Peaches Design

Based in New York City, Peaches Design create typographic and illustrative screen printed apparel. The shop was founded by Arieta Palevic, who approaches her business from a perspective of inclusivity. Their apparel runs a broad range of sizes, and is also completely gender neutral. “I see a lot of big brands taking on gender neutral clothing and in doing so, they try to walk the line between masculine and feminine – but I believe true gender neutral apparel should have both feminine and masculine designs that can be worn by anyone of any gender,” says the designer.

Arieta was first introduced into some of the more formal art mediums through the performing arts high school that she attended. She then went on to study at St. John’s University where she received a BA in Sociology and also minored in Photography, Film TV/Production, and English Studies. Last year, Arieta also started a Master’s at Pratt Institute for Information Experience Design (UX/UI Design). She describes; “I have such a wide range of interests and I’ve always struggled to reign myself in but being an entrepreneur is like embracing all of your different interests and more”.

Starting Peaches Design, was “a spur of the moment decision” for Arieta, who after an anxious day at work in a job she was very unhappy at, decided to give her two weeks notice and start her own business. “It happened in the span of a few hours, but I feel like a lot of different things came together that led to the decision. Working at small companies and businesses gave me a deep rooted feeling that starting a business wasn’t such a far off concept. I got to know the founders of all the companies I worked at and I learned the stories of their businesses.”

After starting her degree at Pratt studying UX/UI Design, Arieta became much more confident in her design skills. She states; “I had thought that I wanted to work in Product Design, but I was still unhappy. Through my degree, I realised it wasn’t Product Design that I cared about, but design itself”. Arieta started Peaches Design with the intention of being a brand designer with a shop on the side, but the shop quickly took up her attention. Living in NYC, she started selling at markets and festivals, and got so much support for her designs that she decided to make it her main focus.

Arieta’s wearable artworks are all screen printed in vinyl; “Originally, I started out using emulsion, but found that the process was lengthy and difficult to manage in my home studio. I switched to using vinyl to create the screen which functions well for me because I can iterate and make new screens quickly. I also have a chronic illness, so I make a lot of adjustments to my process to make things easier for me.” Her first few designs were simple enough to be well suited to this process, however now that she is getting more comfortable with the medium, Arieta is looking to return to emulsion for a select few designs that are too intricate for vinyl.

All of her work with screen printing is self-taught, using the other mediums that she has studied to inform how she approaches screen printing. Arieta makes everything herself that she possibly can; stretching her own screens, print her own business cards, making her own clothing tags, and carving stamps for clothing labels. She even constructed her own screen printing station with wood, screws, and hinges. “This handmade element started as a means of saving money, but now it’s become an important part of my brand,” says Arieta.

Arieta dreams of one day opening a retail store and printing on more than just graphic tees; “I love the idea of wearable artwork and want to have a printing station set up in our store where we can hold demos and workshops to show people how their clothing is made.” For the Fall season she is planning on launching a collection of long sleeved t-shirts and crewneck sweaters, and is hoping to print on baseball and canvas hats as well.

www.peachesdesign.shop
@peachesdesign.shop

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