Emily Daccarett is an immensely talented fashion designer who has never been afraid to take risks. Her recent collaboration with S. Peace Nistades, talented musical film composer, consisted of a full fusion of fashion, music and art. It was a beautiful exhibition of creativity that Emily Daccarett does so well. The evening was filled with photographs from her current collection (Innocent Until Proven Guilty) that was set to the musical tone of S. Peace Nistades and all made more dramatic with Daccarett singing herself. It was an electric night and one where all elements blended seamlessly.
I personally have followed Emily from the beginning. She is shy, kind and always creating “outside the box.” Daccarett trained under the French techniques of draping and pattern making in France. Her clothing always fuses different media outlets together while touching upon innovative ideas. In this sense, a small universe comes to life with each new collection, encompassing an untold story. Emily is mysterious and bold at once and truly embodies an authentic artist. Recently, Emily and S. Peace Nistades had a moment to chat and there was so much to tell.
How did you decide to come up with the concept for the exhibition, Innocent Until Proven Guilty?
I wanted to present my collection differently this year. Ger Ger, (the Photographer), and I began planning for this photoshoot a couple of months ahead. A lot of passion was poured into this project and I was saddened to think it would take backseat to a runway show. I felt the pictures were more compelling and everyone could step inside and experience the story.
With the exhibition based off of your current fall collection and from talking to you over the years, you love to express your collections through a story. Can you please explain further?
This is my current collection and one that I am continuing to develop. I had made the decision to debut this collection at the beginning of 2017 back in September. I like to create worlds and working with the current fashion cycle felt very limiting. I was inspired by detective crime shows like Colombo from the 70’s. In this mystery, we are trying to uncover whether she is the villain or the victim. We saw her in a hideaway house waiting for someone and suddenly there is someone there who she does not know. This person stalks her and at times interacts with her, pushing her into the pool and attacking her. She finds herself in a confusing situation. This person is after her and yet at times helps her. Even though she could leave this house, she chooses to stay and discover who this person is. She has become obsessed and a strange lust for this person has begun. She knows the danger that awaits if she stays but this new excitement is too strong to pass up.
How long have you been working with talented music film composer Peace? I’m assuming there was quite amount of preparation.
I started working with music film composer Peace from my first fashion film at end of 2013. He composed the music and I wrote the lyrics and within a few days we began recording my vocals. We have since collaborated on almost all my shorts. In 2015 he wrote a ballet for my runway debut in New York. I had not planned to have original music for this collection. So I asked if he could put together a playlist of his previous work that could fit into this concept. The playlist was good to go, when suddenly he called to tell me he had written a new song. That quickly turned into four songs. Before I knew it, we started preparing to perform live. This led to us collaborating again on new songs. It feels so natural to work with Peace. His music is incredible, he will begin to write music in front of me and the it inspires me to write.
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Were you nervous to sing? It’s definitely stepping out of your “comfort zone”? It sounded great. What made you want to take this risk?
It was a bit nerve-wracking. I was out of my element and I felt very vulnerable. What I write does come from the heart and suddenly I’m sharing my feelings with everyone. I love to evolve and overcome challenges, so I guess that’s what pushed me to do that. I also wanted to share the stage with my friend, working with him has been a dream come true.
I know that fashion is going through many changes at the moment. You are always evolving and growing as a designer. You also just launched an accessory line. Can you give us any hint for your next collection?
For my next collection it has something to do with leather. That’s all I can say. By taking it slow with the current collection Innocent until Proven Guilty, I’m developing new ideas. I’m still expanding the brand but at the same time keeping it very focused.
Peace Nistades is a composer for film, fashion, stage and a variety of collaborations across many genres of music. He has crafted scores in over six countries worldwide based out of his music production facility in Los Angeles, CA. Among the artists he has collaborated are Lisbeth Scott (The Passion of the Christ Munich), Karen Han (The Hurt Locker and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End) to name a few. Nistades has collaborated with fashion designer Emily Daccarett on five of her collections creating original music for each campaign as well as the music for the entire runway show for her Fall-Winter 2015 Noir collection which premiered at New York Fashion Week and Paris Fashion Week last year.
