2016 AICA-SF Portfolio: Chromat Magazine

Magazine Fall 2015

BEYONCE

TableauxVivants

Finding my niche within the fashion industry was my ultimate goal while pursuing my Bachelors. It was in my senior year which I found my passion toward Editorial Design growing. Developing my personal brand I chose five key terms which I associated with and have implemented their characteristics in all the creative projects I produce. I have a fascination for the vanishing art of Luxury and Avant Garde print mediums which include: look books, coffee table books and high fashion periodicals.

An eye for Editorial Layout Design was the basis for the trio compilation for Chromat. Aligning personal aesthetic, with Chromat’s post contemporary vision, was the fuel to producing the magazine, look book and catalog. Utilizing self-taught skills in graphic design assisted in creating this visually compelling package which speaks volumes for the passion I have towards creativity, stimulation, Editorial Design and Fashion Marketing.

Passion for your craft brings forth results that often exceed expectations. Choosing to spotlight NYC’s own fashion brand: Chromat, I created three faux promotional materials Chromat could potentially

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use to boost its brand recognition and awareness.

Creating a branded magazine with an inserted look book, along with a full product assortment catalog, takes the audience on a visually stimulating ride through the world of fashion, celebrity culture and parties - which is typically what society generally cares to consume.

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BECCA MCCHAREN

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If you didn’t catch the flawless human being known as The Queen Beyonce’s 2014 VMAs performance, you are dead to us. But if you did and wanted to know more about those alluring face cages that her backup dancers were sporting during her rendition of “Haunted,” you’ve definitely come to the right place. (Side note: Facial gear for backup dancers is most definitely having a moment, right? See also: the mesh facemasks during Iggy Azalea and Rita Ora’s “Black Widow” performance.)

Beyonce’s dancers were all sporting custom bustiers, sleeves, and face cages created by NYC’s Brooklyn-based brand Chromat. If the name sounds familiar, it should because Becca McCharen, founder and designer of Chromat has previously worked with Beyonce for the “On the Run” tour as well as her show-stopping 2013 Super Bowl performance.

As we learn from Opening Ceremony’s interview, Becca and team only had four hours to produce these pieces. “We got the call at 5 PM this Friday afternoon,” she told OC. “We had four hours to make he masks before we overnighted them to L.A.” Four hours sounds like a crazy short amount of time to produce looks for six dancers for such a high-profile performance, but when Beyonce calls, you answer. And you quickly get it done. If the thought of wearing bondage-inspired gear seems to be counterproductive to dancing naturally or Beyonce’s empowerment as a life statement set, consider looking at this other interview given by McCharen to Opening Ceremony in an August 2014 well poised questionnaire to discuss the collaboration with Queen Beyonce and the unstoppable Chromat brand:

”

I’m all about the women’s liberation along with the fact that women can choose what they wear rather than it being dictated [to them] by a fashion or trends. I guess it’s just getting a grasp of that power & taking it for yourself, that is what Chromat is all about. If you want to wear a corset, then why not, but remember, you never need society telling you to wear some corset or crazy bra. It is giving women that extra boost of empowerment.”

- Becca McCharen

Founder @ CHROMAT

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McCharen’s statement is definitely on-brand with Beyonce’s vision of female empowerment. In fact, the re-clamation of constrictive body architecture like corsets is parallel with what our feminist foremothers have been doing for years. The latest generation of third wave feminists already have taken terms previously used to disparage women and turned them up on their heads, creating SlutWalks around the world in order to create a safe haven for women also challenging those preconceived notions about rape. Beyonce’s repossession of the constricting symbol becomes even more of a powerful symbol considering her Michael Jackson Video Vanguard performance: beauty, feminism, relationships, and motherhood.

NYC’s fashion powerhouse: CHROMAT, designed those captivating Android Arms, retailing at around $513, along with the Pentagram Full Facemask - $149.

The future has now become the trend...

Shop at: Chromat.co.

http://www.mtv.com/news/1913074/beyonce-vma-performance-mask-chromat/

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When the superstar singer searched for an outfit for the 2013 Super Bowl, her styling team hustled to find the right designers. One of them was Chromat. The architecture-inspired brand of lingerie and womenswear is based in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, a far cry from the Superdome in New Orleans. Sharp and seductive, the bold line was created by Becca McCharen, 30, a pink-haired artist from Virginia.

