Color Kindredness with Patti Carpenter

Patti Carpenter will talk color trends as she travels the world to places that inspire her. Actually, it is not the places that inspire her, it's the indigenous and how they work color in their artisan products from which we all can learn so much. Patti talks about what really keeps her going, her work in artisan development in countries around the world and her desire to bring more diversity to the world of design. From high Fashion to doing what truly matters to her, helping and supporting other creatives globally and bringing back the value of true artisan development. That is Patti. 

Patti is Principal of carpenter + company and an award- winning Designer in globally sourced home décor, accessories, fragrance and gifts, with experience in product design and development, merchandising and color + trend forecasting. As a Micro-Enterprise specialist with U.S. presidential recognition for domestic and international expertise in artisan development, small producer and entrepreneurial training and economic development  she has designed and sourced Private Label collections for Bloomingdales, Neiman Marcus, Crate & Barrel, The Phillips Collection, ABC Carpet and Home, Donna Karan Urban Zen and Ralph Lauren. She has worked in 57 countries. Patti is an expert in Color + Trend research and forecasting and consults with Pantone. She is the Global Trend Ambassador for Maison & Objet, Paris. She is an active board member of SERRV International-one of the founding organizations of the World Fair Trade Organization (WFTO), BADG (Black Artists and Designer Guild), The High School of Fashion Industries and The Bienenstock Furniture Library, as well as the co-founder of the Kaleidoscope Project. Patti is also the recipient of the  Gift For Life Industry Achievement Award for 2021 and the Withit Industry Leadership Award for 2021 for the Kaleidoscope Project.

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Transcript

Judith van Vliet: Hi, everyone, and welcome back to the Color Authority. This is Judith van Vliet podcasting out of Milan, Italy. Today I'm going to be interviewing Patty Carpenter. Patti is Principal of carpenter + company and an award- winning Designer in globally sourced home décor, accessories, fragrance and gifts, with experience in product design and development, merchandising and color + trend forecasting. As a Micro-Enterprise specialist with U.S. presidential recognition for domestic and international expertise in artisan development, small producer and entrepreneurial training and economic development  she has designed and sourced Private Label collections for Bloomingdales, Neiman Marcus, Crate & Barrel, The Phillips Collection, ABC Carpet and Home, Donna Karan Urban Zen and Ralph Lauren. She has worked in 57 countries. Patti is an expert in Color + Trend research and forecasting and consults with Pantone. She is the Global Trend Ambassador for Maison & Objet, Paris. She is an active board member of SERRV International-one of the founding organizations of the World Fair Trade Organization (WFTO), BADG (Black Artists and Designer Guild), The High School of Fashion Industries and The Bienenstock Furniture Library, as well as the co-founder of the Kaleidoscope Project. Patti is also the recipient of the  Gift For Life Industry Achievement Award for 2021 and the Withit Industry Leadership Award for 2021 for the Kaleidoscope Project that we will be talking about. 

Good morning, Patty, and welcome to the Caller Authority. How are you today?

Patti Carpenter: Good morning. It's so great to be with you, Judith. I'm so happy to be talking with you. And I'm well, all things considered, all.

Judith van Vliet: Things considered, it's been crazy time and I know I've had difficulties in catching you because you've been traveling a lot. So we're going to be talking about that too because I can't wait to hear what you've seen and what colors you think are coming up. But the very first question that I always ask to everybody in podcast is what is color? So what is color to you personally, Patty?

Patti Carpenter: Well, I loved when you sent some of the questions over and I just read that I thought, my gosh, that's such a basic and beautiful question. And as I started sort of talking to myself about what is that? For me, it's a language through which I feel like I have a dialogue with the world. I think in color, I dream in color. So I know that it's a very intrinsic thing to me. And what I kind of landed on is at the end of the day, color is life. It really is that thing that just can refresh and renew me. I found that out this past weekend over the 4 July here in the United States when friends that we usually go to visit for the last several years who are in upstate in the green and right across from a beautiful river, one of the best trout fishing rivers in New York, that when we weren't able to go up there. I really felt this pressure of, oh, my gosh, I'm going to be forced to stay in the city. And I was really having an emotional reaction to that. And when we were invited to other friends up in Connecticut, and I was able to be out in nature, out in the green, I realized how much it really is true for me that color is light. It refreshes and renews me.

Judith van Vliet: It regenerates. Right. And especially the colors of nature.

Patti Carpenter: Yeah, absolutely. It's so necessary, I think, for all of us, of course, as humans, but certainly I think some of us just resonate with it in a very deep way. And I think you and I are of that tribe.

Judith van Vliet: Yes, we are of the color tribe, the CMG  tribe, of course. And that's also how we connected. But when we very first connected privately, you mentioned that you've been traveling the world, and I'm not sure if it was a joke, but you said I did 80 days around the globe traveling for color and trends and design inspiration. So I know you can't mention all of it, but where do you go for inspiration? And what was, let's say, your most memorable color movement?

