with her undone blonde locks, oversized white T-shirt, and her loyal dog companion simba, designer tracy wilkinson could pass as the epitome of a californian girl. but born in the rural surroundings of yorkshire in northern england, life didn‘t always look so sunny: “when you grow up in a quiet place and you are shy and introverted, you develop a fairly elaborate fantasy life,“ says tracy about her childhood and the origin of her creativity.
growing up, her interest in fashion and the act of creating something quickly began to spark. she attended every rummage sale and visited every oxfam store she could find, in order to create her very own form of expression through clothing. with a lot of free time on her hands, she started not only to sew clothes for her dolls, but eventually came up with patterns and cuts for her very own outfits. being more and more certain of having found her creative outlet, she studied fashion design at the royal college of art and worked in london’s fashion field before a fateful letter from a friend who migrated to the US, should change her destiny for good.
as life in the US seemed way more exciting than in her native england, without looking back she packed her belongings and moved overseas. almost 20 years later, she now lives in a beautiful house in mount washington, overlooking the L.A. hills and spends her days exploring different types of handcrafts, ranging from pottery to blacksmithing and weaving. when you look at the materials tracy chooses to work with – clay, natural cane, wood and cotton, you see that her artisanal artworks not only breath the free spirit of the 70s, but always remind us of the imperfection and the beauty of life. photos : brian ferry for the rest of the interview : freundevonfreunden via : somewhere i would like to live .
