Giselle Shepatin is best known for the distinctive handwovens she creates in her San Francisco studio using exotic yarns she selects from around the world and often hand dyes, creating colorways that range from saturated Old Masters palettes to audacious brights and take-charge neutrals. Arresting texture/color mixtures are Giselle's signature. Every season she offers her customers related separates in one-of-a-kind interpretations done in cotton, silk, suede, linen, velvet, tulle, and wool melton, sparked by handwoven and hand-knit accents.
At age eleven Giselle completed her first design project—a dress for her older sister's trousseau that she stitched by hand from seven yards of muslin and French lace. That early expression of passion for textiles was later overshadowed by the talent she inherited from her artist father, a gift for color and line, drawing and painting. Her path seemed clear—a BFA degree. But a chance moment in the Sinai Desert the summer after her sophomore year in college influenced her deeply:
"I saw the lone figure of a Bedouin bent under the weight of what I believed was his most precious possession, a handmade rug. It was that profound image that led me to change my direction in life from creating fine art to the idea of the utilitarian, the idea of craft."
Her Sinai epiphany turned Giselle from the contemplative refinements of easel and gallery to the chaotic challenges of the marketplace. When she returned to school for her junior year, she changed her major to fiber arts. After receiving her BFA, she went on to earn an MA with an emphasis on textiles—a springboard from which she entered the world of design. In this milieu she has established her presence, developing and marketing a broad range of textile products for fashion and home.
Much of her recent design comes from a desire to recycle—to conserve and use every vestige of the selection and creation processes, to carry as far as possible the touch of the cultivator, the picker, the shearer, the spinner, the dyer, the weaver, the knitter, the stitcher, hand after hand after hand, finally delivering all to the buyer of handcrafts, the bottom-line appreciator of elemental aesthetic effort. The result of Giselle's current perspective is a highly successful line of "daredevil couture" art-to-wear. Her bold step away from traditional techniques of textile production has carried her to a brave new world of textile innovation, each new textile demanding new techniques, new silhouettes—and Giselle responds with humble joy, bending to the designer's burden with the resolve of a Bedouin trekking his treasures across desert sands.
This season, I find myself focusing on the beauty we share, the love we desire to give and to receive, the nurturing of what we find important, and the desire to dress for and to delight ourselves with the Whimsey in this world. This is the inspiration behind all my designs and especially for this season. I am designing for delight and for the love of all our senses. I see, touch, hear people sharing admiration for the beauty of the fabric and design, all while deeply breathing and smelling the nature of my surroundings. I am inspired by the fabrics I search for and find, and then make the patterns according to the drape of the fabric. The process feeds me. I am rejuvenated, excited and want to share my new collections with you. Thank you for the opportunity to keep designing and dressing all of you. It is a great joy I have in this life!