Patti Carpenter: Oh, that's interesting. Well, yes, when we talked last, I did feel like I'd been around the world in 80 days, and at that point will share. I was in within a three month period. I started off with Maison, which was moved from January to March. So I'm starting with that March period as an example. And I was in Paris, in Venice, in Morocco, in terms of international places, working differently on each one of those. And then here in the US. I was in Dallas three times and down to High Point. So it really was the sense of that. I was finally back at that place where we were getting on planes all the time and moving around. But I love what color looks like around the world. And in terms of sharing a color moment, I'd never been to Venice. I've been to Italy many times, a lot when I was in the fashion industry, less, as I do some of our international development work with artisans. So I was really looking forward to it. We went for the Biennale, and so there was a tremendous amount of color and art, obviously. But for me, the color moment in Venice was the sky. I love Italy, and I've always said that I was trained initially as a fine artist prior to going into fashion and then into color and trend for home, et cetera. And I always appreciated the skies in Italy because you understood for me where Renaissance painters got their palette, and those sunrises and sunsets in Venice were just mouthwatering, and certainly like I was standing inside a Renaissance painting. So that was at one point, certainly, I can say a color moment, and if I can have two I was in Fez for the first time first trip to Morocco as well. And so you can imagine the color of Morocco in an ancient city in the largest medina in the world. Color and fragrance and pattern and everything just coming at you all at once. It was pretty extraordinary. So I would say the colors inside the medina, that incredible Moroccan palette, and then the colors of the sky of Venice, certainly were the things that were feeding my soul during those incredibly crazy trips.

Judith van Vliet: See, now, I knew you went to Morocco, of course. So my thought when I was going to ask you this question, I was certainly going to be at least Morocco. I've been as well when I first went to Marrakesh and then I went to Fez. So I was slightly less impressed with Fest because after Marrakesh yes. But I did get lost in the Fez made in, which apparently that's a must. So I did get lost and I had to pay little boys to take me out.

Patti Carpenter: Exactly. We went for a fabulous dinner at Noor, which everyone had told me I needed to do. I don't know if you got there, but yeah, the whole time we're eating and enjoying, and then we look up and it's 11:00 at night and pitch blackout, like, how are we going to get out of here? And then, of course, someone has to take you out.

Judith van Vliet: Yeah, they cut the lights. Yeah. Well, at least in Africa, but also in the Middle East. Indeed, at night. But the indigo blue from the Sahara, nothing like it.

Patti Carpenter: Nothing like it. And the green, because this is my first time, several friends who've been to both Marrakesh and Fez said Fez is actually the best place to go first. Marrakesh is a little more touristy, and so you have a lot more of a different kind of energy. Whereas Fez is an ancient city and certainly the seat of so many first in the world, the first university. But that green tile that they use, I was not prepared for that beautiful level of green, and I really thought I was going to see much more blue. And so it was really lovely to kind of go, oh, this is interesting.

Judith van Vliet: Yes. Next time I want to go to Chefchaoen because I didn't get to go, and I'm definitely going to that one as well. Imagine the city just in the color of blue.

Patti Carpenter: Blue. Me, too. I told them, the next time I come back, we're going to visit some others. I was doing artisan work there. That's part of the other side of the work that I do is artisan development. So I was there for nine days working with artisans, and it was incredible, absolutely incredible.

Judith van Vliet: I can only imagine. What have you noticed trend wise and color wise generally, while you were traveling? Where do you think things are moving in the next period of time?

Patti Carpenter: Well, what's interesting to me is I think Europe was ahead of the US. In this. But I certainly see this explosion of optimistic color. We've been calling it the really bright colors, the bold colors, some of them with a bit of nostalgia to the they're a little warmer in their tones. But that idea of needing that sense of hope and optimism as we emerge from these years of just anxiety and tension and all the rest of all the fields, as several of my friends.

Judith van Vliet: Say, we're not there.

Patti Carpenter: Exactly. We're not completely out. Absolutely. But one can hope. And so that sense of that hopefulness, that optimism, I saw it in Europe first, and it took a while here, and I'm seeing it now much more strongly as we go into 2023, 2024, that there is more of a focus on that. For me, certainly the family of greens I have been very focused on for the last six to eight years, and I see that continuing. They just sort of shift. And I think it's that whole sense of what I was just talking about, that need for the human connection, that biophilia we've been talking about as a macro trend, but that sense that we do have a symbiotic connection to nature and that it does refresh and renew and rejuvenate us. So that family, I think, will continue to be strong. And then certainly I've been talking about a shift to the warm side of the palate. So we're seeing all of the warms, the yellows, the oranges, the corals, the terracotta back again. Yeah, I think, again, it's that intrinsic kind of connection we have. I've been calling that whole family of terracottas sort of kind and kindred because we know those colors from our ancient selves. We carried water in terracotta pots. We housed ourselves with roofs of terracotta tile. And I think that that's a connection that we as humans really have to that palette as well. So I think those kinds of colors and then completely to the other side, white. We are seeing so many whites. Just that right. Every sofa you saw at the shows, they show these bonkers things in white. So thank God for fabrics that are resistant because we're going to see a lot of white.

