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What was the inspiration behind starting your design studio, Fredericks & Mae?
Gabe: We started when we were 22 and had a shared love of craft and materials. Our early work were experiments and a way of hanging out together in our early life in New York - the company grew organically out of that!
Giovi: Yeah, our first venture together was a silkscreen studio. We made a lot of our early work there, and almost everything had a silkscreen element that was a part of it.
Do you have a favorite product you've designed?
Gabe: The cutting boards - it's fun to have made something that is so resonant!
Giovi: Agree! For so long our work was more decorative than functional, and it is great to really be both, I'd add twisted glass rim cups here, as a personal favorite.
What’s the best part about the New York creative community?
Gabe: It's so big! Love being part of a sprawling network that edges up against fashion, art, and commerce.
Giovi: I love getting to do studio visits with people, everyone's studio is a world all its own.
How does it feel seeing your products in your own storefront now in the LES?
Gabe: So fun! It's great having all this work out and in conversation, with the other work and with IRL visitors - we had it all in cardboard boxes for a few years and it's great to have it out again.
Giovi: I think the best part is getting to see our products the way we imagine them, all together and in and amongst some of our favorite artists and designers. It's heaven!
What’s inspiring you right now?
Gabe:The sky, breakfast, and glass!
Giovi: 500 Million Years of Evolution on this Planet, Sea Squirts and their ability to dissolve their central nervous system after attaching themselves to something, and Mythology.
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