INNER~VIEWS : CHRISTINA HATTLER

Photo curtesy of Christina Hattler : a small showroom nook within the studio, 2001 A Space Odyssey lands in Oaxaca vibe.

How did you get to where you are today?

I was born and raised in Miami then moved to Brooklyn in 1994 to study Fashion at Pratt. I realized early on that a formal career as a fashion designer was not what I wanted, I was more interested in art, art history and photography. But, I spent two years there and then went to FIT, thinking perhaps becoming stylist was the route for me (it wasn’t!). I decided to just keep taking classes here and there, more for the love of learning and less for the ultimate goal of a degree, trying to find my way. I have always had to work, something I am grateful for now, so I flowed between jobs in NYC and Miami for about 7 years, working at Barbera Gillman gallery (an institution!), I was an intern at Ocean Drive Magazine (haha), waited tables (everyone needs to be a waiter at one time in their life), I worked the grueling front desk at a fancy hotel, wrote restaurant reviews at an early internet start-up (the most fun job ever) and on the final stretch in my late 20’s, I found myself working at Condé Nast for three years, at House & Garden Magazine. I tried on many selves over those years, but a constant was that I never stopped making things with my hands. The magazine in which I worked was located on the same floor as Lucky Magazine, and I befriended a few of the gals there. Everyone was so unpretentious and at some point, one of them found out that I was making one-of-a-kind dresses with recycled antique fabrics and jewelry. She asked me to bring them in to show Kim France the Editor-in-Chief. They wanted Kim to wear an outfit to an event that night and also decided to put my things in the magazine… that was kind of the beginning.

I kept making more pieces and sold things by word of mouth. But then, Sept. 11th happened which changed everything for everyone. I took a trip to Mexico not long afterwards, a few friends had already visited - Mexico City, Oaxaca City and Puerto Escondido was the recommended route - I fell in love with the country and… a man. I traveled regularly to see him and became deeply inspired by the culture. My first production ever was made in Leon, Guanajuato, the shoe capitol of Mexico: a small run of Greek-style wrap up sandals with interchangeable ribbons, they were put into Lucky and sold out. A creative friend, Kyung Lee was opening a store called Albertine in the West Village and told me she needed to sell my dresses. I felt like it was the right time to leave the magazine and formally start something of my own. It was easy because so many people believed in and supported what I was doing, which gave me a lot of confidence. Up until that point I had not really met anyone working on such a small scale on their own dime as I was. So when I started selling in Albertine a beautiful universe opened up for me. Kyung created a community where I became aware of other like-minded artist/designers working similarly, Susan Cianciolo, Miranda Bennet, Gary Graham; I understood then that I could do things on my own terms. A few years into having my own brand “Christina Hattler”, two young Vogue editors (who are very well known now) came to a trunk show held at the shop, and they didn’t get it - they were saying “your stuff is so beautiful but how will you ever sell? How can you sell one-of-a-kind pieces? How can a range of sizes not exist? etc..” it was confusing to them. They said something like “if we put your things in the magazine, by the time the magazine comes out and the item has been sold…it just won’t work… “ needless to say I have yet to be featured inside American Vogue, haha, but have had my work featured in countless other magazines. Their comments of course made me think about the direction I was headed in, but it was then that I realized, being an industry ‘designer’ was never my goal - I can’t stand making productions, I don’t like working with factories, it’s all so impersonal. Something I have always instinctually known but now it’s a thing they teach you in Marketing 101, is to find your 1,000 true fans and you’ll be fine. It’s true! Almost everything I have ever made has sold, perhaps not right away. Sometimes it can take 4-5 years for a piece to find its person; once a skirt took 15 years to find its owner! Because of this, I also learned to never place my work on sale. Why would I devalue my own self like that? I deeply feel that each piece I make is a little part of me, going out into the world.

