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 :)

Preventional Production

Hello Good Morning
Are you ready?
Hit the ground running.
Sit STITCHING.
Start Stitching.
Keep Selling.
Call your mother.


Thoughts in head. 3 weeks since last post? Sorry. Been sewing. I said that to my judges in fourth year. I had referenced a store in Toronto that had since declared bankruptcy after a short run. Information I had no clue about... because I was sewing.


Some things never change. Yet everything is changing and it's exhilarating. Anyway. Finished fantasy tanks. Finished a new dress, named ISIS. Finished skirts that were based on the linings of the West Side Story Dress, therefore named 'The Maria Skirt.' I made 4 out of this really incredible gold denim with some red organza zigzagging and grey leather hem and 5 out of my purple camo corduroy with a silk pink hem. They are gonna be at Silk & Feathers tomorrow!!! Pictures will be coming of these things in the near future.


The house dress is taking a rest because she just got really big and a touch overwhelming before completing. A healthy rest will make her stronger.


Rest and creativity kind of go hand in hand but somewhat reluctantly. The creative spirit needs its rest, but is the last to admit it because the whole point is to do something or be proactive in some kind of way. However even the creative spirit needs to stop and re-energize. That time is spent researching, experiencing. The best metaphor would be rain. The Evaporation is that rest and the soaking up into the brain all the moisture possible. Then the condensation is that collecting of the ideas into the tangible, the product, the song, the building ... and then the outpouring- precipitation the work and the marketing of said ideas. 


Then that's all of course a process once your shit's on a table. You show your friends, your design confidents and the leaves grow. The harvests. 


Ok too many metaphors. Back to dresses. I'm focusing on breaking down the elements of the bigger dresses and making the little pieces of artwork for more everyday wear. We have relationships with our clothes, and they are developed by experience and history. You can't have your favorite blank if you don't wear it. If it's not with you when you break up with your boyfriend or get engaged or go see your new favorite musical. You rely on those pieces. The shitty day can turn around when you're comforted by the top that makes you feel like a princess (or any character role that allows you to assume your power).


Point made: I want my clothes to help you assume the power within you, use it and push it and tell the world because it IS glorious!

Cheesy but true. You read it here. 


I love you all.

'Watch for the Illusion of this bliss'

Listening to Alice's 'Losing My Mind' mix. Features Sondheim and Sarah McLachlan. See Bernadette Peters' version 'Losing My Mind.' Youtube it now. And try to get hold of Sarah's Illusions of Bliss track from her latest album. It was beautiful. There's a full band version and then the piano solo one which is genius. Really. 


That's actually my most played song on my itunes. 

This is the atmosphere I sometimes create for myself while working, sewing, or hibernating and stewing the next stitch. At closing the shop last night- I though this moment was beautiful: 

I had sewn my medium back to my small front of my apron dress and left the shop like this:

What this will be is 3 of these:

Like the little technical overlay? I did that very fast... (again blurry phone pictures) Actually this mock up came out last Monday night after doing a mermaid (pictured below). I was up until 4am adjusting the pattern, then cutting and sewing this cotton sheet. The daytime was spent outside on my bike and featured my first double-dip (not just one run in & out, but two) of 2012 in the Atlantic Ocean. 


So this is the Apron Dress. I think her name is 'Buttercup' which I hope inspires a Robin Wright Penn aka Princess Bride reference. Last year I made a really lovely orange house dress and I wanted to evolve the idea. Mary had bought these amazing books, Pattern Magic by Tomoko Nakamichi. Her concept is all about thinking about patterns in different ways, connecting or disappearing pieces, creating dramatic shapes through the building of fabric. The architecture is fascinating and alluring. I was really taken with the Vanishing Collar, which I thought only fitting to connect to the modern day-dress, and to challenge myself further it is balanced with a vanishing apron. So it flows from collar to bodice to apron, buttoning down the back, with a back bow from the apron (pro-adjustability & yes there are pockets beneath the apron). It has square and trapezoid shaped godets (that makes the points at the hem) and when you hold the skirt out it looks like a 5-point table. The fabric is a yellow on white check sheer-ish nylon, lined in a white stretch silk, with trim in green and turquoise. I'm using the same 3-color top stitching from the WSS dress, and we will be rocking out a border and some tough flowers. Steel Magnolias anybody? I could go deeper...


But I'll save that for when they really are done :)


Here's the mermaid! I made 5 of these ladies. One is in Regina available at Seed Shoppe on 13th ave. That and 2 other watery gems were in the GLIDE Fashion show. It was a fundraiser for Shark Truth, Vancouver based non-profit organization raising awareness on ocean matters, especially shark finning. Was very glad to be part of this event. It caused some really great dresses to be made, but more than that, living on the ocean which gives so much to me, it was wonderful to give a bit of my art to this cause :)

Ok.
There's so much more to come! :)

Happy Sunday

I really like wishing people 'Happy Sunday.'


