Sharon Drijanski has magnetic energy, a person who seems to live life directly from her heart. I first met her years ago when she owned Mexico City's best boutique shop, The Feathered (and while it's now closed, it remains, in my opinion, the best boutique to have existed in CDMX).
After closing The Feathered she hit the reset button and created a platform inviting designers, artists, and artisans to collaborate and inspire change via responsibly made products and objects. She views this new project, Loona, as a way to create without harming the planet.
Loona creates editions designed hand-in-hand with small designer labels and produced hand-in-hand with artisans from all over the world. The project is based entirely on the concept of environmental sustainability, circularity and the creativity that can come from collaboration to create a better world.
Tell me a bit about your childhood. Where did you grow up? What were you like as a child? What did you like to wear?
I was born and grew up in Mexico City. The third out of four girls. My grandparents came from Europe in the diaspora, during the persecution of the Jews in Europe. On my dad's side, they were both Polish, and on my mom's side, Austria and Czechoslovakia. My dad is an architect who worked in the jewelry business and my mom an art dealer.
I was a super shy girl when I was little, grew up in the garden. I grew up and spent a few years in a children’s musical group (nobody believed I was singing on TV, I was always so shy) the group was called Confetti, and we appeared singing everywhere, until I decided I didn’t want to do it anymore. I always did sports, grew up in the city spending every weekend in Valle de Bravo [ed note: A beautiful mountainous town about an hour and a half outside of Mexico City], and spent years vacationing in Florida too, these two homes were incredible for our upbringing.
My grandparents from my mom’s side went back to live in New York (that’s where they entered Mexico when coming from Europe) and we visited a lot, I also grew up loving New York. I was very close to my grandfather on my dad’s side—he was the sweetest man on the Planet, my angel. I always loved music, my life has been an eternal playlist. Art and food were always (and still are) a big part in our lives at home, I met many incredible artists having lunch and traveling with my parents like Francisco Toledo and Carlos Merida. And Frida Kahlo, Marc Chagall, Remedios Varo, Leonora Carrington, Rufino Tamayo, and many more artist were part of the art scene we saw at home and learned about since very young. Food was part of the culture of both families and traditions, my grandmothers, great aunts, aunts, my mom, dad, everyone cooked and the kitchen was the center of our lives.
I used to find bags, scarfs, belts from my mom’s closet and I would wear them. I had my own style, that’s for sure, adding my mom’s scarf to my T-shirt and jumper, since I was a little kid, or pairing a long necklace with a little dress. I made a bag out of a broomstick and one of my mom’s scarf (like a “vagabunda”) quite often.
I grew up loving history, philosophy and art. I studied art, and I worked on sculptures for many years of my life. I loved jeans always, they were part of my style, and as a rock fan the same with all my band T-shirts. I think that I was still a bit shy, and the way I started to communicate to the outer world who I was, was by dressing up everyday with whatever I felt confident and it was very personal, but always different from everyone else.
How did you find the confidence and tenacity to open your shop The Feathered when you did?
I just spent a lot of time and energy loving and finding inspiration for my personal style, and decided I needed to do it as a profession, nobody had what I expected them to have, so I said I’m going to do it, I’m going to create what I wished was out there.
What was the most challenging part of owning a shop in Mexico City?
I was living in Miami when I opened the store, so after a year of having it in Miami I moved everything here [to Mexico City], and it was a huge challenge. Everything. You name it, from A to Z, and even more in Mexico. Crazy, difficult and hard.
What was the most rewarding part of owning a shop in Mexico City?
To have my “fashion” idols at the shop. The creativity, the beauty. It was one of the biggest learning experiences in my life, so I’m grateful for everything.
What was the decision like to close The Feathered and start Loona?
I was completely burnt out, I cried so much, everything was challenging in Mexico, everything. So for maybe two years (before I decided to close) I was asking myself if it was worth the stress, the blood. The pandemic came, and after two or three weeks in silence, out of my burnt out way of life, I heard a soft message: it’s time to close, I was so happy and light for the first time in years.
How did the idea for Loona come to be?
The decision was made and when I closed the store, the only thing I heard day and night was that I needed to do something to help the Earth, I didn’t know what, but with the days passing, of course, I missed the creative part of my work, my eye, the finds. I thought I could answer my call with what I knew how to do, but this time in a completely different way, I was following only the rhythms of Earth, I was living slowly, completely different, and it was so enriching. And what I was thinking all the time was that I wanted to be part of the new world, whatever that was. How I was working before didn’t make sense at all and felt so "old world" in my heart.
Loona came in a dream, the name and my first collaboration too, so I started making some calls. Since part of my growth and personal inner path has been listening to my inner voice (soul), it had taken me to transform and heal, so I listen and I act, and that’s what Loona is. As I healed I wanted to help heal the world, and I felt so much pain to what was happening the only thing that brought me peace was to do something about it.