Peace is widely accomplished speaking with him was an honor.
I know you are an immensely talented music composer. Do you work on films mainly or a mixture of collaborations: Can you elaborate?
Although I’ve worked primarily on films for the past ten years, I come from a background in various mediums (ballet, opera, classical music, theater) and I greatly value the collaboration between different artists in a variety of art forms. Each has their gems, their own sparkle that makes them unique, that separates them from one another and that’s what is most interesting to me; to find and explore those facets of each medium. Working for example with Emily has been a dream come true on many levels. To be able to come into the world she’s created for each collection and bring my own musical and emotional sensibilities to the storytelling has been incredibly rewarding. At the end of the day, it’s not all that different from film, or ballet, or standalone music, whether concert or pop or electronic or jazz. You’re telling a story, setting a mood, expressing emotions that you hope will connect to your audience and will captivate and move them and hopefully leave them in a different state than before they heard it. Music, as with all art forms, is transformative at its best.
How did you and Emily meet and decide to start working together. I know she likes to tell a story and blend fashion, music and art. I find her incredibly creative and smart.
We first met through our mutual friend Jason Carpenter who had directed her first fashion film. As I recall, they were interested in licensing an existing song but after waiting for some time to hear back from the record label; Jason, who I had been friends with for years but had never had a chance to work with, kindly introduced me to her. I loved the film and put together a demo which I showed them a few days later and the rest, as they say, is history.
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Did you both come up with the concept of Innocent Until Proven Guilty?
That was her concept and one she had developed with Ger Ger for the photography collection. From the first time I saw the photos, I was mesmerized. The tone was so alluring, so distinct, so sexy and dark but always with a smile and a wink; qualities I’ve come to associate with Emily and her world, and truth be told, qualities I myself have which is brought out in our collaboration. The music I write for Emily’s collections is very distinct to our work together and doesn’t seem to me to be very similar to my other work. So when she first approached me about curating some pieces of mine for her gallery, I immediately said I wanted to write a small original piece specifically for this collection as I yearned to tackle the puzzle of finding the right musical and sonic world for the main character Lily and what she represented for me. Later that evening I wrote a four-minute suite which became the overture and about a week later, the one piece grew into two, and three until I had written a 30-minute album and ultimately brought in numerous musicians to record on it including DJ DiipSilence who did a fantastic remix for the album.
I can’t imagine the rehearsals in terms of work and time. Can you expand upon your creative process?
Preparing any piece for live performance takes an enormous amount of dedication and endurance, both physically and mentally. Growing up performing, a part of me has always missed that world as I moved further and further into the studio; the very peculiar but unforgettable mix of excitement and gripping nervousness to the point where I can rarely eat on the days of performance for one. Therefore, when this opportunity arose — the opportunity to perform, with an intimate band of some of my closest musical collaborators, a set of my own pieces, from my work with Emily for the closing night of the exhibit, it was an opportunity I could not pass up. It was certainly a very intense few weeks, primarily because we had so little time, but ultimately a rewarding experience for me and for us all.
Any hint of future collaborations- Emily mentioned how inspiring it is to work with you.
Definitely! We have a few things up our sleeve that we’ve been discussing and preparing. We’ll have to keep you posted!
Connect with Emily:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/emilydaccarett
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/emilydaccarett/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Emily-Daccarett-420203328091666/
Web: http://www.emilydaccarett.com/
iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/innocent-until-proven-guilty-emily-daccarett-2017/id1202946853
Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Innocent-Until-Proven-Guilty-Daccarett/dp/B06X3V7NQG
Connect with Peace:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/nistades
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nistades/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/speacenistades/
Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/nistades
Web: http://www.nistades.com/
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