::DESIGNED TO DESIGN: LE SWEATSHIRT::

When I was a kid, I came up with this mantra, “Created to create. Designed to design. Built to build. Refined to refine.” – it just struck me out of the clear blue. I decided to take it as a word from God and have lived by it ever since… or at least I’ve tried to.

Lately, I haven’t been feeling very creative in a personal way, if that makes any sense. My work environment is very creative, and I’ve had creative projects, but I wasn’t feeling like I was doing anything creative for Jessie… get it? I’m never really short on ideas, which can be both a gift and a curse. I think I was beginning to experience a bit of frustration because there were a lot of ideas swimming around my mind that I hadn’t yet executed, and other than “busyness” I couldn’t think of one excuse why. Busyness should never be an excuse. Too busy to express yourself? That doesn’t even make sense. And I declared war on busyness in my life a while ago, in the sense that I never wanted to be one of those people being busy for busy sake and not actively progressing, and ultimately, not happy.. ‘cuz there will always be more things you could do than you should do… every opportunity isn’t worth your energy.

So where was I supposed to begin? A mountain of ideas. None being convenient to start, but all of it being very much necessary to get out of my system… I  just picked something and started. Sometimes that’s what you’ve gotta do. Just pick something, anything, and go for it.

A little over a year ago while perusing one of my favorite fabric stores for an unrelated project, I stumbled upon this sumptuous textile. It was the finest silk chiffon with wool yarn woven throughout, and it completely blew my mind. It had a prettttty hefty price tag as well, and because I had no immediate use for it (and because I was challenging myself to be ultra fiscally conservative at the time) I left it behind. LO and BEHOLD, an entire YEAR later, the same exact roll of fabric was STILL there and completely untouched. Had no one seen the wonder?? ..how could something so spectacular be so overlooked for so long??? (…that last line just struck a major chord with me… but I’ll choose to digress.).

Anyway, I immediately knew it had to be a sweatshirt. I just knew. I also started feeling like I wanted to have more of an influence in my wordrobe. What could I possibly mean by that? What other influence could there be on my wardrobe…when I’m the one who chooses it, right? But shopping isn’t designing. Those are the ideas of others that one adapts to with each purchase. Which is fine. But.. I have ideas too, and what better a guinea pig than myself?

So I went for it. I bought the (still ridiculously expensive) fabric and went for it. And I’m pretty excited with the results :). The necklace is also a new addition to my latest collection for R.VIVL. I’m literally simultaneously working on the new store while drafting this post, and I hope to have the shop live again before the month is out. Stay tuned for the next post which will feature all of the new goodies for this season! I did an exclusive preview during our Fashion’s Night Out event (which was AMAZEballs). I can’t seem to talk about Harlem’s Fashion Row without getting crazyinsanepassionateexcited, so I’ma chill. But I will say, this was the most SPECTACULAR fashion week we’ve had to date. More on that in the next post as well =D.

PHOTOS BY DEEMY. Also check out SERGIO WONDER, an amazing pattern maker in NYC who’s been instrumental in me finding my design voice again. He’s also an amazing designer!

Xo,
Adore

No related posts.