Indie Spotlight

Could you please tell us a little about yourself and how you got started with sewing?
I grew up with a very encouraging family, who has been totally supportive of all my artistic leanings. I’ve always been interested in artistic fields, drawing, sculpture, photography, writing etc. so it has always been a tendency of mine to be creative. During college I found myself not knowing what I was supposed to “do,” so I took a long hiatus, and ended up selling clothes on Ebay. It was a slow process. Everything I’ve learned has been self taught, which means I started “sewing” by speed stitching crooked hems into vintage dresses, gluing buttons onto things, and bedazzling everything I could reach. I sold DIY clothing on Ebay way back when it first became a craze, and it gave me the time to really work on my sewing skills, understand a bit better how a woman’s body works, and exactly how to fit a garment around it. Altering vintage dresses led to altering t-shirts, which eventually became such a complicated process that I realized I might as well start making clothes from scratch. Eventually I learned to sew in straight lines, and to work with bust lines and hips. With even more time, I learned to make garments that were not only interesting, but wearable. It’s taken literally years and years of practice, but I still have so much to learn!

I understand that you started selling your wares on Ebay. What made you decide to rethink your line before introducing it to Etsy?
When I was selling on Ebay, I was a totally different person style-wise, so that was the first obvious issue. I was selling a lot of punk, goth, and emo style clothing, and it is just not something I am interested in anymore. I still have darker leanings, but they are cleaned up, modernized, and generally more socially acceptable. The other issue was that even when I was selling on Ebay, I rarely wore the clothes I made (maybe to a club, but that is about it) because they just weren’t comfortable. I simply made the most amazing, crazy things I could think of at the time. It was fun, but it was far from comfortable, and I think it limited my customer base a lot. So this time around, it was a definite goal to make clothes that were reasonable to wear on a more frequent basis. As I’ve said, I want to make clothes that you can pair with leggings and jeans and still look really cool. It’s actually far more challenging than just doing whatever I feel like. There was an entire month last fall when I had to repeatedly talk myself out of making a dress made entirely out of chains.

Considering the fact that you have an extensive line that covers shirts, dresses, shorts, skirts, and accessories, where do you draw all of your inspiration for your designs?
Nature, fashion blogs, street style, and vintage clothes are particularly strong influences for me. Nature is my inspiration for colors, shapes, and certain feelings (nostalgia, simplicity, solitude) that I am hoping to convey with my designs. I also spend a lot of time reading fashion blogs, and looking at online stores to see what trends are happening. I love certain bloggers and I’m totally enamored with street style. Sometimes just the way people put outfits together is completely refreshing and inspiring. Finally, vintage is also a huge influence. There is so much excellent design work in the past, I think that past designers were often much more clued into what was figure-flattering for normal people than many of today’s designers.

But there are still those occasions when things just happen, and fall into place, and there is really no other explanation for it. Sometimes ideas will simply vault into my brain out of nowhere while I’m falling asleep, or taking a walk. Sometimes it happens during the sketching process. Other times it doesn’t happen until I’m actually working on a garment. It’s like sculpting. Things just occasionally end up in the right spot, and you have no idea how it happened.

As a self-taught seamstress and one-woman force behind your clothing line, what has been the biggest hurdle or challenge you’ve had to overcome?
It’s a close tie between self-doubt and my need to sleep. Initially my own fear and worry of failure was the biggest issue. Now that I barely have time to worry about anything, my biggest issue is sleep. The switchover happened fairly suddenly over the summer. I have big dreams and big goals, so even when I have a full schedule, I’m always pushing myself to do more and create more. I think that I thrive on a lack of sleep, and more than a little stress. It makes me focus. What I need to do now, is try to make sure that I take the time from away from the day-to-day tasks and really focus on some of my big organizational issues that cause me a lot of grief, but are easy to ignore when I’m busy trying to fill orders, design new products, and email all of my amazing customers.

If you had to choose a favorite piece from your line, which one would it be and why?
That’s tough. But it’s definitely one of my newer pieces. They are a bit more “me” than some or the designs I started with. It’s a close contest between “Dire Situations,” “Cloud Nine,” and “Let Me Protect You,” and my black suspender skirt that I never named. I’ve worn those the most. But I think the asymmetrical sweater actually wins. I’ve worn it so much this winter. It’s great for layering, and makes boring t-shirts really interesting.

Luckily I have been hiding some of my new, recently designed loves. That would have made this question infinitely harder.

How would you describe the perfect Minx girl? What would be her biggest fears? Complimentary to that, what would be her biggest ambitions?
Independent, thoughtful, intelligent, daring, brave, and constantly curious about life. I would like to describe her as fearless, but that isn’t fair. Everyone has fears. Instead, it would be best to describe her as constantly attempting to be fearless. Her biggest ambition isn’t so much of a set goal, as it is a consistent attempt to live her life well, and to the fullest. To appreciate the life that you have, while you have it.