Judith van Vliet: It's amazing how indeed those warm tones came too completely. And indeed, the whites and the softer whites, the off whites, it was very interesting. The softer rays still a little bit, but more the whites.

Patti Carpenter: Yeah. So those would be where I'm kind of focusing right now and where I see my clients focus it.

Judith van Vliet: Yeah. So you have quite the track record. I read your biography and of course I knew you already, but I was like, wow, okay, how did you get where you are? And also because I know there's a lot of young professionals listening. And that's why they listen. They want to know because I think we both get a lot of emails like, how do I become a color professional? How do I become a color expert? Can you talk a little bit about how you just mentioned Ralph Lauren, previously, when we're talking, you went from corporate and now you're technically on your own and you're doing so many different things. But how did this I mean, it wasn't linear. I can imagine.

Patti Carpenter: No, I have to say, I tell students all the time because I speak and work at lots of schools and I tell all creatives especially. It is not a linear path. And we must be open to that non linear thinking and that non linear path. For me, it started in fine art in Washington, DC. In theater arts. I trained a bit in theater and dance. Debbie Allen was my dance teacher when I was in high school and going to a workshop for careers in the arts. But I took my paintings and fine art skills and brought them to New York and went to Fit and got two degrees, one in fashion illustration I've always drawn, and one in fashion design. I went to 7th Avenue and was a designer for 27 years, working with people like Bill Blast and Oscar de la Renta, Adrian Venturini, Gloria Vanderbilt. I'm old or older, and then I've done a lot at this point. And ending with Ralph. I left Ralph in 2000, and I left because I could see fashion becoming what I see it has become, and it is less interesting to me. It was a really fascinating place to be in the late seventies, all through the eighties and the nineties. It was a really booming industry. I traveled a great deal. I saw much of the world. I went to factories. I understood how fabrics were made. We really got into the understanding of how clothing comes to be. And so I took that understanding of how one really goes from a concept to the consumer, and I put it into my own consultancy, which I started in August of 2000. So I'm coming up on 22 years.

Judith van Vliet: Thank you.

Patti Carpenter: What I left to do initially was the artisan development work. I've been working with an organization called Aid to Artisans that I still work with 25 years later, 26 years later. And they work with helping artisans bring whatever they make by hand to market, whether it's a local, regional, or export market. And I came to that through someone in the fashion industry. One of the people that was the founder of the Santa Fe Folk Art Festival. Judy Espinar. And Judy and I had dinner one night. She was on the board of eight artisans, and she asked me, you have such a connection to how things are done. I think you'd really enjoy this. You should reach out to them. So I did, and they responded. And for five years, I work with them as part of their designer roundtable, which was a few times a year. And we'd look at products from all over the world, and we'd look at a piece of ceramic from somewhere, and we'd go, Where else can this be? What else could this be used for? How can we broaden their market? And in 2000, they called and said, we have this project in Mali. And I'd never been to Africa. I'd always wanted to go. And it was a cotton project, and that's why they called me, because it was a textile project. And for three years, I would be working, going to Mali about a month at a time, each time over the three years and the balance of the time, I'd be working here trying to assist them with keeping money in Mali for molly and cotton. It was the second largest producer of cotton at the time in Africa, but it made no money. All the value added was sent to China. And right, see, it breaks your heart. So there was no way I could do that and keep my full time job at that point as a VP at Ralph. And I just said yes, I'd like to do it. And so I left, and I haven't looked back. I've been to 58 countries working with artisans, helping them to bring what they make, whatever it is, by hand. I've gone way beyond textiles at this point. I work in whatever they work in. And it is fascinating. It feeds my soul. It is part of what I'm passionate about. And that's really what I was doing in Morocco, was working with artisans in brass and leather and velvet and basketball, and it was amazing. It always is. Just one of those things that I feel like a kid again every time I sit down to begin that work.

Judith van Vliet: So you really shifted from corporate to, let's say, I mean, organizations, which is a lot of not for profit. It's a lot of support, it's a lot of helping, but makes you feel so much better, I guess, when you talk and you start glowing something, yeah.

