Innovative Knit

Innovative Knit

When I Love You So Much was some other name and CEO Alice Wang was trying to decide where to go with her upstart creative brand, I didn’t see Sara having any interest in the project. The initial brand was not a brand that Alice had in heart — it was on a spreadsheet.

For hours I’d hear about this incredible life and movies and friends and family. There was passion and style and love in Alice’s eyes.

Then Alice would explain the shoe she needed to make and there was a disconnect.

So I said what I usually say, “What do you want?”

I don’t ask that question in a literal sense.

I wanted to know what Alice wanted to bring to the world. Who did she want to hang out and why would they want to hang out with her.

I got another hour of life and movies and music. Not sure if Alice came up for air. More on Alice another day.

That energy, though.

That’s when I knew I had to match her energy for the project.

Ladies and gentlemen, Sara Jaramillo.

I met Sara on Yeezy. She was assisting Lucette Holland on accessories. “I was in Pensole but D’Wayne hates me!” was how she introduced herself. “I cried the entire time.”

Turns out that Sara did cry the entire class but D’Wayne did not actually hate her. She’d just broken up with her boyfriend and was a wreck. Understandable. D’Wayne would later tell me that she was actually really good and talked more about crying than actually cried.

That’s Sara.

Our first working session together was our 48 hour tour of NYC’s craft experts. We had some shoes for Season 1 that need the laces flipped to a lace that didn’t exist in the Tri-State area. We ended dying the laces on my balcony and relaced a couple dozen pairs of shoes right before the show.

During our expedition — and every subsequent season — Sara was both grizzly and teddy bear. We’d get to a place that confirmed something over the phone and — welcome to New York — ”now who did you talk to because we don’t have those.” Sara would explain to them exactly where everything was and told them what they needed to do to get her what needed.

Every time.

And after we got what we wanted Sara would move on to the next catastrophe that she needed to resolve.

From Yeezy to her sister’s wedding dress, drama!

“I am Colombian!” Sara would tell me as we took on more projects after Yeezy. Unfortunately she invited me to dinner with a couple of her Colombian friends.

Her creative, but even tempered Colombian friends.

“My family makes me this way!” Sara would then tell me. Unfortunately, her sister, the doctor, would disagree.

All good.

If you know me, you know that I’m pretty even most of the time. Having Sara around is always a good injection of energy on any project.

With Alice.

Awesome. They riff off one another and complement each other’s creativity. This Tabi from I Love You So Much is what happens when you let them go toe to toe — pun intended — with the best knit factory in the world. They know what they want and they go after it.

I’m looking forward to seeing what Sara and Alice are cooking up next. I just hope they enjoy the ride.

Alice’s text that Sara repeated 3 minutes and 6,000 miles apart.

Good things.

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