Meeting Rafaela Garcia

Behind Caramel & Cie is Rafaela Garcia, the brand's creator, director, and artist. We could tell you she has long, curly black hair, a piercing gaze, and a sing-song accent that comes from Venezuela.

But we preferred the Chinese portrait game...

“ Rafaela, in a word, if you were:

An animal? A tiger, because I love to do: Grrrr!

A flower? An Orchid

A color? Green

A planet? Venus

A dish? A pot au feu

A dessert? A fruit salad

An object? A schoolbag, what a question!

A song? Brel, "next."

How do you find inspiration to create your models?

When I start creating my new designs, I always start by putting myself in a child's shoes and asking myself what I would like to have on my shoulders to go to school.

So, there's a kind of "mill" that starts working in my head and I think of paintings that I liked, fabrics that I touched and also cartoons. So, I'm like a child who invents stories. I imagine a story that will ultimately take the form of a schoolbag or a backpack.

Do you ever struggle to create? If so, do you have any tips or tricks to help you get your creative juices flowing again?

Of course, I sometimes get stuck, but never for very long. My infallible trick is my magic box (actually, it's a folder on my computer): my precious archives. I've kept everything for about 10 years: old drawings I'd done, fabrics I found interesting, photos, lots of images I'd "archived" because they had touched me. It works every time!

How would you define creativity and what does it mean to you?

We are all creative people, every human being is. Being creative means taking something out of your soul and putting it out there, making it visible. To express something of yourself, something beautiful—in the sense of something important to you—you have to take risks, because you are putting your personality forward, you are exposing yourself, but you are also asserting yourself. That's how we learn who we are, how we grow, and how we flourish. It's very important!

Artistic creation is something else, because it is learned, worked on, and refined.

My job is to put my artistic creations at the service of children, so that they can express their own creativity. I create school bags and backpacks that will enhance their personalities because I am convinced that to grow up well, you must have self-confidence.