I have been carrying this collection in my head for longer than I care to admit. Not the pieces - the water. The Atlantic. France on one shore, the United States on the other, and an ocean between them that never once asked for a passport.
That is the whole collection, really. Liberté & Liberty is my love letter to 250 years of Franco-American friendship - two and a half centuries of two very different countries deciding, over and over, that the answer is yes.
The crossing
I think about Lafayette crossing that water with nothing in his pockets but conviction. Yorktown, where French and American soldiers stood together and quietly rearranged the map. And 1886, when France sent a woman made of copper to stand in New York Harbor and hold a torch up for everyone still making the crossing.
The history books call those events. I call them the tide.
Worn close to the body
Every piece in Liberté & Liberty carries a fragment of that timeline - a hidden map, a date engraved where only the person wearing it will think to look.
Quiet enough to stay yours. Weighted enough that you will think about it while you get dressed. History does not announce itself. Sometimes it just holds its ground, and then it gets worn.
Kept, not replaced
I wanted the construction to carry the same weight as the story. Eco-conscious build, embroidery in recycled thread, printing with clean inks, and a limited run made to be kept - the quiet kind of luxury that ages well.
Freedom was never a solo act. Neither is a collection like this one.
With love, Gabrielle, Founder of tsgabrielle, The French Trans Touch™
