INTERVIEW: Creative Director Cem Cako and President Rob Meadows of thrive

In an ever-changing, ever-developing technological world, thrive makes the digital world fashionable. Founded by technology innovators Rob Meadows and Ali Shahriyari, under the creative direction of Antwerp-educated Cem Cako, thrive represents the meeting point between Belgian conceptual craft, Parisian sophistication, and hardware-inspired details…all through a Los Angeles aesthetic lens. Bits & Bytes, thrive’s latest collection for Spring/Summer 2011, examines those little zeroes and ones that serve as the building blocks for all digital development. Lasercut numbers make up luxe patterns and wooden accessories: truly classic design with a graphic, modern twist.

LookBooks talked with Cako and Meadows to discuss the influence of technology on fashion, global appeal, and what the future holds in store for thrive.

How did Thrive come about? What is the concept behind the company, and what’s your design goal?

Rob: When we originally started the company, my background was in technology, so we really didn’t have much design or apparel experience. Our goal was to find interesting ways to pull in our background: from technology, from creating partnerships and working with great people, some of the things we really liked from business made into something more tangible, more interesting than just building software. We set out to find the right design team and the right creative team to work closely with us and help take some of our less apparel-focused experiences into design. That’s where Cem comes in…

Cem: When I met Rob, he was just asking me how I would envision the clothing line. When I heard about the software and technology background, the first thing that came to my mind was to take it literally and try and translate technology, software, into garments. Rob was excited and we started to collaborate. We come up with an idea every season based on technology—it could be, like, writing emails or working with circuit boards or software—and we try and translate it into a collection.

So how exactly did you all come together?

Rob: Fate! The original concept of Thrive was to just go out and find different, great designers and teams to help us realize this vision. We were previously working with a designer in New York named Benjamin Cho, and he did a couple of our first collections and that’s how we got to learn a lot about this industry and the New York scene. We ran into Cem in New York.

Cem: After graduating [from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Antwerp] in 2007, everyone was just running to Paris. I just thought, “Okay, let’s go to New York and see what’s going on there.” See how I can use this Belgian way of designing in New York City. My vision was definitely to ask myself questions why all those very influential brands were mostly coming from Europe instead of the United States…how is that possible? America is such a strong country, so what is happening there? So I wanted to see how I could put myself into design houses there. When I met Rob, it was just very clear. I told him about my vision and what my interests are and what I think the future is, and immediately we were connected and he understood.

Do you see any parallels between the inspiration of the digital age, these technological developments, and the way the fashion world is working right now? How do you think the two meet?

Cem: They’re definitely contradictory. What we’re trying to do for Thrive is create interesting parallels; we really try to use the idea of technology in a more playful, creative way, less in a high scientific way. For instance, the way Hussein Chalayan shows his designs. It can be connected to some new ideas or future visions in technology, but most of the time we just take the ideas and really play with it, try and make it interesting.

Since Rob came from a pretty strictly technological background, and Cem is strictly a creative designer, how does the designing process develop between both sides of the business? How does that exchange of ideas work?

Rob: I think it’s a really interesting process, and I’ve learned a lot spending time with Cem. The beginning of the creative process is just me, Cem, and maybe Ali [Shahriyari], our other co-founder, just talking about technology and telling Cem about all the interesting things that are happening in the world now that we’re working on, and hearing him ask us questions that you normally wouldn’t hear in the technology world—thing you take for granted. Cem really dives into that and starts to pick out things that we can expand on.

Cem: It comes from the conversations and the stories Rob tells me about new projects, people he is working with, and all of a sudden something comes to my mind and I just try and play with those ideas. It’s literally translated into a garment—making it conceptual in that way, but not too hyper-conceptual, it really goes in the direction of technology. Making life a bit easier [laughs].

Can you tell me a little more about the Spring/Summer 2011 collection, Bits & Bytes?

 Cem: I had that idea from the beginning, actually. The very first time I met Rob, I had these 0’s and 1’s…I’m just fascinated by the fact that people can write software and can read all of these things with just 0’s and 1’s. So that’s exactly what I did—I created a print out of these 0’s and 1’s on a fabric and tried to work with the shape.

Rob: It was very timely; that was the third collection that Cem was really the main creative director on. We showed in Paris for the first time, we had a showroom there, so it really represented the real starting point of where we’re taking the line, where we really understand what we’re doing and have consistency in the collections. And 0’s and 1’s are really the starting point of the digital age as well, so it felt appropriate that it was kind of the foundation for where we want to go.

Cem: Exactly. We’d already had a collection with circuits, which was more inspired by the hardware side, so I wanted to create something that was inspired by software…and let’s see where we’ll end up. It’s very exciting, and it’s a huge inspiration source to all of us.

How do you think technology is changing fashion, particularly when it comes to presenting a collection? A lot of designers are eschewing the traditional runway show, so how do you see technology progressing within the industry?

Cem: Well, you have someone like Helmut Lang in New York, who was the first in the late nineties to present his collection online. Those things will definitely happen and be more and more important, and I feel like it will open more sources to communicate the collections and the designs. If you think of that very Parisian style, that haute couture style, it will still be a traditional presentation, but with more open communication.

How is Thrive developing?

Cem: The core product of Thrive is dresses, so now we’re expanding that idea to show different garments like trench coats, jackets, skirts, blouses, etc. As Rob mentioned, the very start of our new direction was the Bits & Bytes collection, showing in Paris for the first time, and we’re going to continue in Paris.

Rob: I think we’ve given Cem a pretty interesting challenge here, and the more I learn, the more interesting that challenge becomes. Cem was trained in Antwerp in the very Belgian style, and Thrive is based in LA and definitely wants to appeal to that LA aesthetic, and we show in Paris. Pulling together those three distinct styles and having the technology override all of those aesthetics, I’m really excited for this season. We’re going in a more Parisian, sophisticated direction this collection while still tying in LA and the conceptual processes from Belgian design.

It’s sort of a reflection of how technology is shaping the world—it’s universal and there are no theoretical divides. It’s an interesting way of bringing together seemingly disparate design aesthetics.

 Rob: And as we build technology, the world has changed so much even in the past five years. You don’t think about what you’re able to sell in California, or even the United States; now it’s about thinking what’s going to appeal to the entire world. Information is disseminated so quickly now, and there’s no reason why something can’t go worldwide virally. I think we need to pull that concept into even non-technology things. Fashion should be able to appeal to a very wide array of people and it should be available to them quickly.

Cem: Style-wise, this is also what we’re doing: like Rob said, combining the European aesthetics, especially the Belgian conceptual way of designing, and the Los Angeles aesthetic which is totally different! It connects us much more.

Rob: One of the things we always want to do with every collection is be one step ahead, remaining fresh. It’s increasingly hard to do in technology, and as fashion speeds up, we need to do the same thing there. Without moving away from your core, you have to do something new and interesting every season, and that’s the big challenge that Cem has taken on.

For more on thrive, visit http://www.thrivela.com/.