It certainly is strange to open up a newspaper and find a photo of La Carmina staring back. Fortunately, it isn't a mugshot. Today's Vancouver Sun has a front-page Arts & Life profile about my fashion line and upcoming books, Cooking Cute and Tokyo Theme Restaurants. As you can see, I wore a gigantic tower-of-flowers Gothic Rococo hat for your amusement. You can read the article here; below are some quotes. The story is accompanied by a video, which you can view here. Intrigued about my work? Clickity click on lacarmina.com for more.
"I'm just so enthusiastic and passionate about these ideas. I guess that when publishers looked at it they could pick up on that, too. Ask me to write about the history of automobiles and I just couldn't do it, even if you were paying me a million dollars."
"I'm a creature of the night," she says, "and I like to sleep in; ideally it would be 1 or 2pm but I don't usually allow myself to sleep in that late."
"I love the interplay between things that are frivolous and serious. For example, the Rococo era was considered very frivolous but I think there is a lot that can be learned from that. Now that kawaii is getting more popular in the west I think that it reveals a lot about Japanese culture and the reasons why it became popular here [the whole Hello Kitty phenomenon]. I think down the line we'll be reading a scholarly text on kawaii."
"People who knew me growing up knew me as the goth kid, always the one that loved underground culture into strange music from the 60s - it's just me. I consider myself an esthete; there were those people like Oscar Wilde and those in the Victorian era such as the dandys who were very flamboyant and out there, but at the same time they are joking behind the façade - they know it's a façade, they play around with it, and not taking themselves too serious."
"I loved the training [of law] and I really think it made me really focus and work smart," she opines, "but I'm not passionate about the law the way I'm passionate about fashion, about writing, about the creative world."
"To quote a fellow bootstrapper, 'I work for no man,'" she tells me. "Since both book deals came through, I'll have enough to work on (and live on) for the next while. The creative and entrepreneurial paths are always perilous, but I thrive on the thrill and risk, the sense of self-determination... I certainly wouldn't trade them for a comfy corporate office."
World knocking on Vancouver blogger's door
Published: Saturday, August 30, 2008
Interview by Lucy Hyslop
Photos by Jenelle Schneider
