Treana Peake, Creative Director of Vancouver-based fashion line Obakki, hopped on a plane to YYZ recently for a round of one-on-one media previews of her line of ‘contemporary classics for the modern woman’. After a peek at her highly covetable Fall 2012 collection and incredible campaign video, Treana and I spent a few minutes chatting about Jiffy Pop (I hadn’t the faintest clue what it was), making funny faces at Malania Dela Cruz‘s iPhone (OK fine, it was only me), and sharing tips on singing in the shower. Intrigued? Read on for all of that, plus Treana’s favourite part of the fashion designer job and the charitable cause that’s closest to her heart.
The Backseat Stylers: What’s your earliest fashion memory?
Treana Peake: I think my earliest fashion memory relates more to…a creativity rather than to clothing itself. As a young child…I was always making up stories, putting different elements together to tell a story or to paint a picture. For me, eventually, it turned into fashion. I was able to use these collections as a way to tell these stories.
What’s the best part of your job?
I think the best part of my job is being able to take a creative concept or plant this creative seed at the beginning of a season and then have it evolve and transform throughout the entire collection: through the clothing, through the photo shoot, through the marketing material, through the films that we shoot. I’m a conceptual storyteller, so I love being able to tell a story using fashion as the canvas.
Can you share an item that’s on your bucket list?
I would love – this is very non-fashion – to contribute to the eradication of guinea worm and bring clean and fresh water to people around the world [through the Obakki Foundation]. We’ve been able to do that now through the story of our most recent collection, the story of South Sudan, where proceeds of our line are going into drilling water.
When you’re not busy saving the world or designing for Obakki, where’s your favourite place to shop?
Each city has these little secret boutiques. I love the mystery in finding them and researching…these hidden gems. I love that these boutiques do the selection for you. In Toronto, I love TNT.
What’s the one item in your closet you can’t live without?
I’m a boots girl. I feel most at home in boots. I grew up in Alberta, [so] it could be my Alberta roots. I do have a pair of cowgirl boots!
Footwear aside, what’s your guiltiest pleasure?
Popcorn with lots and lots and lots of butter…and salt! I have it almost every day. I have my own special way of making it. I even love Jiffy Pop!
If you were throwing a fashionable dance party, who would your three guests of honour be?
I would…invite three people who know nothing about fashion, because I think fashion has a lot of…misconceptions and people think that fashion is full of pretentiousness. I’d like to invite three very non-fashion people and have them surrounded by fashion people and just have them [be] very surprised by the crowd.
What song do you sing in the shower?
I don’t really sing any particular song, but I have a speaker that’s in my shower. Every morning we blast music in the shower, so I sing whatever is on the radio. Even if I don’t know the words!
xx, S
