The Bow Jacket Design represents a million things for me. I spent October making 17 more jackets. I was aiming for 20 but by 10:30pm on Thursday the deadline I set for myself ( I need a deadline or else I won't stop) I called it quits. My body hurt from sewing and then when that happens the designs don't work any more. My hands have to feel good for the ribbons to land right. Part of this project is to work on progress over perfection, so not meeting goals I set for myself actually helps me. These were not the only thing I had sewed this month I made a bunch of other stuff too as usual. My studio space is a dreamland I have it set up so I can make things all the time. Its the closest I've ever been to my body keeping up with my brain, the only other time was in fashion school. Which may have been my favorite thing I've ever done in my life besides this. I've moved studios 4 times since going full time with this project, the thing I have learned is to really do it the way I want I need a dedicated studio space. I've tried it all different ways, this one is my favorite so far but also the biggest challenge but month to month I keep trying new things. The Bow Jacket brought me to this space, its has been the constant on this journey.
I designed it in my Holiday 2023 collection after a summer of queens I called it. I was in a girly pop land and then was lucky enough to see Shania, Taylor and Beyonce in concert that summer. And the Barbie movie came out. Basically I'm literally just a girl. I was a year and half out from leaving my full time job to become a full time artist. I was catering, babysitting, being an artist in residence. I was sewing and upcycling all the time. I kept trying new things, I was seeing bows every where. I had been visiting the army surplus store a lot so many treasures there. I found the liner jackets there and remembered how cool they were in nyc in my 20s. I started decorating them in many ways. By Holiday an idea downloaded, I made a sketch for a Bow Jacket. The first couple had fringe on them. They were hits with customers pretty fast, not like anything I had made previously. I loved sewing them, i took the fringe away and that made them nicer to make, easier to wear and wash. I loved how they combined what I love about fashion and outdoor clothing. I loved that I could come up with a million color combos. I kept sewing them, they kept selling in store. I was ready to try it online. A check appeared from my late grandma, the same one whose sewing machine I use. I went to the army store I bought out the rack. Little did I know that wouldn't be the first time. I bought 70 jackets. LOL Reflecting its so wild. I sewed I tiktoked, I resisted babysitting. A video popped, I made a jacket a day, it lasted for the rest of the year I got to 95 jackets. I crashed I burned my hands hurt I went home everything fell apart I had gone through an epic life change all while the greatest thing in my art had ever happened. The sewing kept me going but maybe for too long I needed to face the grief.
I did that and after a couple months I needed the bow jacket to keep me going again, it did through the summer and fall, not to the scale of the year before but it was the ribbon the led me along. Another holiday season came another huge fallout, more grief more explosions another move, I found my way to my current studio. I was back to bow jackets in the spring, i bought out the rack again. It got me through spring, then summer with a new retailer collaborator to now oct. I went to the army store looking for 30 they told me this was the last of them i found 20. I have to do a final count but I am somewhere btw 250-300, the full stash at the army store. Their stash had been there since the 90s. Many of them came from the owners adventures through europe getting army clothes that had been left behind. He loves the Bow Jacket. I love my adventures to the army store, everyone there is really nice to me even though we are worlds apart in many ways. My favorite thing about clothes, they tend to bring people together.
So I decided for this set as it is the end of my current treasure trove maybe its really time to switch things up. My brain is different, my body is different, my life is completely different. I don't have to soldier on all the time now. I'm letting new inspiration come to me. I wanted to approach this set as it would be the final online for the forseeable future a little differently. I wanted to keep the designs to myself while i made them to finish the thought all the way through. I wanted to approach the color design as a set. It led me on a very fun design journey. I found myself making fun little stories within the greater set. I tried things I would have never tried. I thought of things that people have told me about them. I broke rules I realized I had set for myself. I did lots of repairs. This set need a lot of care. I love repairing them I always do that first. It starts off the composition, then the bows top it off. I love the design because there is a frame work, the three bows, then each one has a new detail I can explore, through the color, the repair or the way the ribbon lays. Diving deep into this many in one flow I found so many details left unexplored. That is what is wild about repetition, you can always find a new thing to change.
I think my favorite thing about this project is hearing what happens when people wear them. I know the joy i felt making them. But oh man I love the stories, the main theme though is the positive conversations that people have with strangers wearing the bow. Its what happens to me wearing mine and having the collections when I out at a market or event. Its been a willddd adventure that only my commitment to my creativity could have gotten me too. I'm so grateful for this adventure and for the bow jacket. I love thinking about the people all wearing them all over the place as the bow force of joy. I love hearing the stories about them. I love that I made something like this. I love how they are all one-of-a-kind. I cant wait to see what the next adventure that unfolds is and what that design is.....
Check them out here