Back To Square One

A lot has gone on, since I've last posted,(well before yesterday's post) so it's time to get you all caught up. Some of you may have seen things from some of my posts on Facebook, but I'll put everything out here. I went to Amsterdam to check out a store to sell my stuff in. Loved the store!!! It's the store that sells the graduate collections from the students from the fashion institute there (amfi.nl).A lot of the pieces were avant garde and very high end. I was gonna create a few pieces to create the middle ground for all that was in the store. I saw it as an opportunity for me to see if I can bring my designs to a different level. Everything is still up in the air at the moment, so we'll just play it by ear. While on the way to Amsterdam, my phone is ringing like crazy while I'm listening to my Ipod. Various friends from all over the world were calling me to let me know that Donna Summer has passed away. It felt surreal hearing that, especially when I was listening to her whole catalog on my Ipod and was checking on line to see where me and my best friend, Wade would be able to go see her, like we did every year since we first saw her together. I have been a fan of Donna's since my childhood and her music has always inspired and is the soundtrack to my life. I've always had her music going when I was celebrating my highs with friends or my lows by myself. She was a constant, even when friends, partners, jobs, and apartments changed. To this day, I still can't believe she's gone, but she will live "On And On" in my life and in my work.

Just as I was about to leave Amsterdam, another artist from my childhood, passes away. Robin Gibb passes on and all I can say is that Heaven must be rocking now. With Whitney, Donna and now Robin, I know Heaven is packjammed with the most amazing music. The music of the Bee Gees also have been a constant in my life, right along with Donna. "Saturday Night Fever" was the movie that really made me LOVE Brooklyn and all of the Brooklyn Italian boys that came from there. Their songs in that soundtrack was TOTALLY the beat of New York at that time and still figures into all that I do. Not only did I love the hits, but I loved all of the album tracks as well. They really knew their way with a song. Robin may be sick of my "Jive Talkin'", but I have nothing but love for him and his brothers.

I get back to Berlin and check out Berlin Fashion Week. I was ready for some experimental fashion and was ready to see how I can work that into some basic pieces, but didn't get too much experimental fashion. It was a lot of playing it safe, but it was cool nonetheless. I then spent six weeks in Helsinki. LOVED IT!!!! This little city in Finland, set my creative juices ablaze with so many different types of prints, especially Marimekko (and I usually don't work with prints too much). I have begun to jump in the pool of working with prints and using them with a lot of the solid colors. Sweden may have invented IKEA and they may have some amazing prints, but they have nothing on Finland!!!! Didn't learn much Finnish, but really got to see what Finland was all about and I did a lot of sketches that were influenced by a lot of the prints here in Finland. I'll be working on these and seeing what sticks. I'll post them on Facebook and put them up for sale on Ebay. More on that in a bit. I checked out London Fashion Week and crashed a couple of parties. I chatted to a few stylists and was pumping a few of them for information, but once I revealed that I am a designer (by handing them my business card for correspondence and they see "Fashion Designer"), they shut down. I was a little miffed, but managed to keep it together. In the midst of this, I didn't hear from anyone about any of the things I was trying to do to get out there and my confidence was shaken and I felt I lost my way. Falling down and getting angry isn't fun, but I got a kick in the ass and I channeled that anger into getting my new designs made and sold. I also went through some of the pieces I have created in the past and thought about reworking a few of them and selling them as well. Which brings me to my new venture: Getting my ass on EBAY!!! Yes, I am gonna take the Ebay plunge soon and put some of my pieces on Ebay to be sold. I'll be chatting it up on Facebook soon and working out how I'm gonna do it. I'm also gonna set up a Facebook page, strictly for my designs and my company. I'm still working out a few kinks, but I will do it very, very, very soon. I may also look into setting up an online shop for my things, but we'll start with Ebay and see what happens. So this is all that went down in a nutshell. I promise to have a fashion entry soon. Stay fashionable and sexy!!!