Patti Carpenter: You're doing something that makes a difference in the world and in people's lives. It is certainly about cultural and economic sustainability, and quite honestly, not at any point and exaggeration. If we. As the rest of the world. Don't value the things that these indigenous artisans are making in these places around the world. Really value them. Not try to buy them for $2. But really value them and give them their due that the master craftsmanship of generations is bringing to us. We will lose it in a generation because the young people don't want to work for a dollar a day. Now, we are connected so that they see us in the Western world. They see what we do, they see what we wear, they see what we have, and they want that. And if they don't feel as though they can have a life that is full in that way and I mean, it's not as though these other lives are not full, they're extraordinary lives or something else. I marvel at how much we think we need to exist versus what other people in the world really think they need to exist, and finding that balance. Right? But if we don't value it, if we don't support it, it's going to go away. And it breaks my heart as an artist, because I'm a person who believes in balance. I know earlier we were talking about our signs, and I'm not a Gemini, my partner is, but I'm a Taurus who's earthy, and we believe in that balance of I love technology. You and I wouldn't be having this conversation without it. But we have to have the balance in the world. And I think that that's part of what brings the balance, indeed.

Judith van Vliet: Because you really help economically, culturally, to build a sustainable system, because it's not about helping one artist in Fez or Marrakesh for one year get more money, and it's about something that's way more sustainable. How do you really help them? What is the type of support that you give them?

Patti Carpenter: Well, it's interesting. When I first started, I was going on all of these trips. My busiest year was ten countries in ten months. It was insane. In the early days, yeah, we don't do that anymore. But yeah, I am hired by the government of countries. I'm hired by the Chamber of Commerce, I'm hired by NGOs and nonprofits, all kinds of people like that, or who the World Bank, I mean, depending on where project is and what the focus is. I'm hired by all kinds of people. But the idea is that by and large, they have these projects like the Malian project, where it's a three year project and then they move on to another. And so what happens to those artisans after three years where you've helped them to build something up? How do they maintain or even receive? Because it usually will take that three years just to get a product that is of the quality that we need to be able to export in a bigger way. And so I found that to be the case for a few years, and I was very disappointed by that. So in 2008, I started my own brand, and I had carpenter and company for eight years. And it was a textile brand that I brought in products from Bolivia because I had a three year project there, and they made the most beautiful hand woven alpaca. At that point in time, no one even knew what alpaca was in the US. It was amazing how I had to train people on what this fiber is. But we did alpaca from Bolivia and we did cotton out of Guatemala, and we sold to places like Bloomingdales and Neiman Marcus and ABC Carpet Home and small lifestyle stores all across the world, literally. Japan and Australia, we sold everywhere. And I did that for a long time and I loved it. But it's very hard because most of it is not the creative part that I love. Most of it is chasing your money and paying artisans and figuring out trips when planes get canceled and packing and shipping and on time delivery and where was the label on the box and all of these things that are not the things that, as a creative, I wanted to do. So I decided to be more of the link to those places for companies. And that's what we really do now. But in terms of the way we do it, we go in and there's often training around business development and product development. The goal is not to change what they make. The goal is to expand so that they can expand the market. So sometimes it's a change in color, often it's color, sometimes it's a change in the scale of a pattern to make it more acceptable to a Western aesthetic. Sometimes it's making a different product but using the same skill set and materials. So it really is about landing, spending time, understanding how they do what they do, where they get what, raw materials, all kinds of things, and then taking that knowledge and melding it with the knowledge that I'm bringing and moving it along.

Judith van Vliet: So there's a lot of education going on as well, because obviously they know at best how to produce whatever is originating from the country. But it is a lot about more the production, the how, but I guess also the technology, because it is the balance between artisan but still technology. Indeed, just like you said. Otherwise we would not be able to have this podcast done. But that's not very indifferent from those who are living in Brazil or in Mali, for example.

Patti Carpenter: Absolutely. No, that's definitely it. And so what we say is we train around, as I say, whether or not you want to bring a better product to your local market, I'm happy to help. If you want to do a regional market, then that requires another set of skills, but not more than what you would take to local, but still not all the way. And then if you want to do an export market, another set of skills. And now you start to your point, really bringing in more technology because you have to learn about shipping and communications long distance and those kinds of things.

Judith van Vliet: Well, the coloring process you just mentioned, sometimes it's about changing color. The beauty of it is, of course, they probably use local color, which is something that I think we all should start doing. And I know mass production, it gets difficult. I'm aware of that. But the coloring process of doing color for artisan products is different from mass production. How does this process inspire you? Because it's so different from what you obviously did at Oscar de la Renta. Exactly, yes.

Patti Carpenter: No, absolutely. One of the things that I love is in the last probably ten years from the artist's side, I've seen a rise in working with natural dyes in a different way. If you think about it, we in the western side had sort of thought of natural dyes as comprising sort of one main color palette, which was very earthy, sort of a little grayed or muddied, if you will. Not necessarily clear, crisp color. And what I have found is that if you go far enough back in certain artisan work, they have formulas for creating all kinds of color naturally. And I love that I'll use as an example. One of my favorite places was in Vietnam, and I was in the very northern part of the country, not where tourists come at all. In fact, people stopped and just came by and watched me because I was such an anomaly, sitting on the floor with these ladies. But we were dying silk. They were teaching me how they go out in the woods behind their huts, and they go up into the trails, and there are certain trees that they bring down and they will cut open. And the outside of the tree, the bark will give you one color. There's a middle part that will give you another. There's a heart that will give you another. And then we were dying with leaves, boiling the leaves. And I love the idea of what you add as Mortons to fix things. So different types of food stuffs. Sometimes it's earthier things from the earth that they will put in as more than that's. And then we literally sat there while they spun the silk from the cocoons. They dyed the silk, and then I watched them create, set up the loom and then weave my patterning. So I just drew taking from patterns that they had there. And we created these beautiful scarves in a warm palate, a cool palette and a neutral palette, which I usually try to do with everybody, because somebody is going to like something within that, and they wove these extraordinary scarves and shawls. And I was there from that first moment. It was extraordinary.

