Inspired by the Project Alabama annual picnic, Natalie, along with photographer Robert Rausch and designer Billy Reid, conceive of a collaborative event called Alabama Adventure Weekend—a three-day celebration of art, music, film, culture, food, and fashion.
After working together on The Kitchen Project, Angie Mosier becomes a longtime friend and collaborator.
Inspired by oral histories collected by the Southern Foodways Alliance, Natalie collaborates for the first time with writer, photographer, and oral historian Angie Mosier to create a catalog featuring people working in their home kitchens or places of business.
From 2005 to 2006, Michi Meko, an artist and Shoals native, works with a range of collection stencils to airbrush graffiti-style patterns to a selection of Project Alabama garments.
The number of artisans hand-sewing Project Alabama collections grows to 120+ as the collectable pieces are sold in approximately 60 stores around the world.
In the fall of 2002, Lola Schnabel, an artist and friend to Natalie’s partner Enrico, travels to The Shoals, and Lovelace Crossroads to collaborate on a collection of one-of-a-kind shirts in what would become the first of many collaborations between artists, designers, photographers, and the artisan stitchers of Alabama. Lola’s drawings and collages are applied directly to individual tops and interpreted with hand-embroidery and embellishment in collaboration with local artisans. This trip and the subsequent collection lead to many other collaborations over the years. These diverse partnerships expand opportunities and offer new spaces for creativity across disciplines and geographies. On...
Natalie meets Jennifer Venditti in 2001 during the early days of Jennifer’s now-renowned casting agency, JV8 INC. At the same time, Jennifer, along with Mollie R. Stern, run M.R.S., a clothing company that began in the Chelsea Hotel, in the same apartment where Natalie was developing her own hand-sewn t-shirts. M.R.S utilizes knit fabrics that include hand-stitched details, and the three often joke that there’s a ghost in the 4th floor room which urges all occupants to hand-sew. Jennifer and JV8 INC work with Natalie on Prom Night @ The Bowling Alley, and the two begin a decades-long friendship that...
Antwerp-based designers, Job Smeets, and Dutch artist, Nynke Tynagel, of Studio Job collaborate with Natalie to create a stencil pattern inspired by the integration of urban and rural life.
Natalie’s business partner introduces her to American design legend Fernando Sanchez in New York City. The two comb his archives for his most beloved styles that he feels will translate to the company’s use of cotton jersey. The chosen patterns are transformed to be cut from upcycled cotton jersey t-shirts—the core of Project Alabama’s work. Embroidered and embellished by the Alabama artisans, additional one-of-a-kind pieces are created using scraps from the Fernando Sanchez design and production studio. This becomes one of the most beautiful collaborations to date. The Fernando Skirt—still included in the collection 21 years later—is photographed on Shalom...
The Bloomers stencil is one of Alabama Chanin’s earliest and most iconic stencil designs. Inspired by a pair of antique French lace bloomers, the stencil design debuts in the Spring/Summer 2003 collection. Stenciled onto coats, dresses, skirts, and eventually bandanas, the design is used as an “audition piece” for the artisans (entry coming soon) to practice and perform their stitching skills. These test bandanas are later donated to cancer patients and hospitals across America. In 2008, the Bloomers stencil appears in Alabama Stitch Book, becoming an everlasting part of The School of Making—established in 2014 (read an entry on The...