So in 2006, I moved to Mexico, for love and adventure and this is where I began collaborating with artisans because I was unable to source fabric for making clothing. It was crazy, in all of Mexico City there was only one small store in Polanco that sold silk, and it cost about 100 USD per meter, totally unsustainable. Mexico, with its cultural riches beyond comprehension, was a desert for buttons, beautiful cottons and silks (high taxes on imports of this kind was the reason). So, instead of thriving, I became kind of depressed, like WTF have I done, I moved to Mexico and I can't find fabric. I stopped making things, and you know the book Julia and Julia? I had that experience with Diana Kennedy. I just started cooking my way through the states of Mexico and my depression. My partner would go off to work, and I’d go to the traditional markets and shop for groceries. He’d come home and I’d have a 5-course Oaxacan meal waiting for him, totally insane. But, at the markets I would meet artisans, I’d buy napkins for the elaborate meals I was cooking, and this is where I began learning about textiles and crafts, something I’d never really known about before. It was a turning point. After about a year of depression and cooking, I began working with artisans and decided to start with homewares. At the time very few designers were working with artisans in a collaborative capacity. Many of the artisans I would encounter were weaving with polyester and poor quality wools, because anything else was not readily available to them, so I’d search out natural fiber yarns and higher-end alternatives. I developed fresh colorways and tweaked things to be more contemporary in their designs, things which are now extremely common place to do, but at the time it was unheard of. Crafts people in general were not appreciated in Mexico, not at all on the elevated level they are now. Many were elderly, with no one in their families willing to learn their craft to continue the traditions. It was also very difficult to make orders because many did not have access to cell phones, but I was determined and found a way to make it work. I learned then how to look for creative alternatives. Invent new ways to do something. I taught myself about textiles and craft, weaving and indigenous cultures, colonialism, the Zapatistas, Octavio Paz, I ate and read everything I could and travelled a lot, too.

The business grew quickly and I worked very hard for many years. I was selling in about 30 boutiques around the world and was collaborating with about 15 different artisan families. I received a big order from Anthropology (at the time it was a huge deal to get an order from them), I gave birth to my daughter, I was finally, after many years, making some money and was happy about that. But then, boom. I needed to get a divorce - I won't go into details, but my daughter was 4. I had some money saved, and we needed to move immediately. I chose Oaxaca, because who wouldn’t choose Oaxaca as a creative person. That was about 7.5 years ago. So, I moved to Oaxaca and fell apart. I stopped wholesaling, I stopped working and just took care of myself and my daughter. After about a year, I began thinking about work again, but in an existential - I am now a divorced, single mom, who am I - kind of way. I knew I wanted to do things differently and was tired of making large productions or rugs and pillows, I was tired of wholesale and realized that I deeply missed making clothing and missed things being personal. I also missed making things myself. So I got to work, training a group of local seamstresses and pattern makers in couture sewing techniques: what a cut is, a drape, how to set a zipper properly. The women were pretty much self-taught and the technical knowledge was extremely basic, so it was a big challenge. Though little by little we started to make clothing, and the clothing got better and better, and that’s when I decided to open a Mexchic shop in the center of Oaxaca City. We were open for a week and then COVID hit. I immediately closed the store and moved into my studio, spending the next 2.5 years learning the things I had always wanted to learn but never had the time. Weaving, natural dyes, knitting and just digging in deep to my creative side, the artist. Since then I’ve made it the priority. Drawing out my artist energy, it’s not easy to do, you know? And this is where I am today, in my studio sitting with the reality that I am an artist and a designer - the world likes to keep these two things separate - but I won’t comply.

One-of-a-kind textile artwork, handmade by Christina over this past holiday season. Made from hand-procured and hand-spun sanseveria vegetable fiber from the Yucatan, hand knit. Lining is hand-spun and hand-woven regeneratively grown native cotton from the coast of Oaxaca, lining is machine sewn with french seams and then hand stitched into place. Vintage handmade clay beads collected from Queretaro, Mexico.

Your work is so Divine Feminine, so connected with nature. Where do you look for inspiration and learning?

I am a mother to a daughter, my mother and sisters, grandmothers, great grandmothers and friends are brilliant and accomplished, hard-working women in their own right. This all inspires and uplifts me. I am a sensitive and sensual person: texture, taste, how something looks or smells, it’s all so important to me. I am always looking to art and reading a zillion things, books podcasts, all at once; I've recently become obsessed with Substack and newsletters - it makes me so happy to read and absorb beautifully written, transportive words. Also listening to music and cooking, hiking too. In my work I attempt to have a balance of strength and sensuality, lightness and playfulness but also grounded. I don’t think about trends but rather pay more attention to what I instinctively want to make or wear at that moment, what feeling do I want to portray?

You're a creative genius; always experimenting with new mediums and forms. How do you keep that spark alive?