Judith van Vliet: What a moment. I was just about to ask you, what's the story that kept with you after all these years? But I guess it's this one. I mean, it's probably many.

Patti Carpenter: Oh, there are many.

Judith van Vliet: This is quite particular.

Patti Carpenter: Vietnam.

Judith van Vliet: Wow.

Patti Carpenter: Yeah. But just because I was so far off the beat and path and when you go to the cities of Vietnam are very different than when you get out. Literally. I was up in parts that had communist flags and things flying, because it really is a very different energy when you get outside of the main cities and out into the very rural areas.

Judith van Vliet: Yes. So you're with this woman sitting there on the floor with those other women, and you were just coloring.

Patti Carpenter: The police came by because they'd heard all the commotion about this crazy there's someone here and they just came and they just stood and watched. It was so funny to see these guys in all their uniforms and all the little children and everybody gathered around, and we were just sitting on the floor, this dirt floor, and they were explaining to me what the symbols meant within the weaving, and we were pulling things to kind of make a beautiful story in the scarf. It was fascinating. I mean, I love what I learned about the culture of places, the history of places. When I go to do this work, you'd be amazed at how much of the history is woven in or chiseled in or carved in or whatever when you're working here in these different places, and how much you learn just about a place, just from working with the beauty of it is working with the indigenous people of a place.

Judith van Vliet: Indigenous artisans, yes, indeed. What can people that are listening to this podcast, what can they do to preserve cultural diversity wherever they're listening from?

Patti Carpenter: To me, it's about really searching out those products, and they're more and more of them available. Certainly I say they add warmth to the home. I have to be honest. I'm certainly the other side of my business is color and trend, and I'm working in the manufactured world, and they're beautiful things to be found there, as you and I both know. But I love the idea, and certainly I have it in my home for you. I don't know, you can see the basket there. I collect masks. There's masks going across. For me, it's about bringing this into your space, because it adds that warmth, that human touch that connectedness to the world. And I think if we just value that and look for those things to add, you don't have to turn your whole house into a museum. But it's the idea of bringing this in and valuing it and being willing, as I say, to pay more than two or $3. Don't think of it as a trinkets by the cruise ship when you're going on a cruise or something that you find in those markets when you're traveling. It's really about supporting master craftsmanship. The skill sets. Because I cannot tell you how many places I've gone that if I've gone with a ten year space in between. They often can't even make the same thing they made ten years ago with the same finesse that they made it because the older artisans have died off. And the younger ones don't necessarily have all of the techniques. And so we're already losing it. I can tell you the first time I've been working in Guatemala for over 20 years at this point, and or just about 20 years, and that's one of the countries. It's very near and dear to my heart. I never really knew much about Gluatemala. It wasn't on my radar for traveling, and once I went, I was just truly the heart of Central. America. And it has such a beautiful and large and diverse indigenous population that's still very much about handmade in terms of how they just live their daily lives. But there were two things that have broken my heart in Guate. The first was that the shawl I bought on the first year. The first trip I was there, I bought it actually in a shop in Antigua. At that point, I had met those type of weavers, and by the time I was on a project where I met them, getting out of the areas that I had worked in and going into some new areas, they couldn't even weave. It's a stripe. The stripe itself is probably about each stripe is about a quarter of an inch thick. On mine, they can't even make it that far. They're now about a half inch, and they can't get finer. They just don't know how to do it. To change on the loan to make it, that fine. And we're losing that. We're losing it generation after generation, that's one. And the second is, I was there maybe five years ago. I would get confused with the two years that weren't as I say, we didn't know. But I went to a village where we used to do hand embroidery and machine embroidery for pillows that we did for Bloomingdales and for ABC as exclusives. And we went to the market in the center of that town. And the women in Guatemala, the indigenous women wear a blouse is called a huipil just like in Mexico. Many people will know it more from Mexico than from Guatemala. And the skirt is called a corta, which is just a large piece of fabric that wraps around and they secure it with those beautiful embroidered belts, right? Not all, but the majority of the women's repeals were made in China. They were cheaper than weaving their own. So everyone was walking around in a knock off of what they make in that country, and it drove the prices of the real wheels up.

Judith van Vliet: I've seen this type of stuff, something's happening in Oaxaca, in Mexico as well. That's why I go for my color inspiration when obviously I get the chance.