She tells her Beyoncé story with relish in an interview with Mashable, getting an order request just three days before the big show “I just called in all my friends, old interns that no longer work with us, like, everybody,” she recalls with a laugh. “Everyone was cutting, sewing.”

Chromat has lived through a lot of snowball moments like this. They outfitted Beyonce’s dancers for the 2014 MTV Video Music Awards and worked with other stars, such as Nicki Minaj, Madonna, FKA Twigs and more. Musicians are an inspiration sweet spot. The Chromat studio has two photo pages called “Muses.” Grace Jones, Rihanna, Pussy Riot and MIA share a space with Tilda Swinton, Rooney Mara and models such as Cara Delevingne. “That’s the people we’re drawn to, because they display that boldness and that strength,” McCharen says. “That’s the personality of a performer someone who’s just putting themselves out there and doesn’t give a f**k.”

“Chromat” is Greek for “color,” it’s a little cheeky misnomer considering most of Chromat’s designs are black and white. The brand was started almost by accident.

After studying architecture at the University of Virginia, McCharen worked in the field for a few years, designing clothes on the side “for friends and family.” One of her friends, a designer, opened a pop-up shop and had asked McCharen to contribute a few pieces. The pop-up shop became a full-time retail space, called International Playground. Chromat took off. Becca McCharen’s architectural background continues to run strongly throughout the Chromat brand. It’s all about sharp lines, cagey tops and body hugging underwear-as-outerwear. It also takes inspiration from tech. One of Chromat’s last collec-tions had LED pieces, inspired by a website called Tweetping.

The site tracks tweets happening all over the world in real time. Tweets light up in bright blue on a dark navy background, which inspired McCharen to create dark, velvet pieces with battery-powered LED lights. Last season, for the spring 2015 collection, she also delved into 3D-printed clothing for the first time. She pulls out an example, a tiny black bra cup. She demonstrates its fit but admits that 3D printed clothes have a serious downside. “I feel like 3D-printing is not quite comfortable, not quite wearable really,” she laments. “It’s still made of hard plastics.” In the future, she hopes to work with it more, as the technology around 3D wearables expands.

Chromat’s big league attention and mainstream integration is in full swing. Last May, the company introduced a swimwear collection, BOND, sold at Urban Outfitters. This year, McCharen landed on Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list for leaders in art and style. Despite its huge output, Chromat is surprisingly low key. The entire studio is, well, about the size of a roomy studio apartment. By now, McCharen is used to people’s surprise. “People come visit [and] they’re like ‘Damn, I thought it was a huge company!’” she recalls with a laugh.

“But it’s really just, like, 10 people in a room.” Leading up to fashion week, the small team works weekends and late nights putting everything together. On the day I visit, there are only about five employees cutting and sewing away.

http://mashable.com/2014/12/14/beyonce-designer-chromat/#xlDL9TxcGqq9

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HOW CHROMAT DESIGNER BECCA MCCHAREN BUILT A FASHION BUSINESS FROM ARCHITECTURE SCHOOL.

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The Brooklyn-based designer, whose work has already attracted the attention of celebrities like Beyoncé and Taylor Swift, talks candidly about her recent CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund nomination and why she believes that women designers are “rarer than they should be in the world fashion

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Mikelle Street /// Jul 31, 2015

http://fashionista.com/2015/07/chromat

In our long term series, “How I’m Making It,” we highlight fashion industry leaders on how they broke into the industry and found success.

Chromat’s Becca McCharen was named as one of 10 finalists for the current year’s CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund. Two days later, she debuted her spring 2016 swim collection in Miami. “I’ve never experienced that level of crazy before.”

McCharen spoke. NYC’s own has certainly stepped up to the plate.

Five years ago McCharen launched her label, which started as a collaboration with a fellow student at The University of Virginia’s School of Architecture, she has dressed a range of celebrities, including Madonna, Queen Beyoncé, Taylor Swift and Nicki Minaj.

Her designs often feature technical takes on bustier tops and bondage gear, ideal for the activeand creative individual.

McCharen also found commercial success by adapting her aesthetic to lingerie, swimwear and a diffusion line for Urban Outfitters, Bond

by Chromat.

