Gio Forbice doesn’t think of himself as a designer. He customises things. More specifically, he customises shoes and the shoes he’s known for go by the label Forfex.

Forfex shoes are as refreshing as Gio’s perspective on the way in which he designs. He doesn’t subscribe to the usual designer mentality, which may explain why his work seems to go far beyond usual and deeply into innovative, refreshing, creative and completely, entirely unique. Twin caught up with the man behind the brand to find out more.

Can you tell me a little about your line and how it was born?
It was born around six years ago now, in Italy, but I had started to customise jeans, jackets and shoes before then. And then a friend from Saigon gave me the opportunity to produce shoes there so that started all this.

What is your background as a designer? Is it something you always wanted to go into?
I am not a designer. I think I started to customise things because I was bored and my parents have run a clothing store for a long time; I was born into it. I can remember well that when I was little, I normally slept in the basement on some Valentino, Armani, Kenzo, Versace, Gaultier or other fancy clothing. My dad wanted to kill me all the time but it was good for me to see all that.

Is there anything about footwear that makes it more appealing as a designer to you than other branches within the fashion industry?
I think shoes are more of an object. Today everything is the same, so it’s difficult to make something special to me. But yes, I think I prefer to see a girl just with a pair of big boots on.

What other designers do you admire?
I like Hedi Slimane or John Galliano. All the designers from the past are incredible. They built different imagery. I think Shayne [Oliver from HBA] is brilliant. Also Gosha Rubchinskiy.

And which artists of other mediums inspire you? Music, photography, etc.
I listen to movie soundtracks. But always I’ve liked different kinds of music from classical music or church music to Rammstein, Darkthrone, White Zombie or all the 90’s classics; Smashing Pumpkins, Nirvana or some Italian 90s dance music. Everyone listens to the same shit… I like to associate music to images. I think it’s the best to watch Twin Peaks because the music is perfect or For a Fistful of Dollars and the other spaghetti western movies, with music by Enio Morricone. They are fantastic so I think that’s art too. Oh, and the music in the classic porno movies. It’s like the music you can listen to in a fancy hotel so it’s nasty to me when I hear that music in hotels. It makes me think of some hardcore scenes right there on the piano of the hotel reception.

Can you describe the Forfex aesthetic in one sentence?
It’s a bizarre story.

forfex.it

Photographer: Alejandra Sabillón
Stylist: Raquel Medina-Cleghorn
Hair: Shingo Shibata
Makeup: Kento Utsubo
Model: Emerson Campbell @Ford Models

Tags: Fofex, Footwear, Gio Forbice

Buttercup Bill, the debut feature from filmmaking team Emilie Richard-Froozan and Remy Bennett, is billed as a “psycho-sexual doomed love story.” The screen successfully offers a love story complex and rich with that same kind of psychological entanglement and intensity we so often seek during our childhood years. Off-screen, the directors have their own kind of love story: a friendship that began when they were sixteen during an overseas acting/directing course through TISCH.

Coming full circle, Buttercup Bill recently made its European debut at Raindance and will be playing at the New Orleans Film Festival at the end of October.

Why did you choose to film in New Orleans?

Remy: Well, the setting was rural and we needed a rural setting. And we had friends down there.

Emilie: I fell in love with someone who lived down there and I went down there and that was the catalyst: the house that this person lived in…

Remy: We shot the movie in that house that belonged to the person she fell in love with.

How did it feel to shoot in that house?

Emilie: It’s more that it was the people I met there: all of the community. A lot of those people are in the film and it was just a magical experience so it was kind of like no matter what happens–when we were in production–we just had to shoot it in that house because that house was like a magical place.

What was the process of writing a script together like?

Emilie: Lots of cigarettes.

But what was the physical process itself like? Did you pass it back and forth?

Emilie: No, we’d sit in the same room.

Remy: But we passed it back and forth too. We went through so many phases.

Emilie: Well, we’d start a new scene and then we’d go away and come back.

Remy: It was a long process.

Emilie: It took us like a year and a half to two years.

Remy: You go through so many different techniques. We would talk it out sometimes or we would go away and write stuff and exchange it.

Emilie: We’d go to hypnotists and get hypnotised.

Remy: Or we’d go to a restaurant and get a bottle of wine and just talk for thirty hours one session. But we set it up so it was really our job; we had a schedule.

Which was?

Emilie: We worked odd jobs basically and we would sit down and the next thing you know, seven hours had passed.

Remy: We would usually meet at ten in the morning. So, she’d say, “Come to my house at ten” and we’d sit down and be like, “This is our day and we’re not going to leave until seven.” So we would just sit down no matter what was happening, whether it was us just talking or exchanging stories or talking about our lives and being like, “Oh fuck, let’s write this down.” Or we’d have other days where we just wrote, wrote, wrote…

And, of course, you knew you were going to co-direct and Remy would be acting the role you were together writing for her.

