more insight into the textile industry

why was i so afraid of calling reps and mills? you can read about my phone fright in an earlier post.

so far, I've talked to 3 reps and they have been helpful, informative, and all-around wonderful.

i have many, many samples on the way. they should be here next week.

they are coming from envirotextiles, kendor, pickering, and sextet.

i also still need to put a phone call into a rep i met at a local soiree. he and his wife own four lines, as well as a brick and mortar here in Asheville. they do all their design, product development, manufacturing, and selling (both wholesale and retail).

basically, they are living my dream life.

his wife covers most of the design work while he covers the sourcing and manufacturing aspects. he offered me a 15-minute free consultation at the party -- probably the serendipitous result of too much champagne and a very naughty burlesque performance from the lovely Queen April.

i came away with a solid figure to get through the product development phase, a strong local contact with over 30 years in the industry, and a potential partnership. he asked me to wait until july to call, and here we are -- july.

i am learning all kinds of fascinating things, among them some basic vocabulary:

PFD (prepare for dye)
PFP (prepare for print)
lab dip
asking dye facilities to reframe into a roll after applications
asking facilties for whole package quotes and CMT quotes

i am also wrapping up the preliminary market research with a final push for respondants going out next week. provided my dance teacher samiTe' agrees to helping out via her facebook page, i could expect between 15 and 20 more of those. another of my teachers, the fabulous Lisa Zahiya asked her followers to take my survey and many of them did so i know this is a successful approach.

i would be interested to know from any readers who are into marketing what a good ballpark number is in terms of marketing survey responces.

it will be a pleasure to wrap the survey research up, finally choose my line ambassadors, and give an IPOD gift certificate away.

it will also be a real joy to get into the actual design and sampling work once i have chosen my fabrics. i learned about this practice at Kathleen Fasanella's Fashion Incubator site.

this is a great resource for people who want to design and profit from their designs. this is all the stuff fashion schools probably don't teach you.

you may exit with a strong foundation in design, an introduction to retail and marketing, and intermediate sewing and construction skills after leaving a fashion design program. but Kathleen's site is a wealth of information as to how to translate that to the entrepreneurial and manufacturing worlds.

well, it's time for me to practice my choreography and work on the head piece, which i am also exploring as a one-of-a-kind couture product for dancers. in that vein, i need to purchase some display heads and vintage saris in the very near future.

some thoughts on poetry & fashion

i haven't always considered myself a fashion maven. ok, i still really don't consider myself a fashion maven, but a lot of people tend to comment on my "style" -- my eye for garments, how to put them together, how they look on the body, the fantasies and ideas they create in the wearer and the viewer, how these ideas create a relationship.

well ok, nobody mentions the last couple of afore mentioned things. that doesn't mean they're not happening for me. if someone is watching me, i am watching them. i am watching them watch me. i am thinking about their gaze.

i love the stealth factor of fashion. what i bring to an outfit is part social experiment, part internal observation, and part cultural critique.

in the mix: identity, sexuality, history, confrontation, legacy, feminism, politic (mine and yours), class, memory, the image, objectivity, subjectivity, poetry, power.

especially poetry, especially power.

i am perverse. i love that i can control another's perception and gaze through the simple ritual act of "getting dressed." for me, clothing is so many things, the least of which is a costume. what lies beneath?

i suspect many people might say: not much.

this derives from the cultural and artistic biases both against and for fashion. this is really a GENDER bias, but that is neither here nor there. it's pointless to discuss the point with anyone who assumes they are smarter or more evolved than me. and most people do, because i embrace and express my love of fashion and the garment.

what i really wish to do is talk a little poetry.

when i was in my early 20s, i got the opportunity to design and create costumes for several theatre productions. this allowed me to combine my love of the garment with my love of story. it was sublime.

understanding clothing means understanding character. this is something i wish more people understood. the garment communicates character through time (i.e. plot). always.

poetry enters story when it creates that musical, wonderful, heart-breaking resonance within us, within something within us.

it's an integrity of yes.

it is a ghost unseen.

we only know of its presense by the signal clues in our environment. and its resistance of logical proof is what makes it so, so beautiful.

and then we want to explain the beauty -- why it happened to us, what made us deserving, what makes the jumping off point of inspiration sacrosanct.

and so on.

poetry is the only "thing" that can be anywhere, at any time, in anything, in anyone.

it is Lorca's duende, it is punk fucking rock.

we can do this with garments. we don't have to; we certainly don't need to. we can put the garment on for the simple fact that it gives us pleasure to do so. we can put it on because it's easy . . . or because it's clean. however, should we choose to add a little poetry, we can.

when i write poetry, i often enter my poems through the image of a character in the poem. usually, this involves garments. when i dress, i enter the character and tone of the day.

my grandmother gave me a pair of her driving gloves, and a piece of lace. i create chrysanthemum-yellow shapes with Indian skirts when i dance. my grandfather was buried in his favorite gray suit. the fine ladies of Rome cry melting tears when Valentino retires.

one day, i shall write a book of outfits. one day, i shall wear a poem. none of it will be genius. i don't care about that. which is why it just might be genius. but probably not.