We caught up with McCharen at Swim Week in Miami to talk about her new CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund nomination, what it’s like to be a woman designing womenswear and how her celebrity relationships affect Chromat sales. We will also hear McCharen’s thoughts as to where the future of fashion will go as well as the promise of Chromat.

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https://www.pinterest.com/ http://theartmad.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/White-Geometric-Triangle-Wallpaper-3.png

BEFORE YOU CAME DOWN TO MIAMI YOU WERE NOMINATED FOR THE CFDA/VOGUE FASHION FUND. The scary thing is that it’s also sort of like a reality show, I prefer to be behind the scenes.

I love creating ideas, collections, hands-on projects. Now I’m mic’d 24/7. Hair and makeup every morning, the Kim Kardashian lifestyle.

I just have to be on at every moment.

Every week there’s a new challenge, kind of like “Project Runway.” The first thing on our schedule is in two days I have to be ready to present Chromat to the CFDA panel of judges that’s Anna Wintour, Diane von Furstenberg, [Theory CEO] Andrew Rosen, Rag & Bone, the head of Neiman Marcus. I am feeling a lot of pressure because there are only two female designers in the whole line-up. It’s very menswear based, which I think is very interesting because of this whole menswear resurgence.

I have to prove that women deserve to be the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund winner, so I am definitely going to represent for all the strong, powerful women out there.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE A WOMAN DESIGNING WOMENSWEAR? You’re catering to female clients, but women are only behind the scenes running the fashion industry. All the top the designers are mostly men. There’s Pr

ABOUT HOW MUCH OF THE BUSINESS WOULD YOU SAY IS SWIM?

Well swim and bras are our economic drivers.

We spend a lot of time making sure the fit and quality is perfect because that’s what ends up in everyone’s wardrobes. The thing is swim and lingerie are very, very technical. Sort of similar to men’s suiting, all of the measurements have to be exactly right and no female body is exactly the same. That’s the challenge.

HOW IS THAT INCORPORATED INTO YOUR DESIGN PROCESS? When I started Chromat I came straight from architecture so I had never studied fashion or worked for another designer. So I had no idea

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about how you were supposed to do things.

Most of our processes are more architecturebased. Over the years I’ve been able to hire people who have gone through the fashion track that can incorporate it into what we do, but there’s a certain way that fashion does it’s seasons and there’s a way that Chromat does our seasons.

We start from a conceptual, theoretical space.

It’s not about adding another strap, it’s about adding something new to the conversation in fashion.

TELL US ABOUT YOUR LINE FOR URBAN OUTFITTERS, BOND BY CHROMAT. Well Urban Outfitters wanted to carry Chromat in their stores and we took it as an opportunity to produce a diffusion label just for Urban that would make more sense for that customer.

Bond is sorta like the younger sister of Chromat.

We do all ties instead of hooks in that line to make it easier to do a wider range of sizes. We do suits in a bigger variety of colors, too.

I actually see Bond as growing into its own being, so that Chromat can continue to be conceptual and innovative and new, while Bond is more trend-based or more wearable.

YOU’VE WORKED WITH A NUMBER OF HIGH-PROFILE CELEBRITIES. WHAT’S THAT PROCESS LIKE? Working with celebrities is always crazy! It’s always very last minute, ‘I need 20 outfits in Paris tomorrow’ type of jobs. The women we listen to in our studio, like Beyoncé, Nicki, Madonna - being able to work with them is such an honor. It’s incredible to be inspired by someone and then have them also be so inspired by you.

We’ve done everything from custom - I have all Madonna’s measurements - to just pulls.

SO WHAT’S THE NEXT STEP? The reason I entered [the CFDA process] was for mentorship. Like I said, I’ve never worked in fashion, never run a business and here I am running this fashion business. I don’t know

what I’m doing, I’m just making it up as I go along. And so working with these amazing industry veterans, I’m getting chills just thinking about the access that I’ll have through this mentorship. We are on the cusp- we have our diffusion line now and we have so many people wanting to do licensing with us.

There’s just so many opportunities coming in now that I’m really looking forward to having guidance to help shape the brand.

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ACTIN’ BAD @ THE AFTER PARTY http://nickydigital.com/2014/09/chromat-ss15-party-gansevoort-meatpacking-september-4-2014/

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Photos by Zimbio.com and Maro Hagopian - The Village Voice

The Formula 15 SS15 after party hosted a troupe of

badass female performers on the rooftop of the Gansevoort Hotel.

