Colbo NYC’s Tal Silberstein Leads With Intuition
This upcoming June, Colbo will present its largest collection at Paris Men’s Fashion Week, featuring exclusive brand collaborations and an exhibition celebrating Parisian artists. Though humble about his work, it’s clear that Silberstein is revolutionizing the way we think about fashion consumption. When I asked him to expand on the concept behind Colbo, he struggled to simplify his vision into words. He’d rather let his work do the talking.
I’m curious about why your namesake brand doesn’t include your name. Tell me about why you chose “Colbo.”
The [Hebrew] meaning is “everything in it.” We don’t have everything, but we do have clothing from different brands and records, and then there’s the coffee and home goods aspect. There’s a lot going on in the space. That’s the cool thing about [a] “col-bo.” It can be a department store, but it can also be a little supermarket, a kibbutz (agricultural community), or even a hardware store. The name naturally made sense.
That leads to my next question. You grew up in Tel Aviv and have done a fair amount of traveling. How have your multicultural experiences shaped your creative vision?
Living most of my life in Tel Aviv and then traveling around Asia and Australia has been very inspiring to me for the space and the brand. You know, it’s something that’s always very hard for me to speak about. I just work in a very intuitive way, and so these things inspire me on a subconscious level. The aspects of Tel Aviv that influenced my process include the natural colors of the desert, the more breezy, oversized fits, and the idea of hanging out in spaces and just meeting people in a relaxed environment. It’s like, yeah, come in, have a coffee — just hang out, there’s space to sit.
So is music another element that you pulled from Tel Aviv?
No — music is initially from my father. He was a big record collector and DJ as a hobby. That’s how I got into music and records from a very young age. And, you know, my first endeavor business-wise was through music. After art school, I went back to Israel and started this small record shop in Tel Aviv that then inspired me to make merchandise which led me to design and eventually work for other fashion designers. But the music is a huge part for me. We have a section in the middle of the store where there’s always music playing, and we’re very thoughtful about our speaker system and record selection.
That’s so interesting how one creative endeavor led to another. Can you talk more about that transition?
My record shop in Tel Aviv was kind of a base for beginning to express myself. Since I was very young, I always envisioned having a clothing store because I loved this idea of curation (which I probably didn’t know the word for at the time) but just buying different things and putting them together in a way that would complement others. I always felt this kind of strength in my consciousness that this was something I wanted to do.
Is there a particular song, album, or artist that has influenced your work?
That’s a good question. One of my biggest musical influences is from my experience in India and the Krishna community, and how they use music to enter a meditative state — something we’re trying to do with our brand and the space. Another influence is Alice Coltrane, whose record we have displayed on a shelf above the counter. It’s not for sale, it’s just there to kind of oversee the space. I have all her records and listen to her music a lot because she was a very spiritual being whose music is very meditative and inspiring to me.
Speaking of inspiration, tell me more about your design process.
You know, sometimes I go to sleep asking myself, “What am I doing?” Whenever I try to dig up what’s behind my inspirations, I realize that I’m just a very intuitive and physical person. That’s why physical space is so important to me. Opening Colbo wasn’t just starting a brand, it was the whole story and space surrounding it. It took me time to build this holistic community that also expresses my vision and aesthetic, but it speaks for itself.
That makes a lot of sense. A lot of artists struggle to describe their work because it just comes naturally to them. To narrow it down, can you talk more about your upcoming collection at Paris Men’s Fashion Week?
I’ve been thinking about this a lot because that’s what I’m working on full-time right now. So just to give you some context, we’re doing a popup for Paris Men’s Fashion Week but it’s not really your standard wholesale presentation. Instead, we’re going to have a space with a DJ and our biggest collection yet — with four or five collaborations with different brands that we have and haven’t worked with in the past. We’re going to have an exhibition as part of the space that features Parisian artists, too. Again, it’s more about the holistic experience than just presenting our brand.
And what about your inspiration for the collection?
In terms of the inspiration of this collection, it’s kind of using everything that I’ve done so far and bringing it towards more of a high-fashion direction rather than casual dress. A lot of it also comes from materials. I just find these materials and get really inspired by them and want to explore them with silhouettes that I’ve worked with before and making them a little more unique but always maintaining this kind of comfortable, oversized but sleek look that makes you feel good in what you wear.
Wow, this is a very exciting milestone for Colbo.
Yeah, I mean this whole collection is a really big step. I’m also excited for a couple of exclusives we’re doing for Paris. One of them is with one of our favorite brands at the store called Camille Fortgens. It’s a Dutch designer that we’ve worked with since day one and we’re very close with them on a personal level.
What does the future hold for Colbo? Are you looking to grow a global presence, or even open a store in Tel Aviv?
Opening a store in Tel Aviv would be amazing. I mean, it’s all full circle that way. But yeah, I definitely see Colbo growing into a global presence. I think that might mean placing our brand or doing popups in different places in the world, which is a part of our mission to create something holistic and experiential. I’m also open to other projects that are more hospitality than clothing or more art than hospitality, as long as it communicates our vision.
