When I asked Tara Subkoff to name her favorite pieces from Imitation of Christ's new collection for OC, it wasn't like I'd asked her to pick her favorite child, it was like I'd asked her to list everything amazing that her children had ever done. Tara has more energy than five normal people put together and It's this kind of drive that means she's able to spend 72 hours hand-beading a dress, or painstakingly hand-stitching meters of lace trim.
In the second part of our interview (read up on the line's history in part one here), Tara toured me around her pieces, sharing stories about stumbling across seventeenth-century shawls in France, resurrecting discarded treasures from the 40s, and just how much work goes into it all.
Shop all Imitation of Christ here.
Alice Newell-Hanson: Let's talk about your favorite pieces!
Tara Subkoff: Yes, sure! Oh, this one I love [the sleeveless silk printed dress]! We really draped this on a form and handmade it to curve in just the right places; it is very much a couture piece, made from an antique Japanese textile.
AN-H: Where did you find the textile? In an antiques store?
TS: I found it in Paris, but not in a store. I have antique textile dealers and different people I go to but really, I don’t know where I find things! Sometimes I find things and keep them for a while.
AN-H: So was this fabric was something you’d had for a while and wanted to do use for OC?
TS: Yes, this is something that I'd had for a little bit. I love finding things in very random places—I can’t really tell you where! But I do love antique textile dealers, and I like finding things in flea markets and thrift stores. I kind of mix them all together. You can find incredible things in thrift stores, like the seventeenth-century piano shawl I found in a thrift store in France. And if you go out to the more rural parts of America—and I’m sure England—you can find incredible things. I’ll be spending a bit more time in England this year, so I’ll be on a search for sure. I also love Victorian and Edwardian pieces.
AN-H: Is that an era that you keep coming back to?
TS: Yes, but I really love the 20s, and the 30s were probably my favorite. I love the beading they used to do in the 20s and 30s. Everything was done by hand, but then everything that we do to the pieces is by hand too.
AN-H: How do you find people who can do that kind of work? You were saying people come in and out...
TS: It’s usually word-of-mouth, a friend of a friend, or somebody who is interested in hand-sewing or interested in learning. I’ve had partners, too. Usually it’s creative people or artists who are interested and then evolve onto something else.
AN-H: I’d love to hear more of the stories behind the pieces.
TS: Sure! This one [the sleeveless dress w/ruffled top] was from the Salvation Army and then we added a lot of this antique textile from an early nineteenth-century kimono—there's so much handwork and stitching, it really feels like a collage.
AN-H: So you find a dress, and then what's the next step?
TS: The next step, in a similar way to collage, is piecing things together in a way that works with the visual aesthetic I’ve always had for t
In the second part of our interview (read up on the line's history in part one here), Tara toured me around her pieces, sharing stories about stumbling across seventeenth-century shawls in France, resurrecting discarded treasures from the 40s, and just how much work goes into it all.
Shop all Imitation of Christ here.
Alice Newell-Hanson: Let's talk about your favorite pieces!
Tara Subkoff: Yes, sure! Oh, this one I love [the sleeveless silk printed dress]! We really draped this on a form and handmade it to curve in just the right places; it is very much a couture piece, made from an antique Japanese textile.
AN-H: Where did you find the textile? In an antiques store?
TS: I found it in Paris, but not in a store. I have antique textile dealers and different people I go to but really, I don’t know where I find things! Sometimes I find things and keep them for a while.
AN-H: So was this fabric was something you’d had for a while and wanted to do use for OC?
TS: Yes, this is something that I'd had for a little bit. I love finding things in very random places—I can’t really tell you where! But I do love antique textile dealers, and I like finding things in flea markets and thrift stores. I kind of mix them all together. You can find incredible things in thrift stores, like the seventeenth-century piano shawl I found in a thrift store in France. And if you go out to the more rural parts of America—and I’m sure England—you can find incredible things. I’ll be spending a bit more time in England this year, so I’ll be on a search for sure. I also love Victorian and Edwardian pieces.
AN-H: Is that an era that you keep coming back to?
TS: Yes, but I really love the 20s, and the 30s were probably my favorite. I love the beading they used to do in the 20s and 30s. Everything was done by hand, but then everything that we do to the pieces is by hand too.
AN-H: How do you find people who can do that kind of work? You were saying people come in and out...
TS: It’s usually word-of-mouth, a friend of a friend, or somebody who is interested in hand-sewing or interested in learning. I’ve had partners, too. Usually it’s creative people or artists who are interested and then evolve onto something else.
AN-H: I’d love to hear more of the stories behind the pieces.
TS: Sure! This one [the sleeveless dress w/ruffled top] was from the Salvation Army and then we added a lot of this antique textile from an early nineteenth-century kimono—there's so much handwork and stitching, it really feels like a collage.
AN-H: So you find a dress, and then what's the next step?
TS: The next step, in a similar way to collage, is piecing things together in a way that works with the visual aesthetic I’ve always had for t