Between the ephemeral and the eternal

Versatile, restless, sensitive, multifaceted. That is how she is defined by the people who know her well. Whether taking a photograph, creating a piece of jewellery or designing a T-shirt, Claire O’Keefe’s personality comes through in all her works.

One of her virtues has always been “soaking up like a sponge” all the learning placed in her way after finishing school and moving to Barcelona to study Fashion and Photography. “I explored several paths littered with first times. Until one day, I started to feel comfortable with my own vision of things”.

And now she finds herself at a cathartic moment, one of expansion of the self - “I feel a curiosity to explore my more performance-related side, which is something I practise on a daily basis without thinking about it. Working with my body, my voice and my image. I give this a lot of thought”.

Deià, August 2016. Claire and her friends enjoy a day of nature, sun and sea. In the midst of so much oneiric beauty, it suddenly occurs to her to create a jewellery brand, Keef Palas, with Eugenia Oliva. “We started with the collection Ephemeral, earrings made of organic plant and vegetable material. We decided not to treat them, and not so that they would last longer, rather quite the contrary: they could break or rot. It was a metaphor of fast fashion, the clothes and accessories of which have an expiry date. A kind of ode to impermanence”.

Claire tells how “one day we were selling earrings made of flowers and plants in the village bar, Sa Fonda. The following day our inbox was full of requests from fashion design publishers’ and press and magazines that we admired greatly”. Keef Palas is a reflection of Claire’s identity. “Designing these creations gives me confidence, it makes me believe in what I do”. As well as the Ephemeral collection, they have also created the collection Eternal, using elements they find on the beach, destined to last forever.

After seven years working as a freelance photographer and stylist in Barcelona, in 2018 Claire began to miss Mallorca, the island, her home, more intensely. “I started to feel suffocated by the city, and it no longer gave me the same push it had previously. And I didn’t enjoy my free time any more, and saw the possibility of living in Mallorca and continuing to work in Barcelona for certain projects”. As well as devoting herself to photography, sustainable fashion, jewellery and clothes design, “I am now centred on directing videos. I am also exploring natural dyes and the world of essential oils and preparing a collection of silk T-shirts with my mother, which I sell in my online store”.

Claire considers herself to be “fortunate and grateful” because [...]

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