Maluca Mala fired up the crowd with an electrifying performance in the LED Bra and Sport Bikini Bottom.

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TableauxVivants The Chromat’s A/W 2015 Runway was influenced by, and expands upon, the concepts of Martine Rothblatt’s posthuman Mindfiles which anticipates an entirely (wo)man made, synthetic world of bionic prosthetics.

In this world, garments function as artificial augmentation and enhancements of the human body. Materials used to create the collection are simulations of biological materials: latex simulating skin, Swarovski diamonds/gems, synthetic hair simulating organic hair.

All the shiny latex lingerie, thigh highs and coats attracted the attention of many in the audience, including Opening Ceremony, it did more than add lubed-up burning rubber to the catwalk. The looks were created in collaboration with Tableaux Vivants, a womens-wear label designed by Sonia Agostino, that focuses on elevating latex dressing into the high-fashion realm.

Tableaux Vivants & Chromat designed four looks including: latex lingerie, garters, top/dress, leggings, and outerwear.

Chromat was interested in exploring the possibilities of latex clothing to act as a second, synthetic layer of skin on the body. This synthetically produced “skin” serves as a parallel for the synthetic recreations of our own human consciousness and balance.

https://www.notjustalabel.com/designer/chromat#page-1

www.chromat.co

The A/W 15 lingerie, garments and cages implements material biotechnology such as thermoplastic polyurethane, leather coated in patent surfaces, latex, synthetic hair and (wo)manmade Swarovski crystals recreating the natural phenomenon through chemical processes.

Synthetic hair sculptures were created in collaboration with Icelandic sculptor: Hrafnhildur Arnardottir, aka: Shoplifter, to investigate the symbolic nature of hair and it’s organic origins.

Swarovski embellishments were developed in collaboration with designer Kerin Rose Gold of A-Morir Eyewear. Latex pieces developed in collaboration with NYC’s Tableaux Vivants.

3D printed jewelry and laser ports were designed in collaboration with Metalepsis.

process of the human body and physical environment.

Tableaux Vivants was created in May of 2009 over a wine brainstorming session - as all good ideas tend to. Our inspiration comes from the desire to elevate the look of latex fashion. We desire to dress the freshest people at the party and work with future revolutionary artists that want to challenge the world’s opinions.

Creativity feeding on creativity. Above all else, we want it to be beautiful.

- TableauxVivants. www.tablevivantsdesign.com www.chromat.co

Mindfiles AW15 Collection imagines a world where garments transcend biology through new age technology, augment the human body through chemically synthetic processes, and improve and enhance the natural

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A Mindfile is the sum of saved digital reflections about your being. All of the stored emails, texts, chats, IMs & blogs you write are all part of the Mindfile. All of the slide shows, movies, & uploaded photos that you share are all apart of your personal Mindfile.

Your search histories & online made purchases, if saved, are your Mindfiles.

YOUR DIGITAL LIFE IS YOUR MINDFILE.” - Martine Rothblatt

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FGUK Magazine - Chromat Orthogonal Cage Pant & Inset Patent Bralette http://sheslively.uberflip.com/h/i/96159690-cipriana-quann-tk-quann-grace-the-cover-of-fguk-magazine

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Topical Cream/The Chromat Velvet Perforated Leather Bra

Dark Beauty Magazine/Chromat Hyperbloid Dress

MADE Show/Chromat Echo Latex Pair http://chromat.co/blogs/news/18457067-12-days-of-chromat-babes-part-1

http://www.gotceleb.com/tinashe-lexus-lounge-and-chromat-ss-2016-at-made-in-nyc-2015-09-12.html

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` Drawing from Becca McCharen’s background in architecture and urban design, its focus is on structural experiments for the human body.

Chromat swimwear, sportswear, lingerie and signature architectural cages are all made domestically in New York City by a small knit team of creatives.

Chromat began in 2010 as an extension of Becca’s degree education. Chromat’s structural language is the foundation of each garment: from the simplest bikini to the most complex 3D printed dress.

Learn more at: Chromat.co

http://chromat.co/collections/all

http://babylikestopony.com/products/garter-bomber-jacket-by-chromat