Shop Cleaning and Halloween-ing!

Yay! October!

Sometimes I think October is the beginning of my year as opposed to January, which is fine with me. I like riding the wave of the change in the season and the glitz and the glam of Halloween crafting and costume making adds sparkle to my attitude as well as twinkle to the floor of my studio. The renewed energy inspires me to plan and expand my work.

I am very happy for my source of new old stock vintage masks. Being able to sew beads onto the surface of the masks, makes a much more beautiful product and I have added a few new items crafted in this manner to my Etsy shop inventory. But, as I always say, "out with the old and in with the new"! Therefore, I have added some of the plastic masks decorated with glued decorations to my new clearance section.

Also in my shop clearance section are discontinued rag knit items. Most of the fun for me in the creation of rag knits is making the fiber to knit. The direction the rag knits is headed is toward items that include more hand dyed elements to enhance the upcycled fibers or to be made completely from dyed fabric and fiber. I also am changing the style of the cowl to be more like a small capelet with a closure at the neck. My fingers are crossed that buttons made from drilled beach stones will work perfectly for them.

That "out with the old and in with the new" is also in action in my own personal inventory of my lifetime collection of very cool and useful things. I have added new items to my studio destash shop named for my annual sale, Quality Junk. This shop is the end-of-the-road for items that I'm sure I'm never going to use myself. I have a serious weakness for interesting vintage textiles and need to be firm with myself about getting too overloaded with my acquisitions!

Why am I ambitiously cleaning things out? Baisebeige Studios has a plan for expansion! I am going to expand my space in this interesting old house. My work frequently spills out of my room so I am going to make my takeover of that space official in November.

Halloween is calling me back to work now. Stay tuned for more news on this year's merriment and the changes in my studio!

A Few Alterations to Rock and Roll History

Today is Global Beatles Day and I have a tiny tale of my own related to this celebration of modern culture influenced by the Fab Four. Meet my friend Faith Cohen. We go way back to the good old days of punk rock except she was talking more about The Beatles then. Time has passed and she is making bigger noise about The Beatles now. She's the creator of Global Beatles Day! She lives it, breathes it, sleeps it. ... And now she wants to wear it out on Saturday night!

This jacket is a genuine artifact of rock and roll history. It was previously owned by Pattie Boyd who was first married to George Harrison. They met on the set of A Hard Day's Night in which Pattie appeared as an extra in the film. Pattie was a model for Mary Quant and is credited with creating the definitive "London Look" that was perpetuated by Twiggy in later years. After Brian Epstein gave the Beatle his permission to marry her, she accompanied him to the Maharishi's ashram in India. She inspired The Beatles song "Something". And, yes, that is Pattie Boyd in the video at the link. After her subsequent marriage to Eric Clapton, and being the inspiration for his rock classic "Layla", Pattie Boyd became known to be "The Greatest Rock Muse" ever.

The jacket itself has a pop culture connection. It was made by Kings Road designer Nigel Preston for his fashion line branded Maxfield Parrish. He was well known for colorful leather and suede clothing and was popular with rock stars in the mid-1970s going forward. Although Mr. Preston is no longer living, his brand is still in production.

So why doesn't Faith look very happy in the picture above? Maybe it's because she is swimming in the garment and something must be done! Lucky for her she knows me and Baisebeige Studios is the home of the Gonzo Alteration. It was no problem to take the jacket apart, raise the shoulder line, take in the torso, take in the sleeves and shorten the sleeves while preserving the original intention of the maker's design lines. And, it doesn't hurt at all that I completely "get it" and understand the whole story attached to this article of clothing.

The surgery was a complete success and Pattie Boyd's jacket fits exactly like Faith Cohen's jacket should fit. It's so true that the culture of The Beatles is being passed forward through time. This little wearable snippet of history has many more years of fashion fun ahead of it. I think a much happier Faith agrees and is drinking to that!