It's a day that everyone takes off. If you live in a big city you can feel the pace slow down. An edge of forgiving patience infiltrating the movement, the pedestrians, the drivers, the subways... Here in Ptown people walk their dogs. It's sunny and delicious. In the summers here, Sunday's usually equal for me a 12 hour shift at Kidstuff (381 Commercial come visit). It's a fast paced fun day for which I usually arrive just in time to grab a coffee, turn on the lights and set up the music. The day usually starts with Joni Mitchell and goes from there.


Anyway... The point of this entry is how the West Side Story Dress is done. And she is beautiful. There's only 2 of them- so please come see! Try on. The details that are missed by my phone are really beautiful. We worked hard on them. Here's some pics... remember you saw the mock-up and the table already... this is the real thang...

Here's the organza layer... We actually built the lining first (a stretch cotton), and then this. The seams are sewn by just overlapping the edges and three rows of topstitching in purple, orange and pink. Some bias zigzag details were added with purple and pink. 

Here's Rachel trying it on half way through. We put a piece of organza at the shoulders, and tested the twirl. The hem is done with a strip of 2.5" bias folded and topstitched in the three colors. The hem alone probably took an hour each dress because it's so full. Aka Delicious. From here I finished the neckline and armhole with some salmon silk charmeuse I dyed in 2010 for a client, saving the strip of bias I had left for this specific project. That's right. I'm admitting to never throwing anything out.

After cleaning things up I pinned up these pockets which is what gives the twirl it's kick-ass quality. These photos are teasers. There will be a proper shoot soon that displays these clothes and their movement properly.


If you want to talk about movement and 3D vs. 2D check out Comme des Garcons Fall Collection. Those paper dolls are beautiful and hilarious. 


And back to the theme- West Side Story. The mock-up earned the name though I had been imagining this for a while. Maria's little red shop dress... But this in real life looks like a war has been going on. There's an element of Phoenix in her; the raw edges on the seams, and the hem looks like a burst of flames that one could fly from towards a new and better land. Which is what Maria does: she rises from her dead lover and walks on- perhaps to devote her life to ending racism in her community. It's that lived-to-tell romance that we all carry. The best love that comes from hurt and the power to survive. 


Side-note: When people ask me my target market, I always find it difficult to answer this question because the answer is not so much 25-60 making X/annually as it just a group of people that have enough sense of self to rock and be proud of their experiences- good, bad, and heart-breaking, -wrenching, -warming.
They are my inspiration.


So thanks! :)

Sweats Monday, Sew Tuesday, Absinthe Wednesday, Think Thursday

Sweats Monday: Wearing sweats for absolute comfort. Sewing faeries, cleaning house, West Side Story Dress (looking so good).
Who knew the Stop & Shop closed at 8pm in the offseason?


Sew Tuesday: Sewing, Rachel's son's birthday, coffee celebration for side seams... more house cleaning, logo development, and a good sleep.


Absinthe Wednesday: Full production: zippers in WSS, Astro tanks sewn, Silk & Feathers crop-pants hemmed, Absinthe and apple games at night...


Think Thursday: Full day of sewing... Astro tanks being pressed... linings and wonders on WSS, Faeries completed...


I've been meaning write a new entry for the whole week and let the world know about my lunar faeries. 

They start as this drawing... which originated in Mexico, first as a sketch of my aunt at the pool. It was developed into a figurative drawing and then the outline is formed and mounted. 

An organza tracing is based to the tank and then I go to town with my machine, selecting a color story. After the sprite is completed I make little wings and we sew the tank.

Due to my new phone not having the best camera quality (I live on flip)... this is where it's at for faerie photos but you can see some close-ups of the face. I don't want to give it all away! Come to the store and see them! They are beautiful. The total height of the image is about 12".  These are like paintings for me. It's a pretty intense and concentrated process. All the steps are broken up but when I'm in it, I'm in it. It's unabashed creativity and absolute freedom. There's no pressure in sewing them (the embroidery I mean, the cutting and cover-locking is another story). They are feminine, but ultimately gender-neutral. They are a part of a fantasy series with Unicorns, Mermaids and Dragons... I started with the faeries because they have an omniscient view, being up in the moon. And I love the moon. It's a very comfortable starting point. I also understand drawing moons and bodies the best, as opposed to horses and dragons, and in order to accurately get a glimpse of their secrets, I need to be able paint/sew them well technically... so I just don't have to think about it. That's sort of how it works. If you can understand a technical process enough so you don't have to think about it, so you can break it, then you can just be your creative process. 

And on that note, it's not really me, or the artist, that is being  the creator, it's totally those creative spirits that bless us humans with Its presence long enough for us to bring some beauty into the world... 

Love Matters. :)