Patti Carpenter: Yeah, I love Oaxaca. It's beautiful.

Judith van Vliet: But, yeah, it's a sad world. I think we've already lost many things, even if it's just very silly things like making your grandma's dishes, right? If you didn't get there on time, it's late. And that's the same for artisans. And it's a sad thing, but you're doing great work.

Patti Carpenter: Oh, I love it.

Judith van Vliet: You're maintaining a certain level, but not only just for artisans. You are also a very strong ambassador for diversity in the industry, in our color design industry, fashion, interiors, you name it. How do you think the industry has been evolving? And what are you trying to do? At least support this change in creating a wider diversity?

Patti Carpenter: Well, it's very much needed, and thank you for bringing it up. The first thing certainly I do is show up. And I show up knowledgeable. I show up well spoken, I show up ready to work professionally. And I think that's something young people need to understand is very necessary in terms of being able to work in our industry. But the types of things that I've been doing lately I co founded the Kaleidoscope Project, which was this extraordinary project that we did last year with 23  designers redesigning 21 spaces in an 18th century inn in Lennox, Massachusetts. And it was extraordinary because we worked with artists from our designers from around the world I'm sorry, around the country. They came from as far away as California, Nebraska, South Carolina the Philadelphia area, the Washington, DC. Area, the New York, New Jersey, Connecticut area and one from one town over in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. And this was done in Lennox at an inn that was newly purchased and being renovated. He had three buildings on this property and we renovated two of them. The other one was done by someone for him. Specifically, I co founded it with a woman named Amy Schwartzbard who called me to say, what can we do in this industry to make it more diverse? And we brainstormed. And she went to him and we got this property. And the beauty of it was in the middle of COVID 35 of our industry and the home decor side on the manufactured side, donated product that was going to stay. It wasn't like a typical show house where you do it and then you pull it out. This was going to live in the inn as part of the history of this wonderful inn. And they donated to help make this a reality. So we had 18 rooms with ensuite baths. So 18 rooms, 18 bathrooms in the two buildings. We had the lobby lounge, we had the bar, and we had the kitchen and dining area. And there was a bathroom down there as well. So we actually did 19 bathrooms in three and a half months. We renovated all of this. We tore it down to its slots. We couldn't move any plumbing, we couldn't move any electricity, but everything else was completely redone. And the rooms were extraordinary. These designers just knocked it out of the park. And those are 23 names that the industry needed to know, most of whom were not known by the industry at large. So that's one thing. And then from there, we took twelve of them to speak at the Dallas market and twelve of them to speak at the Las Vegas market and some to speak down in High Point. And we went on a behind the scenes tour at Cravent to see the new collections before the 2023 collections were released. And so we just did a bunch of things. Again, my goal there was to introduce these artisans to the industry in a broader way, but also to introduce the industry to these artisans and so these designers, I should be saying so that's been extraordinary, and that continues to have its legacy. People call me all the time and go, I drove by. The parking lot is full. I know that the proprietor booked three weddings in the opening.

Judith van Vliet: You can still go and visit.

Patti Carpenter: Yeah, you can stay there it is the Cornell Inn in Lennox, Massachusetts, up near Tanglewood. A great place to stay if you're going to listen to some music in the Berkshires. And so that is one thing that I'm doing. The other is I sit on the board of the Bad Guild. I'm on the advisory board of the Black Artisan Designers Guild. And so we do a lot of work there. Over the last summer, we gave away some scholarships to bypass students. I am now on an advisory alliance, the Diversity. What do we just call ourselves? We have a new name now. It's the DAA. The Diversity Advocacy Alliance for the High Point Market Authority. And we're going to be doing a great deal of work around bringing more diversity to the market and to the city of High Points and for them, really opening up to the creatives in our industry of color. So I am constantly doing that kind of work. And it's really important to me because the dialogue and the conversation is so much more broad when you bring all these voices in. And we all rise when we hear from all these creative voices. And I think it's very necessary in terms of moving all of our creative industries forward.

Judith van Vliet: Yeah. And it mirrors it mirrors your own perspective. It changes your perspective. It makes you grow. At least it's what feeds me.

Patti Carpenter: Yeah.

Judith van Vliet: That was the most difficult part about COVID not being able to travel, not being able to go to different countries, different cultures, meet people who are not like you. That's the whole point, right, in the end.

Patti Carpenter: Exactly. Opens up everything. It's wonderful. Yeah. So that's some of what we've been doing.

Judith van Vliet: Color for True Change is something that has been an upcoming topic in the podcast. Is it something that I'm working on as well. And what is your vision on how we could be using just color to change cultural, social, economical levels within societies?

