MANIFESTO

#62

NEW MODERN REALISM

DEVON LEE CARLSON

2021.10.07

Interview MADDALENA IODICE

“I’ve finally learned how to take a break and put my phone down. Whenever I feel myself getting anxious, I’ll delete the app off my phone for days and wait til I’m re-centered to redownload and scroll through.”

[MI]  Ciao Devon, it’s so great to connect with you on the occasion of MUSE September Issue! I know you guys had such a great time shooting with Lindsay and Amy and playing with looks around LA… But let’s get straight into this as I would love to know more about you! Entrepreneur, influencer, it girl, trendsetter… these are some of the definitions from articles and interviews… but how would you describe yourself and what you do?

 

Look Loewe, shoes Camper.

[DC] Whenever I’m asked what I do, I usually reply with “I make phone cases” and then giggle at the confusion on most peoples’ faces. I dabble in quite a few fields of work and constantly find new ways to get creative. I’m just having fun!! Taking any opportunity that works for me.

[MI]  Are you originally from LA? How has the city influenced your aesthetic vision?

 

[DC]  I’m originally from Newbury Park, which is in the suburbs outside of L.A. I love how you can get away with wearing funky things, verses in the suburbs and getting stares if you wore something out of the ordinary. I do believe I’ve grown out of the phase of caring what people think about what I wear though.

 

[MI]  Tell me more about your brand Wildflower Cases and how it came about. It started as sort of a family experience right? Which also involved Miley Cyrus…

 

[DC]  Wildflower Cases was born in 2012. I was 17 years old, my sister was 14 and all we wanted was a new cute phone case that no one had. We looked everywhere, but nothing stood out to us. Our mom (Michelle) has always been super creative so she took it upon her talented self to make us a phone case herself. She got some clear cases, put fabric inside, added studs and put them in our Easter baskets. We LOVED them. And so did everyone else! We would get stopped in public asking where we got them… it was crazy. One day our family went out shopping and stopped for dinner on the way home. My sister and I got up to use the restroom and as we were waiting for a stall, Miley Cyrus walked out. I, naturally being the biggest Miley fan for years, asked for a photo. My sister took our photo on her phone, which had our phone case on it. Miley freaked out at the case and immediately asked where we got it. After explaining to her that our mom had made it, she asked if she could meet her. We walked back to our table with Miley behind us. She tapped our mom on the shoulder, told her how much she loved the cases and told us to start a business. Our dad has a background in graphic design and product marketing for years, so he looked at Miley and said “We’ll have a website up in the morning.” We gave Miley all the cases we had off our phones. She went back to her table and tweeted a photo of them, thanking us. We had no company, no inventory and people wanted our cases! Our dad (Dave) stayed up all night making a website and by the morning we were replying to people with wildflowercases.com. It still amazes me 9 years later to think about that day and how everything fell into place. Don’t know what I’d be doing if it weren’t for that exact day, but very thankful for it!

 

 

 

Read the full interview on Muse September Issue 58.

Full look Prada.

JUERGEN TELLER

EVERYTHING TOGETHER

2023.09.18

Juergen Teller shared with us an intimate and personal view of his photography, how his love and relationship with his wife Dovile is the impetus from which the research for all his work begins.

INTERVIEW

VALENTINA BELLÈ

2023.09.15

What made me fall in love was the feeling that on stage anything was possible. […] Perhaps somewhere in the act of acting I feel immortal.

MENELAOS KARAMAGHIOLIS

MOVING PICTURE

2023.09.14

Menelaos Karamaghiolis talks about his personal and working relationship with the artistic practice he has undertaken, that of filmmaking and more specifically the moving image. Through his words we are transported inside a seemingly distant and different world.

MUSE TALK

KIKO MIZUHARA

2023.09.14

I took the opportunity to reconnect with myself. I made the conscious decision to pursue jobs that genuinely excited me and allowed me to cultivate true passion.

FROM THE MAGAZINE

LILY STOCKMAN

2023.09.14

It’s fundamental to my existence being able to grow and watch things grow in the soil. If I weren’t a painter I’d be a gardener. […] I’m like a magpie. I’m just stealing ideas straight from nature. There’s nothing original about the colors.