Style

Mia Meets… Maria Clara Tripier

For this weeks ‘Mia Meets…’ I will be interviewing my first ever stylist! Her work is sleek, fresh and extremely cool. Originally from Venezuela, Maria Clara Tripier moved to Milan to study fashion before moving to London, where she now works as a stylist and editor at Nou magazine. We chat about her admiration for close ones, her recent experience at the Martin Creed exhibition and her serious love for plastic! Meet the magical Maria…

You just moved to London last year, Tell us all about it, how would you describe your experience so far?

Well it’s been great! I’ve met a lot of great people and discovered so many new places… I definitely like the vibe of the city.

Being from Venezuela, living in Geneva and Milan!! How does London compare? Cold…

Yes cold for sure, but it has so many other positive things that make the cold not so bad! Geneva and Milan are much more smaller as cities but they are marked as home to me. London for now is full of mystery and intrigue, learning new things day by day… I love the excitement of moving to a new place.. slowly building up everything around you… adjusting.

You started out your career in fashion whilst in Milan, how does the industry differ in Milan compared to London?

As I mentioned before Milan is a much smaller city, so the working circles in the industry are smaller, which could be good or bad! The brands and designers there have a certain taste, very refined and tailored, as for London there are a lot of emerging designers all which are very experimental and boundary breaking. I could say both cities have different tastes when it comes to fashion.

How did you get into it? What inspired you to take a career working in fashion?

Well I had a thing for clothes and pretty things since I was very young. Moving to Europe gave me the opportunity to study fashion. I started with a career in design, which I pursued for three years in Italy. When I graduated I decided to go with styling. I think I’m more of an ideas person, making garments wasn’t my strength but I used to love the research part of it! So I would say I happened to fall into situations that allowed me to enter this industry.

When styling, what would you say your trademarks are, which colours and shapes are you drawn to?

Haha Its a funny question actually, because the people that are close to me describe my works as ‘oversize and minimal with a bit of a wet effect’, so I would say that’s my trademark maybe. I am trying to go a little bit out of my comfort zone lately… let’s see what surprises that brings!

Who do you admire? What are your inspirations?

I admire too many people in life, from my close ones like my mother to friends that show courage or strength, it’s mostly their actions and response to things that make me a stronger person, not only do I learn from their experiences but makes them even more exceptional. Anyone who is near me in life has something that makes them exceptional and worthy of admiration.

My inspirations come from anything I see on a daily basis. Lately I’ve been looking a lot into Viviane Sassen’s work and Venetia Scott’s as well.

Do you remember an exhibition that left you breathless?

I recently visited the Martin Creed exhibition ‘ what’s the point of it? ‘ at the Hayward Gallery… Diving into a room full of huge balloons and feeling all that static energy was a phenomenal experience, I kind of felt like a child again when I used to play in those coloured plastic ball pools!

As well as styling, you are also the Editor at Nou magazine, tell us about Nou…

Well NOU is a project that I started with my partner Sofia Hernandez, we both decided to do a reckless act and create our own platform…an online magazine. Slowly we’ve been building it up… It’s very refreshing to work with new designers, photographers, stylists and artists! Not to mention our collaborators! It’s been great and I am sure it will get better!

In our current world so many people are creating online magazines, printing zines and blogging constantly, what do you think is the key to ensure originality?

I think creating your own visual Identity and making it stand out from anything thats on the scene in that moment is the most important.

Whats Nou’s style?

I never know how to answer this question! I guess you could say it’s all about freshness… about the new and the naughty… we like to be naughty and show a little bit here and there some of the time.

What are you obsessed with right now?

Plastic… any type, shape and form of plastic.

Tell us what would be your dream photo shoot?

I have too many dreams and they all change constantly! Even by the minute, It all comes and goes… So I can’t be precise but it would probably be something outrageous.

Whats next for you Maria? What does the future hold?

I don’t know whats next for me yet, hopefully all good things! I don’t like to think much about the future but I do like and believe on working hard towards it… So lets see how this journey goes, looking forward to being surprised by life.