Cecile Benac, Vancouver Knitwear Designer

05Apr10

Cecile Rebagliati, designer of the Cecile Benac label has been designing knitwear in Vancouver for over a decade. I spoke with Rebagliati about her designs, inspiration and how she got started as a designer in Vancouver. She greeted me wearing one of her spring sweater designs combined with dark blue jeans. Surprisingly, her indigo sweater was made from linen.

After moving from Peru, Rebagliati landed a job with Cinema, a local company that worked with stretch fabrics. The work experience along with completion of a Fashion Diploma at Vancouver Community College formed the basis of her design training. Rebagliati first planned to manufacture sweaters in her native Peru and sell them in Vancouver. Because of the difficulties with importing and the need for tighter control of production, she ended up producing the sweaters in Vancouver. What started with several designs grew into a whole line. Each piece is knitted by hand or made one at a time on a knitting machine.

Rebagliati begins her design process with the yarn. She works with the fibers to “see what they can do.” The linen thread used to create pieces in her Spring 2010 line was prewashed so the sweaters have a soft hand and draping quality not usually associated with linen. The collection is light weight and travels well. Rebagliati designed the collection while thinking about the beaches in Spain as well as all the beaches around Vancouver. Although she did not design a resort collection, her Spring line for 2010 is strongly influenced by a resort theme. The photo shoot for Cecile Benac’s Spring 2010 collection was taken on Spanish Banks. Ribagliati was very pleased in with the connection between the location and her designs. The photos taken on this shoot were “perfect for this collection.”

Cecile Benac, Spring 2010

photo credits :Matthew Burditt (photographer): www.matthewburditt.org, Negar Hooshmand (makeup artist): www.negarhooshmand.com, Chantelle w/ Lexington Agency (model): www.lexington-models.com, Ken Werner (hair): kurlupanddye@gmail.com

Rebagliati continues her “fiber first” design approach when working on Spring 2011 designs. For this upcoming collection she has decided to combine two threads – one linen, and the other cotton. The result is a very soft draping knit that is a different color on each side. The samples will be further developed into garment styles.

Linen-Cotton Yarn Mix for Spring 2011

Dark On One Side, Light On the Other

Business interests and family connections in France mean that Rebagliati travels to Europe several times a year. Her designs combine the unpretentious tradition of West Coast styling with a European aesthetic. Many of the sweaters and layering pieces work for evening as well as day wear.

Rebagliati wore one of her sweater designs to a local Oscar’s night event. To dress up for the evening she and a friend paired Cecile Benac sweater designs with black dresses and heels. “My friend wore a Jacqueline Conoir black dress. We looked fantastic. We were among the best dressed there.”