Patti Carpenter: Well, certainly one of the things we're talking about, and we're still in the very beginning stages, but there may be a conversation around that at High Point Market, in the upcoming market. But I think some of it really does have to do with the idea of being open to diversity. Being open to the breadth of voices and aesthetics that exist in the world and not so narrowly focused on just one standard of beauty. One standard of high style and design. One standard of taste that I think that when you bring these other things in. You open it up and understand that there can be many. That was our reason for wanting designers from around the country and not just the New York, New Jersey, Connecticut area where we're supposed to be the arbiters of high style or maybe LA. That was something we wanted to break as well, is that there's wonderful design, there's wonderful style, there's wonderful creativity to be found so many other places, and we just need to be open to inviting that in and not putting up walls to keep it out. And so for me, that's really what it is with color, because I think when you hear from these various black and brown voices, there are other cultures that are being brought to the table, and those cultures have color aesthetics. And so it really changes the conversation about how color can be used, where color can be used, how print and pattern show up, because that's really important in a lot of other cultures. We here tend to be very neutral, and we tend to be very simple. And our pattern choices, there are bold, wonderful, exciting patterns that are happening all over the world that we're narrowing ourselves and not opening ourselves up to learn about and to embrace.

Judith van Vliet: That's something that we're seeing a lot in Europe as well. There's a lot of important export now, but not necessarily just of products. But get to know Mexico, get to know Brazil, get to know Egypt. There's a lot of that happening. And I think that is indeed something that is part of globalization, of course. But I do think it's time that we broaden that view. As you mentioned in previous interviews, that Europe was very, for many years on the forefront of trends and maybe design wise. And color. You think that's changed or is it changing?

Patti Carpenter: I think it's changing. I don't think that it's changed completely. There are certain things that I was so disappointed that I wasn't able to get to Milan, but I had lots of friends and a couple of people there working, sending me things, and it just seemed just so vibrant and so colorful and so exciting. And it's just about being in a place where design is the center of everything. I love that. But the idea that some of the things that I see when I go I'm the global train ambassador for Maison. Every addition and the kinds of things that I see there sometimes take a while to get here. So that's why I continue to say it leads a little. But because of the advent of technology, the Internet, we can all see everything at the same time. My partner is a menswear designer at Brooks Brothers, creative directories, and he's currently working on the United Airlines uniforms. But we watch a lot of because of Brian, we watch a lot of the YouTube to watch the fashion shows. And because I was in fashion years ago, when I was in fashion, fashion led home fashion. We were, like, three years. You saw it come down the runway.

Judith van Vliet: Is that still the case, you think?

Patti Carpenter: No, I don't think it's as far apart. That's what I was going to say. I think that they've gotten more closely related, and you do see similar colors. That's why for some of our boards, for some of the clients we use, I will put a fashion figure to show how it came down the runway and how that trend we see coming around over into what we see in the home or in our spaces. I think they're very interconnected. It doesn't necessarily mean we'll adapt them as quickly in the States, but I definitely think we're looking at them at very similar timing now.

Judith van Vliet: Yeah, it's interesting in the way you said that they're getting closer fashion and home, because it's been happening for a couple of years, but Israel Armani, but now also Dolce & Gabbana. It's funny how you see they all Trussardi, they all Fendi, have their own collections, and they're really inspiring one another.

Patti Carpenter: Yeah, they are. I mean, and some of those are some of my favorites in terms of just what they do. And what I also love that I think that Europe does in a different way. And to my mind, one that draws me in a bit more is they take a lot more chances with textiles and fabrications. They really push the envelope in terms of new materials. And I really love that because that, I think, is certainly that keeps us moving forward, that keeps it fresh. That's the future. And that's one of the things I always go to look at. Not only what are the things, but what are they made of? And then techniques of manufacturing are certainly incredible in many places in Europe.

Judith van Vliet: What is next for color? Where do you see color moving?

Patti Carpenter: Well, that's a good question. I think sort of what we talked about earlier in the beginning. I think some of those are some of the key places that I see color moving in the future. I think that certainly, you know, being in the color marketing group, color sales, but the right color sells better. So the idea of being focused more on color as consumers, I think, is one of the things that I see happening. Certainly my friends and family who know this is the work that I'm in are always asking, what's the next one? What's coming? What's new? And more than before. So I feel like I think being at home for these last few years has focused us all on where we live. How we live. What we live with. Why we've selected it. And if it isn't satisfying and pleasing on a deeper level than just it satisfies the purpose for the moment as we're running past it. In and out. When we've been forced to actually sit on that sofa and look at that Shelving unit and walk on that carpet and look at how we stored our books or whatever the thing may be that we realize this is not fulfilling. And so I think some of what's going to happen with color is that even though you and I are in the world of trends, that more and more I'm challenged, and I don't know if you're feeling the same way about I don't want to follow a trend. I just want what I like. And I think that that's going to in the same way we've seen it in fashion, I think we're going to see more of that in our homes and our spaces, that they're going to do double duty. So the kinds of color that we're going to have around us are going to need to feel good for work and then making a change somehow, because that same table is going to become your dining table or that same room that you've been working in as your guest room. And when people can start to visit again. So making statements around color that can either do double duty or that can change quickly into another, I think those kinds of things are going to be important and more big picture ideas, more macro kinds of things like that.

