Fashion gets a second wind through The Collette Collective
Published:Friday | December 15, 2023 | 12:11 AMShanel Lemmie/Staff Reporter
When local fashion designer Collette Foster decided to take a step back from the design world in 2021, she was devastated. The art she had fallen in love with had become too overwhelming for her to enjoy. Later, on a trip to Spain, she found the inspiration she needed to dive back into her own creativity with a new medium. Now, through the creation of polymer clay jewellery, Foster is discovering her second wind in the world of art.
Specialising in ornate earrings, Foster told Living that during her time in Spain, she had fallen in love with jewellery.
“While there,” she said referring to her time in Spain, “I realised that after my classes I would treat myself to a pair of earrings. The big colourful ones that stand out, I realised that I like those. So I was on Instagram one day and I saw that Terri-Karelle Reid was wearing a really nice pair of earrings and I saw she tagged the person.”
Falling down the Instagram rabbit hole of scrolling on the person’s profile, she felt a kinship with the polymer clay earrings she had come across. Delving deeper into her research, Foster mentioned that she began practising with various types of polymer clay while still in Europe.
“It wasn’t a matter of if I know what I’m doing or if I know I can do it. It just felt right. They’re what I would wear for myself so I curated the brand around what I preferred,” she explained.
“I was just using my hand to work the clay or condition it. That’s how you get the clay soft and ready. I was just using my hand to do a lot of things. I burned a few pieces. A few of the start up pieces were hideous. That’s pretty much what it was like but I knew that upon returning to Jamaica, I wanted to start the company and I wanted to hit the ground running so it was a whole lot of trial and error, which I didn’t mind.”
Returning to the island in July 2022, Foster officially launched The Collette Collective in August 2022.
With this new love of hers, Foster said she knew she wanted to turn this new expression of her art into a business despite her previous experience in fashion.
She explained, “I struggle because it’s hard to be good at something that people enjoy and keep it to yourself. That’s very difficult. It took me while to really settle into my own style but I think I’ve found it now. I started out being inspired by the architecture in Spain. So I got cutters that would remind me of the shapes of windows and doors and put those together.”
She continued, “The inspiration these days is just I get a vibe,” she explained laughing. “It really isn’t so profound. I used to put more thought to it but these days when you are creating long enough, you see creation and you see art in everything.”
Now firmly in her groove with The Collette Collective, Foster said she is returning to form with her latest collection.
“The collection out now is called ‘Holiday Things’ of course, because it’s the holiday. I introduced some new pieces with that. I’m using some new colours, some bright fun colours and I’m also using traditional holiday colours like green and red and white.”
“I decided to recreate those pieces because I realised that I was just coming up with new style after new style and I wouldn’t give the previous ones time to breathe. I would just be moving on from them very quickly and these were pieces that people really really love. But I’d never have enough stock because I was just always so excited to make a new pair of earrings. So, now I’m starting to settle in a certain style and really give it room to breathe, giving people time to enjoy it [and] make more [before] moving on to something new.”
Through a partnership with Locale, Foster’s pieces have found a home in the pink building as well as being available at her pop-ups at the Kingston Night Market.