted pleasantly by curious students wondering who this random person is taking photos and trying on dresses, which counters the traditional notion that Parisians are withholding. I was thinking at this time about how peculiar it is that I’m here in Paris, living my dream or at least trying to and then to have connected with Ivy and Domingo as they do the same. Not only was it an opportunity to share their experience with readers back home, but to meet like minded creatives such as myself as well. 

We continue our conversation at a cafe around the corner from Studio Bercot, but this conversation has little to do with school, work or even fashion. Rather we’re joined by another student from Studio Bercot and explore topics like manifestation, dating in Paris and housing. It’s apparent that we share so much more in common than just fashion. Designers, they are just like us I guess. I conclude my time with Domingo at Kiliwatch, a thrift store that’s about ten minutes from Studio Bercot and I reconnect with both him and Ivy later on that week, two days before I leave Paris for a picnic in Park Monceau which was just a five minute walk from my apartment. This newfound comradery that I’ve found is funny in a way, to me at least. Here we are, three students who all studied at the Academy of Art University on Polk St. in San Francisco, yet we’ve only met here in Paris for the first time this week and are now enjoying red wine and a makeshift charcuterie board on a grassy knoll in the 17th arrondissement. It’s a testament to not only how random the universe can operate but to how fashion operates as well. As I said, we are three individuals, from three different walks of life but once again, without noticing at the time, Paris offers that spontaneous blip of inspiration, this time in the way of friendship.