As a solution to our quarantine woes, Twin recently caught up with Cécile Wallon creator behind Parisian glass jewels and beads label Sis Joía. The handmade jewellery brand has been known for its special personal touch, pieced together with glass, quartz and crystal beads collected over time on elastic wires . During these difficult times, small gestures like these matter more than anything. Keeping in mind the importance of noticing what surrounds us and how things evolves. Which is why our contributor Amanda Ballerini engaged her dear friend Wallon in conversation discussing inspiration, quarantine finds, habit and much more.
Tell me a bit about you and your Sisi Joía. How did it all begin?
So I’m 29, and after a few years in the fashion retail industry, I had a baby and suddenly a lot of time (well the first few months) to think about what I wanted for the next few years. A question that was a little to big, so the first answer was: I would like to have something beautiful to gather my curtains. I knew this lady who was selling antique beads at the flea market near my house, so I went, in search of some supplies to start making beautiful curtain tiebacks. I never made those, instead I crafted a few elastic bracelets that were easy to take on and off (with a baby…) and showed it to my friends. They were so enthusiastic with the result it convinced me to start making a small jewellery line. And here we are!
Did you ever think of creating something like this in the past?
I’ve always been keen on crafts and handmade things, but more things for the home. However, I’ve been nourished and fed by all the beautiful things and costume jewellery I was selling at my previous job at Vanessa Seward’s. She was especially good at this , from working for numerous years as an accessories designer at Chanel.
Tell me a bit about the connection you developed with the glass maker/blower. How did it happen?
Well I used to live in the neighbourhood of this old store that was never open. One day, they finally had sort of like a Christmas sale, and I bought so many beautiful things for my home. For several years, I didn’t think of it, and then I found one of their glass drops at the flea market. It fit perfectly with the necklaces I was developing, so I started to look for more… and after 2 months of calling the shop and passing by every week, I finally got in touch with Youssef, the owner.
He’s Syrian, and moved to Germany, then France, some 20 years ago. Now he works with a partner, a lady who goes every couple of month to Damascus to select the works of their glass blower (who collects glass debris and recycle it in a traditional brick oven) and have them transported back by boat to their workshop, where they assemble the pieces to make lamps and other beautiful things. They are very discreet but their lamps sell all over the world. Now they allow me to purchase some glass drops, glass blowers and beads to make my pieces.
How’s the everyday life of a creative Parisian mum like you are? Do you have some kind of daily schedule you follow?
It’s busy, as my schedule revolves around my son’s hours: daycare, going to the library, the park, etc. But I get to work following my own schedule during the day, until around 4 when I pick him up. Then the day stops and we focus on being with him. Then, at night, as soon as he’s asleep, my second day begins and I work packing my orders and crafting the pieces.
Where would you ideally be living, if it weren’t Paris?
Actually we’re in the process of moving a little further from Paris, in a suburban town near a bigger park, with more nature and a “greener” municipal area, which is super important to us.
What do you do when something makes you sad?
I try to change my mind and create anything, a little bowl with auto-hardening clay, tie dye a vintage panty .
Keep up with Cécile and her Sisi Joia ventures @sisijoia .
The great calibre of talent and community under the name of Telfar Clemens is no big news. Twin contributor Amanda Ballerini had the pleasure to assist the team and work closely with the Telfar community in realising their latest FW 20-21 show held at Palazzo Corsini in Florence.
The urge then came up for her to write this piece almost immediately, considering her passion for the brands since she discovered them during her studies in 2014.
The Queens/Liberian born creative who launched his eponymous label in 2005 has within these years managed not only to be an oracle of fashion but more so in the way he has shaped how we see performance and the concept of community. A community made of creatives with no boundaries, no preconceptions, the real contemporary democrats coming from all over yet all belonging to the same world.
A brand which screams: ‘It’s not for you, it’s for everyone’ as its bio, which is surely something very easy to perceive when you take a closer look at what the founder has really managed to achieve with TELFAR.
Going back to the roots which brought me where I am now, through a brand from across the ocean conceived by people who had probably seldom seen Florence.
The main highlight of the show was the great emotion created. How the New Renaissance embodied by the brand, his creator and the community surrounding him is what everyone aims to be and see and is an explanation for how we act in fashion in 2020, and why is still makes sense.
I spent 4 years of my young life in Florence and have always complained about its closed minded mentality and the fact that it is such an exclusive community. In Italy, you mainly grow within your circle and stay that way unless you move away. Which is why it is quite ironic that an apparent ‘liberal minded’ state like Italy and its bigger and smallest cities are all marked by the fact that it is actually quite exclusive.
Studying in an international school in Florence allowed me to exclude myself partially from that world, creating my own in the small reality I had available surrounding myself with dreams, parties, music, discoveries and friends. The best years of an 18 year old young woman who was always aspiring to have more in life. Years later, at the TELFAR show and afterparty last week , I finally found that more which I was looking for, and I can be very thankful for that.
As if the beauty of the location itself wasn’t enough, the set was essentially formed by a ‘tavola rotonda’ (a slight reference to the round table of King Arthur and his knights) adorned and created for the occasion by Spiral Theory Test Kitchen in association with Cordon Bleu cooking school based in Florence. It was a satirical roman empire bloodshed table which went under some surgical operation. It was the modern epitome of Renaissance, imagined by the new gods of today: the queer community of New York. Following the actual Vip dinner the night before the show, with queen beds placed in other rooms of the palace for fun & frills, the table was slightly set up but basically left in the same exact condition as the night before (and so were the beds) for the show presentation. The table served as seats for the special guests and as entrance stage for the models, who were mostly friends and family of Telfar Clemens himself who also performed live.
Appearances included the likes of Boy Child, Bobbi ( a part of the Spiral Theory Test kitchen trio) and even Solange whose aura glowed around the table. All these characters overlapping with journalists from very big fashion magazine and all the people who count. It was the most interesting organic mix.
The stage saw the performance of Standing on the Corner ensemble, the heart breaking voice of the young star Hawa and the angel-queen’s musical performance of Ms Carrie Stacks. The Palazzo smelled of meat, fruits, and any other possible leftovers and it somehow still had a fragrance which you wanted to carry home with you. Perhaps it simply smelled of deep love.
What I can say about the after party (set at Super Studio founded Space Club in collaboration with Stefano Pilati) is that it was the perfect ending of the whole shebang . It was the cherry on top.
The soul that each person, friend, lover, fan, family member and new friends put in all of this screamed authenticity and gratitude from each and every corner.
Speaking as an Italian myself and on behalf of the city of Florence, we are the ones who are most grateful. Grateful and filled with the biggest tears of joy in our eyes for the whole, black, queer, all inclusive and incredible vibe of community that TELFAR brought to all our hearts.
It is not for you, it is for everyone of us, and it is the future.
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