VMSD - January 2016 - (Page 81)
DESIGNER PROFILE
fixtures
COU RT ES Y OF CHI PP EN HO O K , L E WI SVI L L E, T EX AS
Getting to the
Happy Point
Natasha Watkins grew up in Dallas, shopping in vintage
thrift shops, funky boutiques and trendy music stores.
Now, as senior designer at Vassi Design Group's (Lewisville, Texas) Chippenhook brand, she works with the likes of
Michael Kors, Neiman Marcus and Alfred Dunhill Ltd.
Culture shock? She doesn't think so. Rather, she thinks
she brings a new kind of objectivity - almost an innocence
about the brands - that pumps freshness and life into her
designs.
An example was the jewelry displayer she created for
Dunhill. To prepare, she first immersed herself in the company's history.
"I love the research part of my job," she says, "diving into
the brands. 'Who are their designers? What marketing
images do they use? What does their runway experience
look like?' I try to get their vibe."
For Dunhill, inspired by first-class travel - vintage vehicles, ocean liners and streamlined trains - she created an
elegant but simple travel trunk, completed with high-gloss
black with chrome handles and hardware, which folded
open with drawers that slid out.
For Stephen Webster's ornate, edgy jewelry, she used
basic geometric shapes and introduced a small visual surprise - delicate, asymmetrically placed rose gold feet. She
also told the luxury story with materials and small details
like stitching and hardware.
Shapes and planes are critical to small jewelry display,
she acknowledges, but "materials are my passion. I pretty
much live in the resource room here."
Watkins also loves the process of exchanging ideas back
and forth until they "get to the happy point."
And how does she measure that happiness? "It's all about the clients. When they
rave about how it helped their sales and
how they got compliments on it - it just
melts my heart." -Steve Kaufman
NATASHA WATKINS
SENIOR DESIGNER
CHIPPENHOOK/VASSI DESIGN GROUP
"I love the
research part
of my job ...
'Who are their
designers?
What marketing
images do they
use?
What does
their runway
experience look
like?' I try to get
their vibe."
VMSD.COM
|
JANUARY 2016
81
http://www.VMSD.COM
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of VMSD - January 2016
Vmsd - January 2016
Contents
From the Editor
Editorial Advisory Board
Props + Decoratives
Lighting
Mannequins + Forms
Materials + Wallcoverings
Materials New Ravenna’s Sara Baldwin
Furniture
Fixtures
Fixtures Vassi Design Group/chippenhook’s Natasha Watkins
Flooring
Flooring Emma Gardner Design’s Emma Gardner
Signage + Graphics
Best of the Rest
Ad Index
Lasting Impression Melissa Shoes, New York
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