thoughts on quarantine2020….
Well, I was in full go mode before this started – my year off to a bang – dreaming bigger than ever, adding a gender neutral collection to my existing collection and overall really excited for 2020. A small business owner for over 25 years, if anything had happened it happened to me! The good and the bad, giant days and recognition as well as 9/11, boutique openings and closings, I have experienced much of the retail world as a designer brand, so when this started, it didn’t really phase me that much, having to keep my boutique closed, to play the big picture of quarentining for each other felt like the right move, hearing that the government was going to bail out small businesses was great, like big daddy is coming to the rescue until the reality that the funds were exhausted quickly, and most of us will not receive anything. I’m just going to proceed fully in whatever way I can. This is why I am successful – I am consistent, I do what I say I’m going to do, I don’t wait for others and most importantly I don’t rip myself off. I used to say to my son growing up, when you look in the mirror into your eyes you know where you are cutting corners, not giving it your all, and you are accountable only to yourself, and its the same for me in this life always and I love that about me.
So what do I have to work with? I had fortunately already been going hard on Instagram and especially the stories for showing my designs. way more efficient than photographing them and putting them on my website that might take days, I could shoot me in the mirror, say something fun, or what was my inspiration in designing and POP someone DMs me and wants it. So I had this platform, and I just went deeper in it, as well as reposting on all the different social channels, listening to Gary Vaynerchuck snd learning Tiktok and also posting on Linkden daily, so thats between 5-10 posts a day, basically posting the same content and switching it up a bit for the different channels, ( I was not always posting this much, this was his suggestion.)
Also, design-wise with no fabric to buy or sewers to sew I went deep into just playing. Making mistakes, using what I had to work with and focusing on completing what was in motion as much as I can, but honestly, there is still so much of this to do – and I’m wondering, is this just part of the artistry to always have something more that I want to create? And then to look at my boutique and really decide what I love doing and to be authentic to that. The thing I find with myself and other artists is that once its created, its somewhat over – the thrill for me is the process, the birthing of it and not so much the result, so it’s not that I don’t love everything I do, its that there is so much inside me that wants to be expressed and that is where my addiction is, to that excitement. And then yet a deeper question: To DO or To BE……. I could go on and on!
The IGlive started as a community thing, my boutique usually fills up Saturday afternoons with new and old clients so I wanted to continue the party – grab a glass of wine and “Play Dress Up With Me” is really my vibe, bringing on a few designers that I wanted to have in store for a trunk show but now obviously couldn’t do – my thoughts are now really finding out about these other amazing artists and entrepreneurs I am connected with and introducing them to my tribe ….. I know this is not new – collabs are a great way to network and share each others clients, what is new is that for me it showed up organically in an extension of what I’m already doing, without the quarantine, I may not have as good of reason to be doing it –
Now looking into the future looks a bit different. An article that Orange Coast Magazine had interviewed me for in February and my gender-neutral collection which is hung up in production will be late, it doesn’t look like I’ll be doing my usual every 4–6 week gotta get outta here travel or spending much of the summer in Spain as I usually do. What it does look like is I will be exploring and supporting my community as well as others that speak to me. That I will be thrilled to see and spend time with my family and friends, and how fortunate I am that there are so many amazing things to do in my backyard, that I will take more time and thought to where I’m investing my energy, in both business and professional. I do see continuing an IGLIVE following the formula of bringing people whether they be designers, or restauranteurs to my tribe. and I LOVE it that literally the world is in my hand (iphone) and yet there is so much more to life than that. Reset for me is all of these things. Review for me is looking at the DO–er and becoming more of a BE-er, and recreate???? well guess you will have to stay tuned and see!
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