CITYist

It started as a joke. A news story was circulating around Europe about a group of thieves who were using ultrasonic scanners to tap into laptops at airports and lift the private information of others. To be funny, the creative duo behind DDCLab released a jacket lined with a light copper mesh, promising to protect the wearer against the unwanted waves of an identity theft scanner. Surprisingly, the jacket quickly sold out.

Much like the other pieces in the DDCLab collections, which translate more like the content of science fiction novels rather than fashion magazines, the jacket embodied exactly what the designers were hoping for: another lighthearted, successful fusion of new technology with natural textiles.
“It’s innovation,” say Savania Davies-Keiller, one half of the DDCLab team. “It’s about discovering new things and how far you can push new things. That’s why people were sent to the moon. It’s just about being inquisitive, really.”

This passion for discovery has kept Davies-Keiller and partner Roberto Crivello at the forefront of futuristic fashion, even today as they enter the 10th year with their brand, DDCLab, and 17th year with their design studio, DDC USA. Over the years, their collections have included everything from steel (Inox) pocket accents to shield against cell phone and iPod radiation, to paper bodice lining to regulate body temperature, and yes, copper to protect you from identity theft — all realms other designers have yet to explore.

“For Roberto and I, what has been our salvation and what has set us apart from the rest, is that we really have focused on what we are sincerely interested in,” says Davies-Keiller, who credits architecture, dreams, books, and politics as their inspirations. “We’ve always been quite quiet and private and just took these slow little steps; it’s been a long struggle for us.”

Davies-Keiller had been working at a television station in London before meeting Crivello over dinner in 1992. The duo realized their similar spacey fashion vision and joined together to form the original DDCUSA design studio that same year.

“We came with this desire and this drive and the push to discover technologies that would compliment, enhance, and make life easier,” she says. They were bursting with ideas for high-tech performance wear, but since neither had a background in science, they grappled to collaborate with the experts.

They found a home in DuPont, the chemical company known for developing novel materials including nylon and Lycra. Davies-Keiller and Crivello signed up as design directors for the company’s textile division, where they spent the next six years working closely with scientists on new material technologies to achieve what they thought was needed for the apparel industry.

“Our feedback was, ‘make this lighter, make this more breathable, this is interesting, but it’s too rough,’” Davies-Keiller says. “Initially, the scientists would say, ‘no that can’t be done’ or ‘we don’t think this looks good.’ But when Roberto and I would look at it, we would say, ‘this is exactly what we want!’”

Their unique vision drew intrigue and confidence from DuPont, which invested in the duo’s own line of clothing, called DDCLab. While simultaneously working for DuPont and making their own collection, Davies-Keiller and Crivello began designing for other brands including the Gap, New Balance and BMW.

In 1998, they opened their first DDCLab store in New York City, releasing the first corn and silk blended sweater. Their eye for pioneering technology was only magnified by their knack for debuting styles way ahead of the trend curve. (They showed the skinny jean in 2000 and the high-rise jean in 2001.) Even from the beginning, they designed simultaneously for the paranoid nerd and the fashionista.

“We’ve always had two kinds of consumers,” Davies-Keiller said. “One is the person looking for a fresh take on things each season, in the sense that they aren’t going to walk down the street and see everybody else in the same thing they’re wearing. And then there’s also a hardcore following of the techy people who come to us because they know we are playing in that innovative realm and we are always trying to discover something new.”
As their fan base grew, the designers gradually phased out their mainstream branded clients and decided to leave their positions at DuPont. They opened another DDCLab retail store in Los Angeles, and spent most of their time experimenting in their design studio/lab in New York, avoiding the limelight at all costs.

“I really think that has been what’s kept us kind of valid in this industry,” Davies-Keiller says. “We’ve always been these quiet kind of designers. I mean, we go to the events we have to go to, but we’ve really kind of kept out of that scene. We’d much rather focus on what we want to say and do, than be part of that big dance that is the fashion industry, and our fans like us for that.”

This past summer, they opened their third retail store, right down the street from their studio, and accepted the titles of global creative directors of the New Balance Group, the only design client they kept. The team plans to open two more self-sufficient retail stores a year, which Davies-Keiller says is now the only way to control their product and avoid diluting their brand.

“You run the risk of several things in this industry,” she said. “You run the risk of taking yourself too seriously, which is usually at the detriment of yourself and whatever brand you’re designing. You also run the risk of getting lost in the whole glitter that is the fashion world. And then you run the risk of designing for sales people and wholesale, where they’re always wanting you to design very basic, sellable stuff, so your creativity starts drying up.”

Risks the DDCLab duo has proven they don’t need to take; their recently released New Balance tennis shoe, which incorporates glow-in-the-dark crushed glass, sold out and has a waiting list that “has gone a little crazy, to be quite honest,” Davies-Keiller says.

The pair is still churning out new frolicsome fabric blends, using bamboo, cork, aluminum, aloe vera, wood, and even Tyvek, a material used in home construction, many of which won’t be ready to debut for a few more seasons.

“We understand that we’re not going to have the whole of the pie,” Davies-Keiller says, laughing at the idea of anti-alien invasion Fedoras. “We can only grow, hopefully organically, and hopefully at the pace that’s right for us.”