I Ran Away to Chicago to Seek My Fortune

In 1985, I sold clothing made from upcycled materials at the Merchandise Mart in Chicago with outstanding success, considering it was during the time when recycling garbage was unheard of. The dress on the left was a one-of-a-kind item made from a variety of yarns and strips of fabrics and could not be reproduced exactly. It was included in a show called Wearable Art '85 at the Indianapolis Museum of Art. By the time the show opened, my rag knits were quite popular as unique items, so I decided to create a line of artwear that could be reproduced. The clothes on the right are from that line. I used 100% cotton fabrics and fibers that were dyed, painted and constructed by hand and they attracted a lot of attention and sales!

Transportation is frequently a problem with walking my green talk and not a point I am willing to compro

mise. Until the mid-1990s, I could take the Amtrak train to Chicago and return to Indianapolis on the same day, so doing business in Chicago was not a problem. When A

mtrak discontinued the daily service, business in Chicago became difficult. However, MegaBus service has changed all of that. In less

than two years, I have learned how to use social media effectively and open an Etsy shop, so I am naturally curious about what's going on in the Chicago marketplace. Yesterday, I acted on that curiosity and took Megabus to the city with the goal of browsing the Apparel Center at the Merchandise Mart for a

showroom.

My trip was efficient and comfortable and even greener than expected. The vehicles

are engineered for optimum fuel efficiency. During my next trip, I'll remember to take my netbook and adapter because each seat has an electrical outlet and there is WiFi! The bus schedules between Indianapolis to Chicago are convenient for short visits or a full day of business.

The Merchandise Mart is an impressive structure built by Marshall Field at the peak of the pandemonium of the Great Depression to make it easier for the makers of goods to reach

a wider market. It's two city blocks long and has an annex that was designed to be an apparel market. In the 1980's that was packed full of glam and glitz. Since that time Chicago has gone through many changes and so has the building. Chicago is the greenest city in America and the Merchandise Mart itself is the biggest LEED certified existing building in the whole world. That's good green karma!

So I went to work cooking color and researching the information online about the Merchandise Mart, its shows and its showrooms. It just seemed odd that there was just one floor exclusively apparel showrooms. My original plan was to take samples on the day of my trip but my gut told me to check out the situation first. I noticed when the building became LEED certified there was a Green StyleMax show. I couldn't find any subsequent sustainable fashion shows.

I was really hoping to find showrooms that deal exclusively with sustainable design businesses. However, even being America's greenest city is still small

on the grand scale of everything. I've only been able to find 16 retail stores in Chicago with 40% or more green merchandise. and, to be honest, I'd really rather do what I do in my own green way and express my aesthetic and point of view without being too overtly political about it. So I went with an open mind, making

the trip a fact-finding mission instead.

The architectural facelift of the old building was gorgeous and it's so good to know that green and history can work

well together! Not only can old be new again, it can be even better than it used to be. No doubt that green has moved far past its hippie image into the land of luxury!

There is no doubt either that green is a way of business life in this building. Every trash can in the hallways had a place to recycle paper, aluminum, plastic and glass. The ultimate badge of greenness was displayed prominently throughout the building. Here it is at the end of the bridge to the Apparel Center!

However, there is absolutely nothing that could have prepared me for what I found on the other side of that doorway. The 13th floor, essentially the only floor of the Apparel Center still devoted to apparel is a ghost town. It is at least 75% vacant. Showrooms still in business have red banners protruding from their doorways indicating occupancy.

*SIGH*

I did make some great contacts with the showroom tenants that have survived in this environment without going out of business or moving to less expensive locations. It's too bad that Marshall Field's original concept to make business more efficient didn't work very well in the building using energy more efficiently. There was, however, a real spirit of comradarie and cooperation between these wholesalers of fashion I've never seen before and much more openmindedness about the business of fashion in general.

I do have optimism that I will be able to expand into the Chicago and upper Midwest markets soon. It's going to take a somewhat different approach than what I had anticipated. But, change is good. Not only that. Change is necessary. Guess where the people who couldn't be more flexible and forward-thinking are. Gone.

*SMILE*

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