by Grace Clift
Corinne Lapierre is on a mission. She knows that everybody has the capacity to be creative, no matter what they think of themselves. Her folklore-inspired craft kits open up the world of sewing to everyone, and have taken the internet by storm. Today, I called her from both of our homes in Yorkshire, all the way to her in Chicago, where she was setting up a booth at a US trade show.
G: You started out in a career in fashion design. Can you tell me more about that?
CL: I didn’t actually work that long in fashion design, but it was my dream was to be a fashion designer and have my own label – which didn’t happen – but I did work as a fashion designer, mainly for mainstream fashioned womenswear. And I loved it, but I always knew I wanted to have my own business, and I really struggled to work on other people’s briefs, you know. It was really restrictive. So that wasn’t the fulfilling career I thought it would be. And when I had my daughter, I decided to stop working all together.
G: Nature and folk art is intrinsic to many of your designs. What led you to these themes over others?
CL: That’s a difficult question because I just go for what I love, and I think from being really little, my mom used to drive me around craft exhibitions and craft markets and all these kinds of things, and she was really interested in folk art from around the world. And I remember going to, I don’t know, exhibitions about Mexican craft, a Peruvian craft, a Russian embrace, you know, which, as a little girl, you know… A lot of little girls might find that really boring, but I loved it, and I think that really shaped me as to what I like. And I’ve always loved folk art. I think what I love more than anything is to think that a craft that can be thousands of years old and spread all over the world. It can be so different. It’s the same process of having a needle and some thread and just creating little stitches, and you can find that all over the world and go back thousands of years. And I find that really moving.
G: Take me through the process of making a craft kit.
CL: When I see things, I see shapes, I see 3D shapes, I see them as patterns. You know, in my head, I can work out what shapes I would need to get to sew the piece, to make it 3D. Usually, I get the idea of the design and then straightway – I might draw it a little bit through a few sketches, but really, I think in 3D – I start cutting out the templates in paper to make the shape that I think will work. I work out the pattern and the instructions as I make it.
CL: I think that that’s a big thing with the kids is finding the easiest way to make something.. And I think that comes from being a little bit lazy, you know, he’s looking for the shortcut. I know there’s a great business person – I don’t know who, I can’t remember – who said, if you want the most effective employees, look for the lazy ones, because they will find [the shortcut] and make your business profitable. So as I make, I work out the design for myself, really, is when I take notes for the instructions and I take pictures, or I make little sketches. I’m always thinking about how people are going to understand it or not understand it and what might be a tricky point for them. And I think that’s something I have learned over the years, because my early kits, the instructions are a lot more basic, and then I’ve worked [it] out [over time].
G: What’s your favourite kit you’ve made?
CL: Oh, that’s a really difficult one because we have some older ones that I still love! Like, I love the mouse family. It’s one of my earlier kids that it’s still one of our best sellers, and I love it because it’s fun. I love all of these kits, I make a lot of them, you know, with little mice!
G: Which other creative people inspire you?
CL: I think it’s more looking at the history of folk art. So for example, I’ve had a whole phrase where it was a lot about Scandinavian folk art, and I’m still really inspired by that. I used to really love Orla Kiely and the use of pattern, how really simple patterns and colours can be so effective. But I think at the moment, I’m going more into more ornate things with more details.
CL: I’ve mentioned it to you already, but [I’m inspired by] how the same craft can be used around the world, and you can find similarities that also see how it evolved differently. So if you look at Mexican embroidery, for example, you can find similarities with Russian embroidery, or Polish embroidery, [but] the overall look is so different.
G: Your use of colour, I find, is really interesting. It feels like there’s a real Corinne Lapierre colour palette, which is really beautiful.
CL: Thank you. Oh, you’re very kind. It’s interesting because my dad was colourblind, very, very colourblind, and my son is colourblind, so there’s definitely something in my family with colour blindness.My dad used to ask me about colours, you know, because he would see red as green and things like that, and I used to find that fascinating how we could be looking at the same thing, but not see it the same at all. It’s something, even now I find it fascinating, how to me it seems that two colours are going to go together, but to somebody else that might look really, really ugly. And do we really actually see the same colours? You know, it’s a big question, because we don’t know. We only see what we see in our head.
G: What’s one thing you’d like the reader to take away from this?
CL: I wish people would stop saying, “I can’t do that” or “I wish I was creative” because it’s my greatest belief that everybody is creative. It’s a universal thing, you know, a basic human thing. I really believe it’s a basic human need to be creative, and creativity can have so many ways to express itself. And I think with my kits, my message is don’t be scared, just try it and you can do it. Everybody can do it. And not to try to make it perfect, but to just give it a go.
Corinne Lapierre’s kits, as well as her books and more, can be found on her website: https://www.corinnelapierre.com/.
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