4 phone calls & thoughts on my "market"

i did it! first phone calls made and samples on the way. more talks with reps to come. i'm getting samples from Kendor, Pickering, Sextet, and Envirotextile. if all goes as hoped, i will also be meeting with a local rep and designer who might (will) introduce me to some new mills and fabrics. that's a july thing. by the end of july, my goal is to have fabrics selected and to have designs done.

i also need to prettify this blog at some point.

more materials arriving for my headpiece and i should be ready to rock on that next week.

for you embellishers and belly dancers out there i found a great resource & bloggy-blog-thing. Check out the book Embellished Bras: Basic Technique and the author's fabulous blog.

i also re-read my market research surveys this morning. i am so grateful to all the women who took the time to tell me about themselves.

99% of my respondents said that fit and comfortability was THE most important thing when selecting their activewear.

why should that be so difficult? because most activewear is crap OR it is not designed for dancers. so we end up wearing performance wear to class -- as a dancer, i want my clothing to move and feel a certain way -- i do not want to feel like i'm getting ready for my next curl set. if we don't wear performance wear, then we are wearing regular little tank tops.

here is what we do: we lift up the bottom part over our chest so that we can see our bellies for class. then, when class is over we cover our bellies again. it's like DIY convertible dancewear.

am i the only person out there who would like a better option??

the focus on fit and comfortability is logical when we consider that over 90% of the respondants wear the activewear between 3 and 7 days a week. that's a lot of wear, mama.

combined with the fact that most of them are moms who are wearing activewear around the house and on errands and such and we have the perfect recipe for pieces that fit seamlessly into many aspects of life, feel good, last a long time, & are designed FOR dancers.

the women who i design for love life, their families, and themselves.

they are brave.

they are showing up for life with passion and verve.

market is a term that does not describe them very well. i am thinking of a better descriptive term...

four phone calls

Today I did some fabric research for my line. I looked at 4 different mills and several cotton/soy/bamboo/spandex blends. The next step is to make some phone calls.

Why does this feel so hard??

I mean, it does not feel hard in a bad way . . . you know, that creeping note of begrudgement when you're forcing the march. Rather, it's the unsettling fear of failure. Fear of failure does not really start to arise until you are acting on something. Something you really want.

In no particular order, the fears can be idenitifed more specifically:

-- Fear of not knowing what the next step is
--Fear you won't have the energy, confidence, or chops to take the next step
--Fear that you'll look stupid
--Fear that you've made the wrong decision, chucked your chips in the wrong basket
--Fear of "No"
--(And) at least 100 other inarticulate flavors of fear

Now this is the point we can either continue to tell ourselves stories or we can face facts.

This is the fear of four phone calls.

For me, it's four phone calls; for you it might be something completely different.

I know that once I confront this fear, more fear will crop up -- fears corresponding to a particular action I am taking or preparing to take.

Making peace with a moderate to high level of fear and risk is part of being in business. Hell, it's part of living life.

Solution = committment and acceptance.

--Commit to taking the action, come what may.

--Accept fear at any point in the process (err . . . okay, every point in the process).

Fear will woo you by making you believe you can cajole or otherwise lead it away from you. Bury that bone.

My committment?? Phone calls on next day off. In fact, let's take it up notch. Phone appointments on next day off & a fundraising calendar (for the phase 1 seed fund campaign).

Hell to the yeah!

What is the phase 1 seed fund you ask???

Oh, now things will really start to get interesting.

Stay tuned!

gypsy journey and a business idea

you cannot walk straight when the road bends ~ romany proverb

last night, i went to the americana and burlesque sideshow festival here in asheville, north carolina.

ashe-vegas, portland of the south, paris of the south . . . i've heard several glamorous descriptors for this little mountain town that curiously balances its traditional appalachian roots with a thriving arts and avant garde community.

asheville, perhaps the only town in the south where anything really does go -- even next to beautiful, wilting, shabby Nawlins, there is a palpable creative freedom here that is unmatched.

suddenly, i am a fish in water.

but not yet.

my path here was circuitous ~ i came by way of the outer banks, several countries and states, a 10 year marriage, various college degrees, backtracking, crippling self-doubt, suffering, and an unanswered question of grief.

i really didn't know who i was until i started dancing.

i started in my living room and danced to whatever made me feel good. i won't describe the very real isolation that my circumstances dictated at the time but suffice it to say i had little reason for hope.

through dance, one thing led to another and slowly, i clarified the principles that were important to me in 3 simple, bright words.

love, beauty, freedom.

and that's how i came to my business idea. of course, that too was an evolution in itself. and i'm not sure how it happened. i just kept dancing, hoping, working, and yes, thinking.

now dance class, performances, and festivals like absfest is "research" and i couldn't be more delighted about that.

follow your heart = follow whatever delights you.

that's freedom.

but learning what delights you and following it is a skill and discipline. this is what they never tell you.

follow your delight, darlings and stay curious about all the little winding inroads to beauty.

now, here, a pretty little something to delight you.

let's go!

what is pretty things?

it is a blog that focuses on my attempt to design, manufacture, and profit off of a clothing line. i didn't go to fashion design school or business school. i am actually a writer, teacher, dancer and jack of many trades who is designing a line for dancers. i hate to say "active-wear" but yes, ladies and gentleman, this is the uninspiring terminiolgy of the marketplace.

you might find pretty things interesting if you are an aspiring designer, entrepreneur, or someone with big dreams who is determined to see it through ~ no matter what your circumstances are or who thinks that you don't have what it takes.

this is not a cute or clever blog. this blog will detail the messiness of dreaming, creating, building a business, confronting and (hopefully) overcoming obstacles, and enjoying a magical-mojo-success-making journey ~ come what may.

let's go!