erika wakerly

i'm happy to announce another installment in the women to watch column. today i'm featuring british designer erika wakerly. erika's wallpaper made a splash at last summer's icff and she's certainly not resting on her laurels with a recent collection of fabrics and illustrations. erika's sense of line and space is truly unique and gives her work an almost surreal sense of propotion sometimes. it's fun to see someone work with line in such a painterly, illustration-style rather than using it to create purely geometric patterns. erika's work shows endless potential and i'm sure that we'll be seeing more from her at this spring's design shows. the buzz on the editorial scene is that erika is going to be one of the summer's biggest designers so i'm excited to see what comes next. i hear there are new wallpaper designs on the way and i'll be sure to post them here when they hit the streets. until then you can view her collection and find more information right here.

Alyssa Ettinger

kristina and i often brainstorm projects together and a few weeks ago she came up with a great one: women to watch in 2007. we both decided it would be great to team up and combine our knowledge of both european and american design (she's the european, i'm the american) to create a "list" of women we feel are important to acknowledge within the design industry. this will include designers, writers, people in film, etc and even those who do more untraditional jobs within the business. we'll be interviewing each woman via email or podcast to give you a better introduction and will be sharing them on both sites. today we launch with one of my favorite designers, alyssa ettinger. based in brooklyn, alyssa creates some of the most beautiful pottery in the industry. she was kind enough to join me for lunch in park slope on saturday and let me pick her brain about running a business and finding a way to make a living doing what you love. [click here] to listen to alyssa's full podcast and here to visit the site of the women to watch in 2007 section on d*s. i'll be including links to all pieces written by kristina as well. [photos of alyssa ettinger by jennifer lévy and pottery by naheed choudhry]

[just a note: the women featured won't be only european or american, we'll of course include anyone anywhere that we feel should be acknowledged]