On Meaningful Collaboration and Knowing when to Restart: A chat with Cara Benevenia

I hopped on a video call with oceans-apart luxury handbag designer, Cara Benevenia to chat creative practice, collaboration, and what it means to centre family in your work. In the middle of a standard hustle and bustle day in NYC, she popped to the loo of a busy restaurant in order to give me a few moments of her time. The ad hoc style interview was gracefully carved into her very busy schedule as she was preparing for her collaboration event with LoveShackFancy Madison. The boutique’s headquarters is based in NYC, though it has brick and mortar locations all over the world, including Notting Hill in London. 

LoveShackFancy is a “global fashion, beauty, home and lifestyle brand founded by Rebecca Hessel Cohen in 2013”. Cara’s collaboration with the brand nods to the ways shut doors can actually become windows into new cycles of collaboration. The designer had previously tried working with the brand, initially to no avail. Throughout our discussion I discovered that everything tends to present itself in the way of divine timing, even when it feels we’ve hit a dead end. Cara and I discussed the importance of being able to roll with the punches, and that a “No” isn’t necessarily the end of an opportunity. In fact, sometimes it's the pivot point you need to achieve one’s next success. 

Cara’s project began back in 2019 before the pandemic. Prior to that she was a fashion design major at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, NY. In the beginning of her career she spent a lot of energy assisting big designers with their vision, that is until she decided she wanted to focus on her own creative process instead. She set out to continue her family’s 100 legacy in textiles and design. The brand presents a contemporary collection of women’s handbags, each expertly produced with the finest Italian leather in New Jersey, United States. 

Fashion design did not exclusively begin with Cara though. Her rich family history traces the practice back to her great grandfather, Anthony Benevenia. A tailor, he travelled from Italy to the US with his wife Giovanna from Cantalupo. Seeking a better reality for his lineage, Cara’s production facility is now based not far from her great grandfather’s original home. Family is a central point throughout the designers’ works, and it was clear during the duration of our call. All linking back to her great grandfather’s legacy, which is perfectly embodied by the italian phrase, “La Bella Figura” which means to put your best foot forward. 

This sentiment follows Cara into her most recent collaboration with LoveShackFancy joining forces in lieu of one of their goals, platforming small designers. The brand started as a trunk show business model - giving back by hosting new designers weekly. Expressing that her handbags felt very at home in the boutique, she noted the shops “are girlhood, perfectly curated from rugs to lights, to the wallpaper”. Cara has been a fan of LoveShackFancy’s work for years. Referring to their storefront as “manicured to perfection”, presenting a fantastic opportunity for rising designers due to its location which provides “really great traffic”. 

The event was especially exciting as it provided a “direct to consumer touchpoint”, where in Cara’s words, “customers can talk to you, try on your product”, and “touch the materials”. Running an independent luxury handbag brand can be quite difficult as often until consumers are able to access the materials first hand, the price point doesn’t always translate. But as soon as people have the chance to engage with the products in person, it all becomes abundantly clear. In a world that is unbelievably fast paced and overconsumption-oriented, Cara pushes against the status quo, promoting more intentional ways to navigate production all whilst remaining stylish and accessible. 

When it came to the event, taking place on October 17th it was an all-afternoon affair, decorated in ornamental florals in tandem with a soft baby pink backdrop. The collaboration took place at 390 Bleecker street. Ahead of the event, the designer tailored a customized jacket to go alongside one of the bags in the collection. The series features 11 different styles. Nodding not only, to the designers dedication to high quality craftsmanship, but her innovative and playful spirit. 

As is common in most creative and fashion-oriented spaces, ego can often get in the way of meaningful relationship building. I wanted to discuss notions of collaboration and what it means as an independent designer to work alongside big brands and other creatives. Cara noted that she’d “definitely seen a shift in mindset on collaboration” in recent years. Previously, when she was first starting out, she would “throw everything at the wall and see what stuck”, reaching out to every brand in hopes of goal alignment. What she realized over time was that collaborations are most powerful when they’re “born out of strong friendships”. In the same breath she mentioned her close friend Emma Gage who founded the brand MELKE, who she happened to assist as a stylist for the newest collection, presented at NYFW SS25’. 

Cara went a bit further, expressing that any recent partnerships she had participated in fixated around the notion of “foundation of friendship” and “trust”. That which often landed on the shared sentiment of, “I love your brand, you love my brand”...“we’ve been friends and we’ve helped each other through difficult times”, continued Cara. Organically formed collaborations are less discussed from a business standpoint. Though I argue this is where the most meaningful creation comes from. In a world fixated on networking as an exclusively transactional exchange, it's refreshing to hear perspectives that situate around community building first and foremost. 

The designer noted that “collaboration doesn’t necessarily need to be direct”, that it can look like “sharing experiences, [connecting] different creatives we work with, resources, and motivation”. After taking a break from the project for a while, divine intervention knocked on the designer’s front door when LoveShack Palm Beach reached out, “cold call”. Recounting this experience, the designer stated that she’s a “very religious person”. Feeling in that moment, she experienced “God’s hand” and an extension from the afterlife, none other than her “grandma telling [her] to get back into it”. Cara found herself reimagining the direction of her brand, and off she was. 

I quickly discovered that the designer draws much inspiration from her musical interests, one of the primary ones being Prince. The music often “forced [her] to think about design in a new way”... “looking for the essence of design”, at its origin point. Not only this, but his many powerful tracks always drew her back to a specific “feeling or smell” which she said “always reminded [her] of my family”. It’s very important to this designer to not only remain true to her family lineage and the hard work ethic exhibited by generations before her, but additionally always seeking forward innovation of what’s been done before. When she’s building her personal style she’s “not worried about matching”, but rather how the outfits make her feel. I really appreciated this push to a connectedness with our physical bodies. Something quite revolutionary in a world that is so fixated on separating our thoughts from our physical form. 

To wrap up our lovely conversation, I ended with a question I made a point to commonly ask. I wanted to know what advice she would give her younger self, after knowing what she does now… To which Cara replied, “I feel like I was way ballsier when I was twenty”, expressing that she was “very proud of [her] younger self”. 

“I look back and think of the way I was so fearless”... “she is giving me advice”. It’s a very powerful notion to consider one’s current successes and still reflect with the intention of uncovering lessons from your younger self. The ability to vie after one’s dreams with reckless abandon is something many more of us wish we had the guts to do. Cara is helping pave the way for an extension of this mindset. If she were to go backwards and express a sentiment of advice… she landed on “keep doing your thing, stay true to you”.