day 8 redux: thinking pink
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
I started this 90 day count down to the launch of my line as incentive to keep me going and also as a way to give you a peek into the world of what it's really like to put together a couture line. I didn't realize I would be so reluctant to expose my foibles and frailties, frustrations as well as inspirations.
I know in a sense I've been skimming over the heart of what's going on but didn't really have an answer as to how to make it more personal. Some of this I chalked up to the fact that I have been exhausted beyond description. I was going back and forth, thinking the tiredness had to be from the stress of working on the line, the commuting to Los Angeles, and basically nervousness. In my worst Woody Allen in Hannah and Her Sisters Moment I told my business partner that I thought maybe I had a deadly disease. He of course laughed his a$* off. Today though, my nose is stuffy, my brain is fuzzy and my eyes are hot, so thankfully I have proof it's not all in my imagination. To top it off, I've been questioning my color pallet, which is a very inconvenient thing to do, given that my textile is already in production.
I started to worry over the weekend, even though I was so tired that it was all I could do to sit in front of the fire, teaching myself to embroider and catching up with Top Design, that my new gray and pink pallet is too immature for the line itself. I mean it would be one thing if I was going for a sweet and girly Nanette Lepore, Lela Rose, Temperley London or Luella sort of look...and the colors I have chosen are definitely just that. I truly love and wear all of those designers and think there's nothing wrong with soft, sweet and feminine, but I went to the trouble to hire the former head pattern maker for Dior, YSL and Balenciaga because I wanted to do precise elegant tailoring. And although I could never put my finger on it, I've realized I'm in love with American sportswear because it captures the essence of the woman I want to become, and really at the core, is the comfortable, practical, made-for-living way I like to dress. Yet here I've gone and softened it all up with gray and pink.
Then my mind started mulling art, because that's always where I draw my biggest inspiration from. Intuitively I pulled out a Diebenkorn book. It sat on the floor next to me all weekend but I could not bring myself to crack it open. I was avoiding it because somehow I knew there would be a truth in there that I didn't want to see. And of course there was. Yesterday morning I started thinking about that particular Ocean Park painting, my favorite, wondering if it's too late to put in some cobalt blues...
Then I started thinking how Hans Hoffman would do these big bright abstract paintings and they would have a surprise flash, a square of bubblegum pink somewhere in them. I remember being 17, 18 years old at Berkeley and spending hours in the University museum just staring with delight at his process, at the fact that a grown man used pink in his paintings. It's been years since I've seen them, but I found some images online and when I saw this one, at fist I didn't recognize it. It's cracked with age right on the exact shot of pink I was looking for (he used lots of thick paint) and when I realized it was the painting I had spent so much time examining, this one in particular had given me so much pleasure and so many reasons to fall in love with painting itself--it was like seeing an dear old friend. I know how absurd this must sound, but I actually feel more than a little teary just looking at it now.
And just what does this have to do with my clothing line? Maybe nothing. My dear French pattern maker assured me on the phone this morning, that although she is not a pink person, she thinks that this is going to work, perhaps be a hit (you'll have to imagine this said with the most lovely French accent). And if the buyers ask for a different color lining, 'you just tell them you'll change it if they put in an order for 1,000.' All better now. And there you have the truth of what's really happening on day 8.
posted by Mary Jo at TrustYourStyle at
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
5 Comments:
Of course I love the painting references. I so enjoy this "backstage" seat to the creation of a fashion line. To create moving works of art worn on the body is something I deeply admire.
Your idea boards inspire me. I think people love to see process in all art, and the more personal in many ways the better. Far from exposing your weaknesses, it often makes the "magic" of the completed work so much more impressive.
Keep it up.
Thank you my dear painter friend. Coming from you, that means the world.
Have you ever created throws using the same technique?
Maybe you want your creations to be someone else's Morning Mist...
That is such a kind thing to say Joanna. I guess I still think art is more important than fashion although you can change people's lives by giving them new choices about ways to live with their clothing. That's a lot to live up to though--especially when I'm still trying get my colors right!
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