As Jasmin Larian&rsquo;s Cult Gaia brand reaches further round Mother Earth, we discuss chaos, the divine feminine &amp; how her designs sculpt her desires.

JENNY MANNERHEIM: What is your earliest fashion memory? 
JASMIN LARIAN: My earliest fashion memory is going through my mother&rsquo;s linen closet. She used to have a lot of fabric left over because she was a fashion designer. She would keep it in the linen closet, I would go in there and it was like a treasure chest of textures and unique shapes, it was a really magical experience and probably my first fashion experience. I was around 5 years old. That and I would only go to school in a dress&mdash;it had to twirl or I wouldn&rsquo;t wear it.

JM: How would you describe your approach to designing?

JL: I really believe in the concept of &ldquo;one stroke&rdquo;. I love sets, I think the eye moves upwards. That&rsquo;s why I like designing in a lot of tonal colors, playing with bolder silhouettes and playing with proportion, finding ways to emphasize or characterize a woman&rsquo;s body. I love inviting a bit of playfulness but also making sure that everything is quite timeless, and then finally I think everything has a bit of a goddess element to it &mdash;it&rsquo;s elegant but it has impact.

JM: I love that concept of the goddess, and the name Cult Gaia, how did you come up with that name?

JL: Gaia is the goddess of Mother Earth and the daughter of Chaos. For me femininity is the most creative force there is, as well as nature, and I think every great design has tension within it&mdash;which to me is chaos.

JM: You&rsquo;ve described your design philosophy as creating things you want to wear.

JL: I tend to gravitate towards things that I don&rsquo;t see everywhere, I love nuance and a bit of things that feel unique and very different but also timeless. I think that is a huge part of my philosophy as well, it&rsquo;s the idea of if I&rsquo;m going to take it out of the bottom of a box, will it still look good? I think that&rsquo;s the best evolution, you can see our product has gotten so much better as I have learned, having this company has been a bit like school and I think there&rsquo;s always room for improvement but our product is so much better than ever; beautiful, timeless, and in continuity with our brand DNA.

JM: The Cult Gaia aesthetic is artful and sculptural, I know your mother was also a sculptor, how do you approach blending art and fashion in your designs?

JL: Yes I think most of our pieces basically act like wearable sculptures and wearable art, they&rsquo;re made and crafted to evoke emotion but still wearable. I think its super important for someone to feel when they see something, that&rsquo;s why we exist as a brand and I think that we really walk the line of creating pieces that are extraordinary but also functional.

JM: Motherhood has also influenced your fashion collection, how does that tie into the designs? This idea of being a mother and leading this international brand?

JL: Well I think more than ever it makes me really focused on making pieces that are lasting, forever. That&rsquo;s truly my approach right now to sustainability, as much as possible, making less but making everything a lot better because I really think of what they&rsquo;re going to see the legacy of what I created. Our customers are going to grow up with that, so how do I want to make them proud. It has also taught me a lot of patience and has changed my approach to managing a team and a company, it&rsquo;s a lot more purposeful.

JM: You opened your store last year in St Barth, how did you decide to open a store on the island?
JL: I visited St Barth three years ago and to me it&rsquo;s like this magical escape. I like that it&rsquo;s a little hard to get to and it has this perfect balance of nature&mdash;lots of nature, and also glamour. This to me is the most Cult Gaia thing ever, the balance of both. I just felt like it really feels like an escape when you&rsquo;re there, and it&rsquo;s a bit artistic in a way, and bohemian which I really resonated with. Everyone who knows knows, it&rsquo;s a magical gem of a place. We have a global audience and they travel there, I thought it would be a perfect place for us to give them a piece of our brand.

JM: What were your favorite spots?

JL: I stayed in an amazing house next to Eden Rock, we got so lucky we could walk to the beach from it. I was with my kids, magical. We did a lot of hikes, Le Grand Fond, the sea turtles. I mean, wow.

JM: You last dressed Tailor Hill for the CFDA awards, do you do custom designs with talent?

JL: Yes. I was working on my resort collection, believe it or not I&rsquo;m working on it for next year, and the word that inspired the whole collection for me is: charming. So the whole collection there&rsquo;s like this idea of what is charming when it comes to pieces. And I think her dress was one of the first things we designed with that concept, you&rsquo;ll see a lot more come up, but it&rsquo;s a year from now.&nbsp;

JM: Any upcoming projects you&rsquo;re most excited about? Could you tell us a bit about your upcoming perfume launch?

JL: A goddess, femininity, contrast and tension. Each scent has a little bit. It&rsquo;s definitely not basic. I really wanted it to be something that trails you, it doesn&rsquo;t overwhelm you, and that&rsquo;s how I kind of see perfect product, it&rsquo;s not so in your face but the more you look, the more you see, and with fragrance it&rsquo;s like the more you follow, the more you, you&rsquo;re like, what is that?

JM: What&rsquo;s the best fashion advice you&rsquo;ve ever received?

JL: Less is more, I think. I think it&rsquo;s a big challenge, but it goes a long way to be able to edit and pull back sometimes.

CULT GAIA ST BARTH 8 Rue Roi Oscar, Gustavia 97133, St Barthélemy
@cultgaia

The World of Gaia

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