Loona is my soul. Creativity is huge in my life, I feel this fire inside, and I’m grateful for it every day of my life. I created a platform showing we can create joyfully without harming the Planet, collaborating, doing it in many different ways. Imagination is our most powerful asset to do this kind of work, so I thought of presenting each collaboration with each new moon, I love gardening and when you plant, you have a better and more beautiful crop plant with each new moon. So with Loona I present each collaboration with the new moon. I do it to plant seeds of conscience each month: Telling a story, being completely transparent, inviting different photographers to help me tell the stories, we talk about the complete process of creation. I adore my everyday work with Loona.
From there I started Loona, The Incubator Space, where I’m helping brands create responsibly. I’m starting a newsletter which I’ll be launching soon, maybe it will be out when this is out, because I don’t have enough space to say what I need to say, to share, to invite to care more, love more.
What kind of design speaks to you?
I have been always drawn by personality and personal style more than anything. I adore textiles, that is a very, very important thing for me.
I have changed so much. Everything is change isn’t it?
I’m all about beautiful cuts. I really love different things with personality and the thing that I absolutely hate most: Trends and people who follow them, ha.
First on my list today is responsibly made work, beautiful natural materials, colors, I only buy what will last forever. For me that is true luxury, that I can wear something in many different ways but also use it for different occasions just by changing my shoe, my shirt or my bag. I like pieces that will always looks impeccable and perfect, no matter what.
What parts of yourself to do you see illuminated in Loona?
Loona is my soul. My personal work. A calling. What I’m here for and to do, and I don’t know where it will take me, I only know that I want to be part of the healing change for a better world and future for the rest of my life. I have four kids and a granddaughter, and they are everything to me. I cannot stand with my legs crossed doing nothing, or trying to live like we did before. The collapsing of the Planet is in front of our very eyes, whatever I can do from where I stand I’m going to do. I’m in awe of life, to be here, I live in complete attention and reverence. I’m grateful to be alive and to love my loved ones and to love what I love, and do everything I can to love it even more.
This work has changed my life completely and forever, the way I have learned to do everything, completely different only by being so close to the Earth’s teachings. I’m drawn to learning every day and everything that has to do with ecology and spirituality, to do something bigger than yourself for a cause bigger than my ego is incredible, it’s what keeps me going. Why I wake up every morning. I step out of my comfort zone all the time. Loona is my love letter to Mother Earth, my daily thank you, my daily "I care so much."
What would you say to a designer who wants to start a line in an environmentally responsible way? Why do you think it feels so daunting to work on projects that are ethical and responsible? Why aren't there more of them?
If you are going to do something today it has to be work responding to what the world is today, so if you are not working responsibly don’t even start. We have so much of that and it’s killing the Planet. Be a creator don’t keep destroying.
On the contrary, it has to come from trying to solve from where you are the issues of today, so what we have that is infinite is creativity and imagination, so use some of it and then some more. Yes, it is the biggest challenge to do something out of the ordinary, out of the loud system that bombards us all the time. It’s a new way but it’s the only way today. Focus on your work, don’t try to do or be like others.
Sometimes I get frustrated or so sad, because I feel most of us are still asleep, living in a way I can’t understand. As if we are living in two separate worlds but I keep working, I keep sharing my message. I just keep going and try to not think anymore of who is listening but focusing on planting seeds of consciousness and love towards the Earth and our personal work so we can reach the potential to heal the Planet. Here and there I receive a message of a thank you, or "I’m listening" and that keeps me going. Even if no one said anything, I would keep doing the work. It's bigger than me. It’s been an amazing and profound change in my life, I don’t know how to explain.
What makes you hopeful?
To do the work. To be part of the change every day. To invent life.
How do you stay creative despite the demands of a business?
I listen to my own demands now. I don’t hear the noise outside, I never followed the crowd in my life. I've always been the complete opposite. So I’m on my personal path more than ever, the new path I’m creating comes with creating this space where I’m aligned and being the infinite being I came here to be. I’m still learning but I’m not afraid to try, to flow, I love new experiences. Everything is a learning process so I’ll be choosing with what I stay and what I won’t tolerate anymore, not being hard with myself like before. I’ve come a long way and I’m in a time in my life that I’m so truly comfortable with imperfection, so I’m really enjoying the process, creating my own times, loving what I do despite the work that needs to be done.
I’m happy to start a new path, a path that doesn't have a how-to user's guide. I’m listening to my soul and living in a space that I create every day so I can listen to it. And of course, I'm listening to the cries of the Earth.
I'm aware, with lots of hope and so much care to create a better world and future for my children and grandchildren.
Thank you so much, Sharon!
