Well, I've been layed off from the bookshop. I suppose it probably won't surprise anyone. Who buys books from bookstores anymore? The ridiculous thing was that they gave me two hours notice.
While I weigh my options my mind runs rampant.
Will I sublet my apartment and sail to Mexico for a couple of months?
Will I start the wage slavery again, just to be able to know I can pay my bills?
Will I hope for a call from a movie?
Will I start a business?
The business idea, i have to confess has been on my mind for several years. I've mildly dabbled in the ways of etsy, never quite sure how anyone would ever find my shop in the millions, and once there, would they really want my sock garters?
When I lived in Asheville, i made a couple of patterns and sewed up a couple of samples and took them down to The Honeypot, a by consignment shop of local artisans and seamstresses. The owner took a look at my designs, held them up to her boyish framed body and said, could you bring the waist up? I had designed them for bustier ladies such as myself, because clothes were hard to find for my body type. In the end she said she liked them, but i had to have 8 pieces in the shop at all times for congruency. I ended up just sewing costumes for the circus instead.
It made me start thinking about fit in a way i hadn't really. How most people make RTW and deal with fit is: jersey/stretchy fabrics and elastic. I really wasn't in love with either of those things. In the past couple of years i have come up with a couple of designs that look fetching on all body frames, are size variant while still looking very becoming, and use regular old soft cotton fabric with no elastic. There's a store here in the bywater called Bon Castor that is very similar, that I've sold a couple of dresses at.
The problem is, I've never been completely happy with the fabrics i use. If I'm going to make MORE CLOTHES than what already fills second hand stores, dumpsters, and ships going to South America, I want to make them really really sustainably. I want to make an item that you never really want to part with and that will grow and shrink with you. I want to make something that will last. I want to make a timeless piece of clothing.
I want it to be organic, with naturally sound dyes, locally (or at least within the united states) woven, and sew it myself. Potentially either using only solar power, or a treadle machine. I AM NOT KIDDING.
People have been making beautiful garments for thousands of years. I am blown away by hand painted kimonos from the Tang dynasty that are still beautiful. There is no reason that fashion has to be thrown away. That what I make has to be thrown away. There is no reason that I too cannot follow in the footsteps of a fine clothier of ancient past.
The one setback for me has always been the start up. To be able to economically be able to do this, and have a steady line, not just an "upcycled" line where I find whatever I can at any given moment to be able to sell something. I want a continuity in fabric. And the kind of fabric I want, you have to buy in bulk. I'd already have it if it wasn't out of my budget. Who wouldn't want seemingly endless amounts of beautiful organic cotton to play with? Janome also makes a sewing machine for the treadle that is about 250. But that can be something I work towards.
If i don't decide to sail to Mexico. Because there is another aspect to the business thing that I don't know if I should share due to the ridiculousness of it. I have never been comfortable with the idea of money. I need it, I use it every day. I pay rent, I pay electric, I work for it. But the idea of getting down and dirty and becoming a full on entrepreneur? The word sounds like manure to me, which i think is giving manure a bad association. In the last couple of days while I've researched organic cotton mills in the us and wind powered ones in India, I've also tried to grasp my resistance. WHY? I haven't really come up with much except that i believe in the idea of a no-growth economy, mostly because i attribute the greediness of capitalism with the imminent global catastrophe of extinction, ocean death, and climate change. I'd rather have salmon swimming around in the world than a particular shade of turquoise, and that's saying a lot because i live in the southeast where i never see salmon and turqouise is my favorite color. If i could go back in time and make sure the motor engine that runs on fossil fuels was not invented, i probably would. This doesn't make me a steampunk, just an environmentalist. And lets face it, Fashion is a four letter word for the environment. The throw away-ness of it and the ever changing "seasons."
I won't be aiming for those high fashion people. I will be aiming for people like me and my mom and my friend's and their moms. Women who care, and who have a few clothing items they love and cherish. In my estimation it would only cost slightly more than something you can get at urban outfitters. But the value of it would be so much more.
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