Judith van Vliet: Yeah, seasonality, I think, also is something that just has to go.

Patti Carpenter: Absolutely.

Judith van Vliet: Also, we literally have only one season in Italy, which means it's freaking cold and it's raining or we're all drowning in heat. That's the future. My last, and I guess one of the most difficult questions, but I'm going to ask you anyway. What legacy do you want to leave behind?

Patti Carpenter: That's a really interesting question. For me, the work that I do with the artisans is really important. And so being able to say that for the time I was here and the work that we did, that I helped to sustain that for a bit longer, that I made a change, an impactful and real change in the lives of people and communities. Most of our work is with 85, 90% women. And we certainly know that it is a fact that when women grow and improve their situation, that communities tend to do the same. Men, sorry, not so much their families do better, but not necessarily the whole community. So being able to feel as though I've made some sort of impact in that world. I've always said this, even from my time and fashion, being thought of by my peers as a good person and a professional and someone that they wanted to work with and liked to work with, because I enjoy my community and I love working with it. And so I want people to feel that way about me as a woman of color, to be someone that young, designers and creatives of color can look up to and say, there's somebody there doing that. And so I can do it because we hear it over time and again. But it is absolutely true. If you don't see yourself represented, then you don't often feel as much like you can actually achieve something. You can have it as a concept, but when you see it in the flesh, it is something that becomes more real and attainable for you.

Judith van Vliet: It's everything.

Patti Carpenter: I know that from talking to classes. I speak at many of the design schools in our country and around the world. And so just being a person of color, woman of color for me in this space, I'm unique in the world of artists and development. I'm unique in the world of color and trend. And I was unique on 7th Avenue when I was there. So I know I'm kind of a unique person and I want to use that. My parents are both alive, God blessed, and my mom is about to celebrate her 90th birthday and a week and a half. My dad will have his in February. And it's a blessing. It truly is. My sister and I know that I'll be going down to DC to celebrate, but I say that because the world is very different than when they came in and they didn't initially understand, why would I leave a very good paying job at Ralph Lauren that I worked very hard to get to that level in my career to do? And yet they were never anything but supportive for it about it. Because my sister is a writer and director, I was an artist, and now do this work where I take all of this together. And so having that support has been everything. But understanding that they knew that I was going to be knocking down some doors in terms of the way that I wanted to run my life and they knew it wouldn't be easy. And I'm telling young people it's not an easy thing to do, but it is a very rewarding thing to do. And so that legacy of follow your passion, be the change that I have it in front of me every day, in front of my desk, be the change you want to see in the world. You can't sit back and hope someone else is going to do it. You've got to be out there doing it. So I want to remember it as someone who was catalyst for a change and moved our industry forward.

Judith van Vliet: Well, I think you are. And I'm so very thankful for your time and all the things that you've just shared. It's just been amazing talking to you and I think you have inspired a lot of people. And I'm thinking that you're going to get some phone calls after this podcast.

Patti Carpenter: Why would to do a pitch, actually, Frederick from Global Views. I don't know if you know, Frederick, one of the founders of Global Views, and I were having a wonderful conversation in Dallas a couple of weeks ago at an event. And I said, well, I'm getting old. And he grabbed me by my arm and he said, stop that. Never refer to yourself as old. And it's true, I am not old. I am older. When I look at my parents, I certainly am not old. However, I know that I will slow down in the coming years and I would love to find somebody who's going to pick up the baton to continue the work that I'm doing. And several people come up to me and they sort of go, how do I do what you do? But I would love for someone to be sort of the intern or the person that I'm starting to train to do this work. So I'm putting out a pitch to say if it's something that you think you'd be interested in, by all means, you'll give them my information. You can follow me on Instagram, though, and see some of it as well at Patty C trends Patty with an I or inspiration, innovation and innovation. And that's something that I'm really starting to think about, is who will I hand the baton to? Because I want to I want to make sure that the work continues and that we don't lose it because it's so important.

Judith van Vliet: It is. And I'm sure people are listening. Thank you so much, Patty, for being part of the color authority.

Patti Carpenter: Thank you so much. I love it. It's such great work. I love getting to meet you all. And I love our color chats. I mean, encourage anybody who's listening to tune into the color chats that we have. They're really fascinating. They come up in lots of my conversation later. You know, I was just talking. It's really wonderful. And so, yeah, we just have to remember color cells and it's something that we all love to do, so we're happy to work in this world.

Judith van Vliet: Thank you, everyone, for listening to my episode with Patty. I hope you enjoyed it. If you did, please go to Apple Podcast ready and review the show, or indeed of Spotify, wherever you're listening, I'll be very grateful for that. We're going to go on a short summer break and then we'll be back on the 6 September with the next episode with Shashi Caan. So stay tuned for that and have a wonderful summer.