Kombucha Skins and Oyster Shells | Interview with Charlotte Denner
The power of TikTok has become increasingly inextricable from the artists and creatives who lean towards the platform for coverage. Here we talk with social media superpower, bio fabric experimenter, and CEO of CAPTCHA LABCharlotte Denner about her creative process, brand, and impact of social media on her quest for sustainability in the fashion space.
Twenty-four year old French fashion experimentalist and designer, Charlotte Denner is on the cutting-edge of modern sustainable fashion. Denner, who studied Fashion Design and Pattern Cutting in Paris and Oslo, officially created her biofabrication based brand, CAPTCHA LAB, at the onset of the pandemic, inspired by the simultaneous pressures of Brexit and COVID-19, as well as the overwhelming desire to create.
Here, we spoke with Charlotte on her early fashion roots, biomimetic design style, and rise to TikTok stardom.
How did you initially get into design and fashion?
I think it started as soon as I could use my hands and pick up my outfit as a baby. My grandmother also transmitted her love for costumes, dance and sewing. She sewed all of my family wedding dresses and the performance outfits as well for a while at dance school. I learned how to sew with my doll, and am now reproducing this passion to create my own ‘garde de robe’.
I’m coming from a family divided into workers, musical artists, business people and engineers so the mix gives a funny recipe in my head. Basically my brain analyzes the technique and also the potential of selling the piece before even making it, and it comes very naturally.
Can you tell us more about your brand and overall creative process?
I always worked with end of a roll fabrics, recycled sources, upcycled processes and bio experimentations. Everything starts from a controversial thought of me, an activist regarding climate change, and my passion or work, inside the 2nd most polluting industry in the world. I alway want to put a political side in my pieces – through the material I’ll be using. I worked alongside my studies at Rick Owens for more than 3 years, and I guess this helps me to acknowledge the process of a brand from inside, so I decided to launch CAPTCHA LAB with a desire to be part of the industry in an innovative and ecological way.
Your dedication to bio experimentation and innovative material use is quite inspirational. How do you come up with ideas and what is the actual design process like?
Nature is probably the n°1 in terms of inspiration. Then I’d say music and the political situation, related mostly to climate change. I work with the material and then the design. I’m not following the classical methodology I’ve learnt at school, which is: moodboard, drawing, pattern, toiling, sourcing, and prototyping. I like to work with my intuition and not feeling too narrow with a path to follow. I won’t say much with my creative process as I think it’s very intimate and It is also versatile toward the piece I will make!
With regards to your social media presence, what are some of the challenges of using Tik Tok – typically perceived as a light hearted or fun channel — to educate people?
I think by the time you want to show your process, or reach out to more people, you ‘need’ to accept the fact we have to live, realistically, with our time, and so, using social media. I started TikTok a year ago seriously and it works very well for me.
It works also because I’m sharing tips, and the process of an experimental project I develop myself. It was a long conversation with my inner self asking; Do you want to share internationally the research I did for this or that experimentation? Then I took it as an open source for my knowledge and other followers! Also sharing thoughts can give interesting feedback.
How do you keep (especially younger, distractible) audiences engaged with your work?
I honestly don’t know, I think the algorithm is evolving every week, so sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. I think mostly we are not in control of the reception of the content impact. I just discovered the more natural you are and the more effective the message will be shared, which is a problem sometimes when you are sharing a qualitative post on which you worked hours…
How is your content received? Do you see that your network increases as people continue to prioritize sustainability in their own lives?
Regarding my content, I receive various curious comments. A lot of people want to know more about the deep process / the smell of my creations using bio textile for instance!
Yes It brought me more business, and an outside motivation to showcase my process for sure. At least what social media can help on is the awareness of the climate situation we are in and the solution – alternatives – toward it.
What projects are you working on currently?
At the moment I’m doing 2 projects at the same time : I am part of an exhibition for the PAC OFF in Marseille : ‘UNLOCK’ where I’ll be showing a very new and exciting sculptural piece made out of hundreds of key rings.
At the same time I’m collaborating with a tattoo artist @24hdesommeil with whom We are creating an upcycled t-shirt capsule line and unique towels for the summer ! Very soon to come, and we’ll do a launch in Marseille on the 10th of June.
What plans do you have to continue to pursue sustainable fashion in the future?
I’d love to collaborate more with textile designers and engineers to improve my knowledge and realistically find a fabric that could be BIOdisintegrate, not using too much water, can grow by itself, doesn’t use any massive energy, and be able to be washed and sold. Hard to find but I’m into the experimentation of this challenge.
Also, through Tik Tok and now in real life, I met the talented bio-designer Alicia Valdes. We are in a discussion to develop a collaborative piece.
All Images:
© Charlotte Denner
+ Words: Tori Palone
Luxiders Magazine