I was at a party during fashion week, and caught this woman from a distance staring at me. after about 3 eye locks later, she came over to me and said "that's a beautiful scarf you're wearing, who makes it?" I then told her that it use to be a double layered carpe diem t-shirt, that i decided to play with. it's actually the one i had up about a week ago. Then she flipped out, because i had actually made 3 pieces from the shirt, 2 scarves, and a pair of long mittens.
turns out, she was a fashion editor, and we got into an interesting conversation on how she's always wondered why people don't experiment with things they buy. are they afraid of a challenge? do they think it's unethical to alter someone else's vision? whatever the case, my reply was simply, "once i buy it, it's mine" if i see a pair of trousers that are a rarity, and they are a size too big, i will take them to a tailor, and pay that extra $20 to make them my size, it's that simple. we talked about fashion, design in general, then we somehow got on the subject of phillip stark, and i had a great story.
when he designed the baby accessory line for target, everyone wanted them, but target was not in manhattan. then target decided to have the store on a boat that was docked near the chelsea pier. so we had an idea, we went there and purchased every thing they had in stock. then we took it to the store, and did two window displays, and tripled the price of the items. they were flying off the shelves. then after a week of being up, mr. stark comes in. he asked for the showroom manager, i came out and said "hello mr. stark" he then shook my hand, and asked "where did you get these items, they're only available at target" i then told him what we did, and why. "and he stared at me, while everyone in the store was staring at us, he put his hand on my shoulder, and screamed out "that's fucking genius" why not, yes"?. he then purchased three of his own items, simply because target was sold out.
with so many designers now choosing to experiment more with fabrics and construction, i'd think they would embrace it. does anyone else love to alter a new creation?
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