Here at No.6, we're always thinking of new ways to think and talk about fashion. There's so much more to the story than what you see on a hanger in a shop or on the homepage of a website. Every single garment has a backstory populated by people, ideas, intention, and hard work. Clothes are great (of course), but what makes an outfit sing is the people who put it together and the person who wears it. In that spirit, we set out to talk to creative people we admire about their process and what getting dressed means to them.
Welcome to our newsletter series: The Sixth Sense
To kick things off, we chatted with our very own Karin Bereson, the owner of No.6, about inspiration, photos, and the process of turning a picture into a wearable item.
What’s the story behind the Bellport print? It’s featured on a few pieces in the No.6 SS26 clothing collection. The Tierney Dress, the Nico Top, and the pleated tote bag.
The picture was taken at a house that my friend and I rented in Bellport, New York, last summer for a week. I was lying on a chaise lounge just looking across the pool, and I thought it was so beautiful with the hydrangeas in the background. I loved the reflection of the flowers in the pool, so that’s why I took the picture, but when I took the picture, I wasn’t thinking that it would be beautiful on a garment.
So how did it become a print?
In a design meeting, we were discussing our prints for the season. We talked about creating another photo print, since we think they work really well on pleated fabric. The prints take on a different texture, and the pleats soften the images slightly. They shift with any movement rather than lying flat. I went through my camera roll and thought this photo could be really beautiful on a dress. There are a lot of additional options once you settle on an image. For photo prints, we usually start in Photoshop by adjusting the scale, blowing up or shrinking the image, which creates a lot of new, more abstract versions of the print. We then crop into different areas to see what feels strongest. From there we’ll drop it into the sketch and move it around to test placement. It is very important to see what works best on the body as well as the garment. This image has a natural dividing line – the edge of the pool. When we worked on placing the print, we moved that horizontal line up and down. For the Tierney dress, we liked it where you see it, almost half and half, with the line of the pool being near the waist. For the Nico top, we moved that pool edge up to right under the chest. The blush version just came from messing around and trying it in different colors.
But with the carwash print from the AW22 collection, you just knew?
Definitely. I was sitting in my car in the carwash, and those gigantic brusher things just created a rainbow of motion and colors on the windshield. I quickly took a video while they were still moving. Looking up at the colors I thought this could be a really great print. It's funny, inspiration can come from anywhere, and when you're a creative person, you often see things differently.
And you made a camo printed leather for the SS23 clog collection, too, right?
We had talked about trying to do a camo print for a long time, but we wanted to make it from scratch. These pictures were taken in Lambertville, New Jersey, on a family trip. I specifically found a wooded area, grabbed my dog, and set out to look for what I was hoping would be real life camouflage. It was the perfect time of year, early November, so I had so many options to work with.
I think I looked at all the leaves in those woods. Some photos were more leaf-forward with browns and golds, and some featured more sticks, twigs, and fallen branches. I was looking for the perfect combination, definitely obsessing. I probably took 50 to 75 pictures – everything from the pebbles on the path we were walking on, to more greyish brown dead leaves, to leaves that were still green. We played with the photos until we found a combination we thought worked. It’s an allover print but throughout the selection process it transformed into a placed print. When you have a left and right shoe, you want to mirror things as much as possible, and you want to make sure to do it without wasting leather in the process.
Is there a story behind the sunset and sunrise prints from SS21?
That was the same sort of thing. I was on another family trip with my sister, her husband, and my nephew. All of these photos were taken within the same hour, but there were so many parts of the sky that were completely different colors. These pictures I specifically took thinking they would be beautiful on garments. I was taking regular vacation pictures of my family, but then I kept turning away to take pictures of the sky, just leaving them standing there. Some were also taken while driving because I wanted to get a little blur. I kept telling my brother in law to drive faster and then slow down, he was ready to kill me! We didn’t manipulate the images at all beyond blowing them up or shrinking them down.
Are any other photo prints in the works?
We do have two new photo prints in the works that will be featured in our summer/pre-fall collection available in early May. The fun part of doing the photo print is always the backstory. It’s just a quick, visceral reaction. It's not any magic thing, you simply just see something.
Do you have any favorite photographers at the moment?
My absolute favorite is Romina Ressia. I love pretty much everything she does. I love Viviane Sassen and Coco Capitán these days. And one of my favorite photo series is Richard Avedon's In the American West.
