Meeting Rafaela Garcia

Behind Caramel & cie is Rafaela Garcia, the creator, the director, the artist of the brand. We could tell you that she has long, curly black hair, a piercing gaze, and a lilting accent that she inherited from Venezuela.

But we preferred the game of Chinese portraits…

" Rafaela, in a word, if you were:

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

A flower? An Orchid

A color? Green

A planet? Venus

A dish? A pot-au-feu

Dessert? A fruit salad

An object? A schoolbag, what a question!

A song? Brel, "next".

How do you find inspiration to create your designs?

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

Then, it's like a "mill" starts up in my head, and I think of paintings I've loved, fabrics I've touched, and also cartoons. I'm like a child making up stories. I imagine a story that will eventually take the form of a schoolbag or a backpack.

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

Of course I get stuck sometimes, but never for very long. My foolproof 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'd found interesting, photos, lots of images I'd "archived" because they'd moved me. It works every time!

How would you define creativity and what does it represent for you?

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

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

My job is to use my artistic creations to help children express their own creativity. I create school bags and backpacks that will enhance their personality because I firmly believe that self-confidence is essential for healthy growth.