Emilie: Yeah, I had a dream during the whole Buttercup Bill thing and I had just gotten back from New Orleans. I had this dream that there was this blonde girl from behind and I knew it was Remy and I was in the desert and I yelled her name and she turned around but it wasn’t Remy, it was a different name I had called. And when I woke up, I forgot the name and I was like, “I know this name. The name is…” But I couldn’t remember it.

My random friend from when I was 15 who I met abroad and who I haven’t spoken to in ten years… I found him on Facebook, wrote him and said, “What was the name of your really mean Swedish girlfriend when you were twenty?” And he was like, “Pernilla.” And I was like, “That’s the name!” And we just started from there. That name, I always knew.

It must be amazing to see this film as a sort of culmination of your relationship up to this point.

Emilie: Yeah, Remy and I met doing an acting/directing class when we were 16. It was at TISCH but it was in Dublin. Remy was in my first short; we made our first short together.

And you just automatically vibed?

Emilie: I can’t get enough of watching her on the screen. And I know that I’m not the only one: she’s it. You know, there are some people that you just want to watch and there are some that you’re like, “I don’t really need to watch them.” Not her. She’s meant to be on the screen.

buttercupbill.com

Photography by Kelsey Bennett.

A portion of this interview originally ran at Alldayeveryday.

Tags: Buttercup Bill, Emilie Richard-Froozan and Remy Bennett, film

I first met Brianna Lance when I went into Reformation to buy a skirt almost five years ago. At the time, every piece was one-of-a-kind and the girls sewed them in the back. The skirt was too big at the waist and Brianna – this beautiful creature – came out to fit the skirt to my exact measurements. Eventually, I was hired at The Reformation (as one of just two girls who worked in the shop) and I worked with them for a year and a half before the company grew into the amazing brand it is now.

Brianna serves as Head Designer and somehow manages to find time to perform with her band Bad Girlfriend. I sat down with her to ask her a few questions about her impressive work in both fashion and music.

Let’s start with the beginning: Where are you from? How did you end up in New York?
I grew up in Dallas, Texas. I moved to New York to go to Parsons for Fashion Design. I just stayed after that. I can’t imagine living anywhere else right now. I’m too spoiled by living here.

Was fashion design always a part of your life? How did you begin?
I was really interested from clothes as a kid, and my parents really encouraged it. They wanted me to do something I was passionate about so from the time I was 14, I think it was pretty set that I was going to go into fashion.

How did your relationship with Reformation start out?
I was friends with the founder Yael before. The company had been around about 6 months before I started. I was doing styling at the time and feeling a little burnt out on it, so she suggested I come work for her. I’ve been with the company five years now. Most of it as Head Designer and very recently as Creative at Large.

Do you feel the brand has changed a lot over time?
It has grown a lot and also become more what we want. It’s a clearer message now. The more we stay true to our interests, design ideas and message, it seems the more people respond to it.

Does it feel like a reflection of whatever you’re inspired by aesthetically at the time?
It feels most like a reflection of a particular message we have. We want women to feel beautiful and like the best version of themselves. We want them to feel like our clothes highlight the best parts of them. That is mostly what we design for: sexy, cool, chic, free spirited women.

If you had to choose one uniform to wear every day for the rest of time, what would it be?
Oh, that’s easy: jeans and a good blouse. Obviously there are a lot of temperature fluctuations that would make that less than ideal. But style-wise, I feel like that is always in fashion. That, or a really good jumpsuit.

Can you tell me a little bit about your band, Bad Girlfriend?
It’s an all-girl four piece that really likes making guitar-heavy music. It is the thing I do in life that gives me the most pleasure: singing and playing guitar. 

Did you always play music?
I played piano when I was young. Then when I moved to New York, I was a tambourine girl in a psych band. I learned to play guitar though about 5 years ago.

If you had to listen to five songs-and five songs only-every day for the rest of time, what would they be?
Tezeta- Mulatu Astatke, Numer One- Bill Moss, Cool Waves- Spiritualized, Sull’aria- Marriage of Figaro, Suzanne- Nina Simone

Is music and fashion a major balancing act for you or is it just life as it should be?
I can’t do just one thing. I have to do a lot of different creative projects to interest myself. Otherwise my brain gets bored. I’m always happiest when I have many different projects going on; it makes me feel the most alive.

thereformation.com

badgirlfriendband.com

Lyla Vander from Bad Girlfriend left, Brianna Lance right.

Photography by Alejandra Sabillon

Tags: Bad Girlfriend, Brianna Lance, new york, The Reformation