I always admire individuals that have such motivation and passion in their work. This was the reason for my next interview, when I came across Marie I knew I had to share her thoughts and ambition with you. Marie Castro is the designer and creator of the knitwear brand Tchibi from Brazil.

Why did you name your brand tchibi?
Well, I’ve been working with fashion since I’m 15 years old. I started everything very early, and at that time, I was using another name for my brand. But when I went to my first professional fashion show, at Fashion Rio (inside a newcomers project called Rio Moda Hype), I really felt the need of a good name. One of my nicknames at those times was ‘chibi’, which refers to a Japanese word for small child, short person. It’s a funny and informal way to find a name to the brand.

Why did you choose knitting as your main form of expression?
It was totally by chance, I grew up watching my mom knitting some scarves for me and my brother. I’m amazed with all possibilities that knitting and crocheting can bring to my designs, mainly about textures and different forms. I’m still working as well with some jersey or fabrics, I love it but at this moment knitting is fulfilling all my desires as a designer.

Some years ago I was studying at a fashion school focused in large scale production and exclusive clothing was always out of my sight during this period. Many aspects of my life are guided by curiosity; I just wanted to focus in the opposite: unique and exclusive clothing. But it does not mean I’ll be just knitting. For my next collection, there will be a mix of knitting/crocheting designs and also other pieces made of normal fabric and produced in more usual ways.

Do you knit/crochet/sew all of your designs yourself or do you have a team?
All pieces are mainly created in a small room here in Guarulhos, São Paulo. I created everything alone, it’s a very intimist work. If I’m working with fabrics or jersey, I prefer to involve more people in the process. But all designs come really from a very particular moment, where I sit alone and start to connect my feelings and the things I’ve lived in my life.

Walk us through the process, from design to creation, of one of your pieces.
Well, firstly, the design’s ideas always come from a feeling or personal experience. So I try to focus on those ideas and convert it to forms, textures, colors and so on. Also, some visual references like pictures from a trip or a city center walk really helps to bring some elements to the creation. After that, I start to make some arrangements about the pattern and fitting, also, I try to decide some textures I want to use in the piece. Basically, it’s a process like this, but of course, sometimes it can be done in a different way. It all depends on the ideas and the feelings at that moment.

Every item of clothing makes women feel a certain way, how do you want women to feel when wearing your pieces?
Well, since our last collection launched at Dragão Fashion, I’m designing some pieces for men as well. It’s still a little part of the brand, but I want to make it grow.

Basically I hope that every single person who likes to wear my brand, do it with their hearts. To dress nicely it’s also a way of expressing how they feel in that specific day, so I hope that my designs helps to bring these emotions to their daily life. I want them to feel emotionally open to the world but at same time they must feel comfortable, protected, unique, happy and stronger.

How would you describe your brand, the essence of tchibi?
The main thing about tchibi is a concept that it’s almost present in every single collection. It’s about being young, urban, but at same time respectful about the past and handmade artworks. Tchibi’s essence is to dress good characters, artistic and different people and I hope the brand is doing it nicely and keeping it up in the future.

How would you describe your personal style?
My personal style is always changing. I think every single thing I learn in my life, it helps me to improve me as intellect and also my style. My style is totally depending on my mood: sometimes I feel colorful, other days more black and white. People know me as someone really into mini dresses and shorts but last week I just bought a very long dress and I’m totally happy about how it fits my body. Okay, maybe you are not gonna see me wearing some country boots, because I grew up listening to rock music.

I’m not the basic girl but also I’m not a X-mas tree. I love expressing myself based in my mood, so my style is very flexible in general. I think I can have many different characters inside my head so I use this flexibility to show them in different occasions.

What projects are you currently working on?
I’m focusing in a new and very personal project. It will involves crochet, knits, jersey and some colorize process. I’m really excited about these new designs and I think it will totally refers to the delicacy of handmade works plus the rudeness of the urbanity. I wish I could say more about it, but I really want to awake your curiosity about this project. It will be release in the next month, if everything work well in my schedule.

There’s also a project about lauching a vintage store with some friends, we are working on it in the last weeks. Also I wanna work more with fabrics and jersey, so I can promise new projects involving those things are coming soon in the next months.

Where would you like to see tchibi in five years?
I hope it will be bigger and I’ll keep designing things in such personal way as I’m doing now. My main worries for the next years is to define a commercial line inside my creations to expand my business concept. So the current time is a time for experiences and trying everything, but finding the type of products I wanna focus in my commercial plans. Once I can define properly those line I’ll be producing more and so on I hope we will reach in a more efficient way some countries. For example, I wanna increase Tchibi’s popularity at USA and Asia. I really wonder that.Also one of my plans is to be able to run my company from everywhere. The mass production can be centralized in my country, Brazil.

Our concept and contacts are always around musical people, so one of the plans is to develop something with bands and musicians, like clothing for concerts and so on. I had some people helping me with soundtracks for our shows and projects and I hope I can develop some designs to them.

What makes you StylishlyYou?
Well, I think what makes me Stylishyme it’s my passion around fashion and art, the same reason that you are so stylish!!

You can find out more about Marie and Tchibi on her site tchibiwear.com and also find her in these social networks: Twitter, Facebook and Flickr.

Let me know what you think of the interview and Marie. Hope you enjoyed this interview!

-V