INTERVIEW: DANIELLE COOPER

When you’re trying to find something to make or create naturally the first thing you’re going to want to decide is what makes your thing different. Enter Danielle Cooper of The Wild Card. Danielle, or Coop as she prefers to be called, has found the perfect niche in the fashion industry. Her path didn’t start directly on course with where her brand is today. Coop initially set on the path as a fashion student, as one does, but by the time she graduated from fashion school, she tried her hand in other creative spaces. By 2012 she had moved to Los Angeles and within two years that is when her brand The Wild Card began to form.

Danielle had recently visited the Bay Area for work. I should mention that Coop and I have been friends for about seven or eight years when we both found ourselves working for Nordstrom in Miami. On Coop’s trip to The Bay she let me know that she was going to be working right around the corner from me. With no time to conduct the interview then, I was only able to grab a photo of what I knew was going to be the head photo for this article. But we then set aside a time to chat over the phone about Coop’s brand her passion for growing as a creative.

DC: I saw Rhianna’s music video “Go Hard’. She had a couple of pieces that highlighted shoulders. It looked it could have been one of those Mario and Luigi um- Like, what’s-his-name?

CT: Bowser.

DC Yes! Bowser. So my goal was to try and figure out how to make something like that. It wasn’t specifically shoulder related at the time. It was just to create something different. And then it evolved into, ‘Ok what kind of material can I use?’ So I tried foam. And then I tried leather. I learned how to mold leather, I learned that on my own. I never learned anything about leather in school. They probably taught us something about dyes and cuts but it was very generic. It wasn’t anything in depth. I basically learned everything about leather on my own. So in the beginning phases of 2014, 2015 and a little bit of 2016 everything was leather based. Because that’s the material that I found was the most structured, that was still nimble, that you could still mold if you wanted to, it would last long. That’s where the spikes came from.

Without missing a beat Coop went on to speak about the evolution of crafting these wildly unique pieces that she makes. Once you see one of these, whether it be in press, on tv like the MTV show Wild ‘N’ Out or upon the shoulders of a star like Paula Abdul, it should become clear that you’re not likely to buy one of these as a Christmas piece for your aunt to avoid gifting her yet another fluffy sweater. They can be ornate or subdued yet these will usually rest on the shoulders of the highly adaptable and the Avant-Garde.

DC: Everything has always been done by hand. That was a little bit more manual work. I’ve always bought my own fabrics cut my own materials, sewn my own materials, I applique my own materials. Everything has evolved based on what I have come across from learning and techniques. So everything has evolved a lot - and it will continue to evolve. I don’t think that I will make shoulder pieces my whole life but it’s going to turn into something else and it will turn into something more beautiful. I don’t expect everyone to love it or want it or understand it. It’s something different. Something for people that are looking for the next fashion wave.

As I mentioned, Coop and I became friends in the beginning of our retail careers. We both have moved on from the department store days but we have also found ourselves in single-brand luxury retail spaces. It’s not easy making something so niche interesting even to people that are the most niche, the most edgy and the most willing to take a risk on fashion. It becomes the responsibility of the creator to make sure that they know who their audience is and what gains their interest in order to get these types of things into people’s closets.

CT: What does that feel like when you’re creating something that you know is niche yet you still have the drive to do it?

DC: It’s difficult because it is niche it’s not like everybody understands it. It’s really about word of mouth, showing and telling, just putting myself out there and getting it on the right person. It’s like when you’re a sales associate. Not everybody can understand the vision until you put it together for them. You can show them a t-shirt and say ‘This is going to look amazing!’ They can say, ‘Hmmm maybe.’ But they can’t see what you see until you put it together as a package, as a whole. So yes, I want everyone to ‘understand’ it and like it but I don’t expect the masses to understand it. It’s not like a white t-shirt where everyone is going to need one at some point in their life. It’s for those who want to go above and beyond. Someone who wants to showcase another side of themselves but not through words, through fashion.

[12:00] CT: This is obviously an outlet for you. You have a regular job. This is a business as well, this isn’t just a hobby. You have to balance your work life and your creative life. How important is it for you to keep a healthy balance so that you can maintain that drive?

DC: It can get really hard. I work 40-50 hours a week at a regular day job. I put my energy into that as if it was my own business. But if I don’t have an artistic side, and I don’t utilize that, I can definitely feel a difference when I’m not being true to who I am. I am a creative person and that is something that I need in my life. I have to do something. It’s a juggling act just like, work and motherhood, or work and family, or a relationship. One is your love and your passion and the other is just to get you by and to get you through. It’s something we all have to do [as artists] if we legitimately want to survive day to day.

CT: We can’t all rely on our just having our passions support us. Because for most people that’s not real life, right?

DC: Right. And I dont have that financial back to be able to have the luxury of just trying to succeed and that being the only thing that I do. But with that you learn how to make it all work. It helps grow and develop you for the success of your business.

CT: You’re starting get exposure. You had Paula Abdul wear your piece. You’re going to Art Basel. That’s gotta feel pretty rewarding.

DC: It feels like all the small achievements keep growing into a developmental process. We all have to take those steps to get to where we need to be. This past year I’ve grown a lot and I’ve been very thankful.

DC: You just can’t stop. If you want to succeed whether someone tells you that they love it or they hate it. You just gotta keep going. I definitely couldn’t see myself doing what I need to do now a year or two ago. Everything in life sets you up for what’s about to come. And everything that I have done in the process has got me to this point and it will help me continue to grow.

CT: You are not going to have instant success. If a year ago you just wound up where you are today you may not have been prepared. You may not have had all the right pieces in place to have a successful event. You can’t just expect to start at 100mph because the preparation that it takes to be able to manage all of the moving pieces all come in baby steps.

DC: Yeah because you wouldn’t be ready. Mentally, physically, you wouldn’t understand. You would drop the ball and in the end you would hurt yourself more than you would help yourself.

What is interesting about Coop is that if you speak to her you can hear her forethought in every word that she speaks. She doesn’t ignore the people and things that have helped her reach humble success. But she definitely wants more. The Wild Card two years from now will not likely be the The Wild Card that it is today. But what brand is? Look at Apple in the late 90’s and early 2000’s vs the Apple today. Or look at Netflix from yesterday to the streaming media giant that it is today. Coop is poised for things to change with her company and when it does you better believe that she will be prepared to evolve the company at the drop of a dime.

CT: What got you here? What is it from life has gotten you to pursue something that you truly have a passion for?

DC: It’s wanting to succeed at something that I truly enjoy. A job is what I do during the day. A career is what I feel like I’m the most passionate about. It’s what drives me and it doesn’t feel like work because it’s something I have goals for. I’m going to create a better space and place in fashion, in art, whatever you want to call it. The fact that it’s something that I truly believe in and it could turn into anything. I will not put myself in a box to say that I can only do one thing.

CT: You’re ready to pivot if necessary.

DC: It’s another step into the direction of where I’m supposed to be going. I have so many creative ideas that I’m trying to stick to one thing at a time so people can understand what it is that I’m trying to do. CT