Boxes

Spring is here.
New playlists are in effect. Sales on the rise... we hope. 
Monetary artistic success we are hoping for.


There are so many feelings which lead to a season in Provincetown,  to the events, the social stigmas. Romance and sex permeate the air; and the tension and excitement of every shop owner. The possibilities are endless and vast and they place themselves on the front of my mind all day long. The feeling of joy in the sale of a toothbrush holder at Kidstuff, the anxiety of not selling the dress to someone, the relief in the next person that buys it, watching the polka-dot bags from Silk & Feathers go by, wondering if it's a piece that I spent 4 hours sweating over in the winter, debating what color of thread to use when and why. Or if it's a bra.


Working in retail, as a somewhat anonymous designer (only because I don't wear a name tag and when someone enters a shop it's generally assumed the people are simply sales associates- though I must take this moment to say very rarely are sales associates simply just there especially in Ptown I think there is so much more weight and importance in the working relationships), I try to keep the focus on the customer. Whatever their needs may be, and however simple. Sometimes you just need that bra, or that toothbrush holder or just the t-shirt in the $5 bucket and I am thrilled to provide that in whatever capacity I can. It is the same amount of love for that person- the same effort in making the decision, writing the slip, re-stocking as for one of my own pieces, or an expensive anything. 


When someone purchases one of my things though it is such a great honor that someone wants something that I did spend 2, 4, 7, 10, 15 hours making, in fuzzy slippers on a Saturday night at 1am or a Thursday morning at 6, or had Rachel sew, with gloves, pins poking her hands piecing the denim collages. It's sort of like Sally Field winning her Oscar crying 'You really love me!' That is how it feels.


And seconds after the person walks out the store the reminder to vacuum or a call comes with some great sorrow... or you look at your phone and the one you love just didn't text you back yet, and it's been all fucking day.


Back to the joy.
Back to the anxiety.
Back to the sad.
Back to the sales & the books.
Back to the business man within me.
Back to the pride and the joy in making someone happy, giving them the dress they will wear to their best friend's wedding.
Back to the sketchbook for the next idea.
Back to the ocean.
Back to the music.

Library shot...


Also, most of you may have seen this from my facebook, but there is a Love Matters facebook page. It's here:


www.facebook.com/lovemattersclothing




And also like (while you're at it if you want) where I'm selling most of my clothes:


Mary DeAngelis Silk & Feathers on facebook


And if you live in Regina you want to go to Seed Shoppe. :)


I love all of you who read this. Thank you for spreading the love and taking some of what I'm putting out there. Call me a quack but I totally believe that these little thoughts towards each other, and the effort in making clothing from a place of love to put on our backs to send it out  in our daily actions does make the world better in some kind of microscopic but significant way.  Keep up the good WORK.


More on the show soon too :) xx

Buoyed by Love

Good morning
beautiful sunshine
cool morning
quiet- buzzer gone- shop not yet open- preparing an upheaval of movement and creation.


It's amazing how compliments can sometimes be overwhelming and instigate feelings of sadness... but they are also motivating. It's like my being is unsure of what to do with all that love. I'm not exactly sure why but this experience is like a mirage of tidal waves not clashing with each other but riding over one another. The wave of creativity in making things, the wave of the business growing, the wave of the event planning, the wave of understanding hearts and how they operate, how mine operates and then staying true to that element as everything rises and falls in a syncopation that leaves me washed ashore.


Hence Provincetown; one of the most beautiful places on this planet with so much to offer if you let it...


This past week has been insane. But awesome!


Here's an interview by the one and only Madge of Honor, a blogger from blogue.com. She came into BXclusive a couple weeks ago and I loved her in the first minute. Check it out. The questions are awesome and she's a fantastic writer.
 http://blogue.us/2012/05/08/label-of-love/


We finished gold jeans with leather collages... pix of that soon.
Reversible leggings, a few more lace/ponti collage dresses. Awoke the house dress again. Starting posters for the show JUNE 28 @ THE LIBRARY. Also started the journey of the show of the season that will be taking place at the Velvet nightclub this summer. If you're able to come to Ptown not for June 28 make sure you're here for a Thursday-Sunday to take in this experience....


Like this:http://www.facebook.com/pages/Abrakadabra

These have been done for a little while but wanted to post pictures... They are arriving at Silk & Feathers today... The unicorns and dragons... next we get into Lobsters!


Happy Friday!

Humanic Implifications

There is never just one thing. 


Even in the act of isolating one's self from (example) the world- the self is with his or her friends named Isolation, Loneliness, Fear, Addiction, Silence, Peace. And ALSO ALL THE OTHER VOICES OF THE SELF THAT LIVE IN A PERSON'S HEAD. 'We' all have them. And as long as they all have a board meeting to make sure when to get to work on time- it's generally okay to have the multitude of selves.


There's also the reasons for isolating the self that are present: whom or what we might be escaping or trying to get. Regrouping the selves from all the craziness of daily life. 


After the isolation there's the re-entering into the world, which can mean going to work, going for coffee, going out, the gym, sending the email, writing the blog... doing. making. The fear that holds the breath up before the exhale and the lift is extinguished, even if just for the lift.


On the other side of this idea, is the connectedness of everything. One project segways into another project into another. It's enchanting to look at the way an artist can use an overall theme and separate it and unify it. Like in fashion, when houses diffuse their brand into multiple brands for different price points and different stories however they do relate. You can identify a designer's touch in each collection even though they stand alone. The collections are separate but ultimately come from the same brain so they are not really. I'm thinking about these things because so many different projects are happening right now and the effects can be sometimes electrifying and sometimes paralyzing.


Quick notes on what is happening:


INSIDE OUT: A 'Love Matters' Fashion Show @ the Provincetown Library. THURSDAY JUNE 28, 2012 @ 7:30PM. More to come very soon :)


Photoshoot = Website soon for real = more branding treatments like twitter, logos, business cards etc


Also a VERY EXCITING COSTUME PROJECT THAT I'M THRILLED TO START.


Silk & Feathers Collection vests and more still coming... This collaboration I haven't written about, but it's a big part of my life. Silk & Feathers is the shop in Provincetown that I sell my clothes from, and the owner, Jamie and myself collaborate on pieces that are the store brand. We make pieces on some of her favorites from past seasons and then with color and fabric combinations that inspire us. Mostly skirts and vests, but we've done some pants, tanks and will have jackets for fall. Items are a little more sophisticated (but that should not suggest they are less fun). There are cross-overs and the line is beautifully blurry as most Ptown relationships in their intensity are because discoveries are made in one moment that benefit the next.


Like when I figure out a way of finishing something fast and easy and beautifully on a Love Matters piece why not use that technique and apply it to a Silk & Feathers piece? Or a recognition or a story told with a best friend on the beach makes the relationship just as strong if recognized or told at work together while creating. Every seam counts towards that greater good which is what we are all stitching for.


Making connections is the way to peace. Connect the selves, the dots of our history to the present moment to each other to the projects we do to the world we live in to the planet we want to keep. See this as beautiful and not as duty (though it is a responsibility). The synchronicity of our events, the ones we produce (shows) the ones that happen (heartbreaks) is the magic, and trust that magic stays with us also, even through the darknesses and the company of our isolations.

Tetris Vest in final progress... Alice working on her brilliance.

Connected.

A detail of one of the vests... I just kinda like this shot.

And a snippet of todays photo shoot. More to come :)