First/Person: Marina Dobreva

Cara Gibbs

03 June 2021
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Mover+Shaker

Listen in as our Creative Director chats with inspiring leaders from all industries as they discuss art, travel, design and everything in between.

 


 

From ballet dancer to jewelry maker to interior designer, the multi-faceted Marina Dobreva has used every creative cue from her repertoire to inform her next big move. Her cult-favorite jewelry line, Mimilore, continues to turn heads in the fashion world, while her newly established design endeavors are beginning to pick up steam. Marina’s eye-catching style proves to be medium-defying! Here, the arbiter of style elaborates on a must-read self-help book, anti-snobby coffee, and a must-visit Mexico City museum.

 

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RAPID FIRE

Sign… Aquarius? Or is this a request for an autograph? :)

Coffee or Tea… coffee, unless I'm at the spa. And secretly? I am over the coffee snobbery. I lived in Portland, OR for 10 years and unless you drank the best coffee, you didn't exist. I am comfortable enough to say I occasionally now like a good ol' cup of Folgers.

Never without… these days, well, a tape measure! In normal times? Killer shoes.

              is the new               
the kimono is the new jacket.

Color you couldn’t live without… that dusty, reddish, rosy mauve. I will find it everywhere and immediately gravitate toward it! In clothes, in furniture, in paint, in the sky.

Fave color combo… currently obsessing with electric blue combined with muted earthy dark green. I also love a good mustard yellow with a brick undertone pink.

Design muse… too many to list, but the early story of Coco Chanel always moves me. I’m talking about the stuff that has nothing to do with what you see in the store windows today.

Favorite museum… having lived a few blocks from the Met for a decade, I am pretty loyal. But I do really love going to Soumaya every time I'm in Mexico City. A must!

Favorite restaurant… Cristal Room Baccarat in Paris. I'm not sure which part of me gets the most filled when I leave each time, my stomach, or my eyes full with decadence.

Favorite hotel… new fave: Pug Seal in Mexico City, each one is filled with original art and is an interior design marvel, at a reasonable price. Old fave: Santa Caterina in Amalfi, I am pretty sure I will still want to go when I'm 100, and it will be exactly the same.

Design is… being unafraid to create the most obscure thing, unbothered by how society will perceive it or you.

Art will always… remind us of our humanity, fragility, sensitivity and it will reinvigorate our souls.

Color is... always, constantly, absolutely necessary at all times, every day!

If you were a color it would be… some weird nameless color that you find in a beautiful vintage color reform rug.

If you were a texture it would be… tadelakt, a Moroccan plaster that takes extraordinary labor, but has both an elegance and a rustic vibe to it.

I’m a firm believer in… continuous, quiet, unglamorous self-development, none of us are ever finished!

I’m deeply grateful for… all of the challenges that life has smacked me with—where would I be without you!?

The world needs more… encouragement of true individuality, as much of the world is becoming monotone.

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Cara Gibbs

Cara is a freelance design and lifestyle writer, editor, and stylist residing in Manhattan. Formerly the principal style editor at Luxe Interiors + Design, she now is a regular contributor to Architectural Digest, House Beautiful, Wallpaper, and The Wall Street Journal, among other publications. She is also the co-founder of the artisan marketplace, In The Pursuit, a platform that marries content with commerce through a lifestyle lens.

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