Hints

Here is a hint of things to come in the spring. The bulletin board in my studio, where I'm posting pictures of things ordered for the shop, making sure it all works together.

(Notice the Tarot cards at the top: Strength and The Fool. Story of my life.)

Welcome to hell

(thanks to Lisa for this)

The stuff of nightmares

Clearly, Orla Kiely never worked at a dead-end, soul-sucking, boring office job in the 70s. In a windowless, fluorescent-lit room with a horrible boss breathing down her neck. Having to use carbon paper and Wite-Out, for christ's sake. I could go on but I think I'll just go stab myself in the eye instead.

And that's my fashion comment for the day.

{Photos of Orla Kiely's AW 13 collection from the otherwise perfectly lovely blogs Kris Atomic and what's your tale nightingale.}

Progress...

Things for the shop, which is to be called Quotidienne, are progressing. I'm still planning to open some time next month.

My professional dress form (which for now will be my model), just arrived the other day. She needs a name-- any ideas?

I've received some beautiful scarves, and a few gorgeous handmade bags from the Netherlands will be on their way soon... and a local bag maker is working on a collaboration with me to make a small clutch. I spent part of an afternoon last week at her studio looking at leathers and talking design. It was a delight.

My studio has been cleaned and rearranged. One wall is covered in photographs of the clothing I'm considering for the shop. I want to see everything together, so it flows, and things can be worn together, even if they are from different designers. 

In the meantime, I am working 7 days a week... any free time is spent walking the greyhound, keeping my house relatively organized, doing yoga, and sleeping. I'm having a blast.

So here's the deal.

I haven't been posting much recently, as I've been very busy working on a "project", as they say. Actually, the project is giving myself a job. I've decided to start up an online clothing/accessories  boutique. It's going to start small, and modest, and I'll go from there. Fortunately, Portland is a mecca for the self-employed and DIY business community, plus there will be no sales tax!. I'm committed to selling well-made things that are more minimalist than trendy, and beautifully designed. I'm also trying, as much as possible, to source things that are made in the U.S., Canada, and Europe. (I'm considering a couple of items that are made in China but with environmental/sustainable/ethical practices. We'll see.)

I'm hoping to open in March, but much depends on the shipping/manufacturing schedules of the designers I'm working with. This is all still in the works. And it's a one-woman operation, so I'm learning a lot of new skills (happily, I love learning new things). It's a risky thing to do, so I'm throwing everything I have into this.

There will be a blog that accompanies the shop, but it will focus on the designers, the clothes, and other style-related topics. I'll still be posting here, though, for the time being.

So, if you know of any small-scale, independent designers that you think I should know about, please comment! (You wouldn't believe how hard it is to find someone making good, simple, comfortable  trousers and skirts that don't cost a million dollars.) I've been researching extensively and for a long time, but there are always new things starting up. And someone may be local to you but wanting to expand... My only requirements are that it has to be designed with a minimalist sensibility-- well-made, good material, and unfussy.

"Life is always either a tightrope or a feather bed. Give me the tightrope." -- Edith Wharton (Happy 151st Birthday!)

 (via Powell's Books)

RIP Andrée Putman, 1925-2013

andrée putman

Interior designer and "Ambassador of Style" Andrée Putman passed away yesterday at her home in Paris. From the Daily Beast's obit:

Putman would rise to become an icon of French chic. She was an "Ambassador of Style," the title of a 2010 retrospective on her work at Paris's City Hall. She cultivated close associations with the fashion world in the 1970s as artistic director of Créateurs & Industriels, a design bureau and breeding ground for talent famed for launching the likes of Jean-Paul Gaultier, Issey Miyake, Jean-Charles de Castelbajac, and Thierry Mugler.

 From France24:

Seen by many as the Grande Dame of French design, the chic Parisienne was the subject of a retrospective at Paris city hall in 2010.
Her daughter Olivia, who now runs the Putman design studio and who curated the show, said Andree Putman "became a style ambassador in spite of herself -- she just did her own thing, she would never have claimed such a role."

 More about Putman, her life and work, at Studio Putman.

"Let everything happen to you.
Beauty and terror.
Just keep going.
No feeling is final."

~ Rainier Maria Rilke
via Lost in the Moment...

Dear Abby

Cambridge Satchel Co.

I first heard about Cambridge Satchel Company maybe in early 2009. I saw a little blurb about them on NotCouture. I was looking for a school satchel for my daughter (who loves all things British) and thought it was perfect. I emailed the company directly to ask about the leather and how they were made, and corresponded directly with Julie Deane. She was lovely! And when she heard we were coming to London that summer, she invited us to stop at Cambridge and see the shop. (I still regret that we didn't have time.) Anyway, the bag arrived and my daughter, now a junior in college, still carries it every day. She says she's gotten a million compliments on it over the years. And the bag has held up fantastically well.

Here's a great interview with Julie at Refinery 29. She's an inspiration to me.

How would you sum up the working environment here? What kind of mood do you try to create?
"I want it to be friendly. I want the factory and office to be somewhere where people feel proud to work. We employ 84 people now, and I know them all and I know their families. That’s really important to me. At Christmas when we’re super-busy, if someone’s child is in a school play, then we make sure that they go and watch it. I created this business because I wanted things better for my own children, and I’m not going to do that at the expense of other people’s families."

My daughter's bag: the Classic Satchel in vintage brown. No embossing.

pic from cambridge satchel co.