Wow, thank you for such a compliment. Genius is a strong word - I like how Elizabeth Gilbert refers to “having a creative genius” taken from the Greeks, I believe. We all have one - a little fairy of a creature who brings down ideas which are floating in the ether, and if we’re open to receiving these gifts of inspirations and ideas, they are ours to use. BUT if we don’t use them because we are busy or what have you, that idea might float out of us and into someone else to use. Big Magic is one of the most important books on creativity. I read it about once a year. I work instinctually and instead of looking to the outside for direct influences, I look inward. Of course I see everything around me, but I also purposely put on blinders; my daughter loves to show me gross things from TikTok, and I'm like NO! I don't want that visual entering into my bubble. You've got to protect what you allow in. I’m also not scrolling Pinterest or Instagram, I think that is a grave mistake. And it’s why everything looks the same these days. People copy, intentionally or unintentionally - but it’s hindering your creative mind to scroll - because you are are a sponge and if you, along with everyone else is looking at the same things, you will all regurgitate the same essence back in your work. So you need to get out of that endless loop. Many pieces which I have made over the years, I have seen quickly copied a few months later, then people copy that copy to infinity and before you know it your thing is in Target or sold at the artisan market in town. It has always happened to me and to all the other really creative people I know, but I learned long ago to not care too much. Of course it’s annoying, but instead, I direct my energy on being ahead of all of that. I’m not someone who gets nostalgic and ruminates. Instead I look towards the future, making new things. I have thousands of scraps of paper and journals filled with ideas I want/need to make - what I lack is not ideas, but rather the time and sometimes money to produce them - ’tis expensive to make a very high quality rug which can take 3 months to weave. I am excited though because this year I am going to be making many of those works, some have patiently been waiting for years. So my advice to anyone would just be to get off the internet and go outside, see your people in person, read a book, go inside yourself and most importantly…. don’t feel obligated to post about it. Keep some things private, just for yourself.

How do you manage social media? It feels almost necessary for companies to have a presence, but I have such a hard time maintaining a balanced relationship with it. Have you figured that out?

I kind of touched upon this above and yes, for a business it is necessary to a point, you just need to set healthy boundaries for yourself and how to work with it as a tool to tell the story of your brand. I have a private account which I use for close friends and family, but generally I try not to scroll or watch stories only because I’ve got a billion other things I need to do and it’s just not healthy! Of course there are accounts I love of other textile people, shops and artisans, artists etc… so I’ll just go directly into their account if I want to see what they are up to. I have always used IG as more of a behind the scenes journal of my work, it’s not all product and models, I need it to be personal and tell my story.

You are designing, producing textiles, running a gorgeous shop (now open in Oaxaca City), and are a single mother ~ how do you make sure everyone on your team + your family + you are taken care of?

I intentionally surround myself with people I love and respect and who love and respect me back. I have learned how to set boundaries. I take every lesson with me into the new experiences I have, being open and not afraid to live fully and deeply. Balance is something I try to maintain in my art and life - one needs to be consistently and consciously maintaining and aligning it, because as you grow older (and hopefully wiser), you come to understand that life is so very short, but also like a game of whack-a-mole. It’s how you maintain your integrity, flow, composure and balance while whacking the moles back into their holes. I have an incredible daughter and supportive family, an extraordinary therapist, I do yoga, go to the gym, meditate and I hike. I want to journal more; it helps manifest things into existence. I love my work and the life I have built. I’m extremely proud to be me right now in this skin. It’s not been easy, though I’d not change a thing about it. I still have a lot I’d like to accomplish and that keeps me on my toes.

What's your ideal day look like?

At the beach, with my daughter, our dogs and cat, in a casita with a palapa roof which I’ve rented for 2 weeks. Taking hammock siestas, eating all the buckets of freshly caught wild oysters still filled with seawater, with a little lime and dab of Tabasco, bought directly from a guy who is dripping wet because he spent all morning catching them, drinking salty mezcal margaritas on the rocks, weaving everything I can find around me, taking walks and collecting shells and driftwood for projects. Listening to the waves crashing and the Mexchic Spotify Playlist. I will move back to the beach one day, I miss it a lot.

What is your prayer to the world?

That people have more integrity, compassion and empathy.

Favorite object or space in your home?

My studio

Where can people find you?

website: www.mexchic.co
IG: Mexchic_shop

For some of the best shopping in Oaxaca City, visit Mexchic’s shop:

Mexchic Tienda
Calle M. Bravo 307
Oaxaca, Centro Historico
México