Kassandra Thatcher is a multifaceted sculptor and ceramic lighting designer whose work has been featured in Architectural Digest, The New York Times Magazine, Vogue, and beyond. We visited her downtown Los Angeles studio on a sunny morning to document her recent projects and to ask the questions from our ongoing Journal series, which you can read in full below. 

Jennie Edgar is a freelance editorial and art director, book curator, and artist based in NYC and Hudson, NY. She is also the founder of So Textual, a community hub and online platform offering curated newsletters, events, and more for the modern book lover. Jennie has featured several Are Studio designs in editorials for So Textural, so it is a pleasure for us to grow upon this collaboration by featuring her for this latest installment of our Journal series.

Our first ever film is here. Something special to celebrate the launch of our Canvas Collection, inspired by the sounds and light that envelop downtown - a visual and auditory cacophony from which these bags were dreamed up and only blocks away from where they were made.

We are excited to launch our first non-leather styles as part of a new in-house, exclusive line of unisex canvas tote bags. This first style is called the Box tote, and it is made from 100% washed organic cotton canvas in a natural color. Subtle and functional details make this style versatile and complimentary to our existing bag & wallet offerings. Available now, exclusively at Are Studio.

This is a special one for us - Hannah Ferrara is the founder and designer of Another Feather, a jewelry collection designed, handcrafted, and ethically produced in Portland, OR. She is also a dear friend and collaborator. We have been lucky enough to feature several AF pieces in our lookbooks and editorials over the years. Her pieces have a timeless quality about them - refined yet accessible for the everyday, subtle in their details yet exquisitely intimate in their forms and variations.

We visited Hannah in her warm, bright studio for an afternoon in conversation and image making - the photographs from that visit are shared here, as are Hannah's answers to the questions from our ongoing Journal series.

Tiana Marie Combes is a multidisciplinary designer and creative, whose work ranges from an exquisite line of Objects in Virtu - handmade jewelry and objects for the home to film photography. She has long been an admired peer and more recently became an AS collaborator, offering her soft focus and eye for detail to the Louna and Rhodes - two new exclusive additions to our small leather goods collection - as part of their launch. Eager to continue our exchange, we asked TMC to answer the questions from our ongoing Journal series. 

We have found that the questions from our ongoing Journal series lend themselves in a poignant way to this moment wherein social isolation, pairing down, and sitting still are required of us on both spiritual and material levels. And so for this latest installation, we turned to Chrissy Leavell - an artist and friend who recently developed a series of images featuring her partner, Michael wearing our Fehn bag. Chrissy is a designer, skilled pattern maker, and the woman behind Une Heures, a thoughtful line of silk knitwear made slowly and sustainably here in Los Angeles.

Kayten Schmidt is a long time friend, frequent Are Studio collaborator, muse, and stylist behind our SS20 editorial. For our latest installment, she answered questions from our on-going Journal series - exploring the connections that form between us, the things we carry, and the vessels that carry them - and photographed some of her favorite styles from the SS20 collection over the past few months of quarantine at home.

As the summer months loom ever closer, we're taking a moment to highlight a new silhouette, designed with the necessities that the warmer season often demands in mind: longer days, time spent in nature, and more exposed skin to interact with the fabrics that we choose everyday.

Our SS20 Editorial, featured on Anyonegirl Journal, was photographed by Nastassia Bruckin and styled by Kayten Schmidt. 

As the natural environment around us changes from Winter to Spring, and the promise of Summer reemerges once again, we find ourselves wanting - if not needing - to heed the instinctive draw towards the outdoors. That can look different depending on where one lives and what one has access to, but the Fehn lends itself to this pursuit in any corner of the world. 

Shaina Mote is the Los Angeles based designer behind her eponymous line, which she launched in 2012. We paid her a visit on a recent sunny afternoon to ask her the questions from this ongoing Journal series in light of our recent Moura Tote bag collaboration and Are Studio’s month-long residency at her new brick & mortar store in Highland Park.

In anticipation of the launch of the Moura Tote, a special collaboration with Shaina Mote for the FW19 season, Shaina caught up with Cecilia in her home and studio to learn about what's keeping her inspired this Fall.

To inaugurate the launch of FW19, we present to you a new silhouette which encapsulates these ideas into one succinct, essential style for Fall. The Tabla bag, available in two sizes and colorways, exists at the intersection of classic ideas from the past and the instinctual functionality of the present moment. 

"I quickly realized that designing handbags wasn’t so different from my own art practice and loved the challenge of designing with sculpture and architecture in mind. In a sense, it began as an exploration in making a practical object feel intentional and above all personal." ARE Studio founder, Cecilia Bordarampe.

Building on the exploration of materials that capture light in use in our SS19 collection, the Clear Barrel bag is a perfect option for the sunny days ahead this season.

The Luz bag, named after the Spanish word for "light," hints at the illuminating nature of its central feature: a custom lucite rod upon which the bag itself hangs.

The nature of everything we do at Are Studio is centered around principles of softness and ease. Our SS19 collection expands on these principles to further explore concepts of form and structure. The Camber bag is an organic culmination of these studies.

Our versatile Disc Bag can be worn over the shoulder, around the waist, crossbody, at the wrist or as a clutch. A few examples, as shared and styled by our customers and stockists.

"I tend to be quite nostalgic about things and I love the idea of carrying something with you daily that takes on wear and experiences alongside you." ARE Founder, Cecilia Bordarampe

"In living this way, he always makes time for his art, while also being strong in logistics and practical thinking. I definitely think these are traits I see playing out on a daily basis for me, having my own business." ARE Founder, Cecilia Bordarampe