As Covid-19 disruptions continue, these creatives are dealing with new challenges and thinking on their feet.
With most major metropolitan areas currently under stay-at-home orders to prevent the spread of Covid-19, the business of designing clothes has become significantly more challenging. Instead of studios bustling with teams of people, there are makeshift home offices and kids who have digital school to attend. And looking at new fabrics over Zoom isn't quite the same as being able to touch them up close.
"Now that we're all working and living under one roof all day, it's important to find ways to make family time special when I'm not working and try to create boundaries, so I don't slip into thinking constantly about work! Mara Hoffman"For the past two weeks, it was me with my laptop on the couch. Now that my son is officially in 'school' I am stationed in a bedroom. At this exact moment I am literally sitting in a bed under the covers. This will need to be re-evaluated for several reasons. Number one, my back. Number two, my brain.
"[I wasn't expecting] how much it made me confront the work we do in this industry — the industry as a whole. Running a business and raising a son, balancing the practical with existential, riding the serpent into the dark and back into the light and then back into the light..." "[We're not using any] programs, just good old pencils and a sketch pad, then I share these with my design/sampling team. We have thousands of WhatsApp messages now in just the last week alone. I love face to face, It has always been like that for me, that's one of the reasons I love manufacturing in New Zealand, being able to hop in my car and go and visit our factories and speak to people in person, so this is something I really miss.
[We're communicating with] FaceTime calls! [Using] Photoshop for organizing visual ideas, Illustrator for vector work, graphics, or embellishment layouts, and traditional paper and pencil for actual design work. We don't sketch on the computer. Everything is usually happening at once — development, production, planning the next show etc.
F.G.: "I've become a chef! We are going back to the essentials; not sure what delivery it will fall under, but honing our DNA for both houses and making sure we have clothes that will be relevant for the new world we are about to go out to. "We shifted our bridal collection for this season which was supposed to come out in the middle of this month. We do not know when we will produce our full collection but are trying to finish up a few garments to share with our brides in the coming weeks. We are also heavily considering price-points that women are going to be looking for right now given everything going on.
"We design by hand. My process has always been collaborative. It was how I was taught to work with Oscar [de la Renta]. It has now become much more solitary. We are working on Resort. We will move a bit of Fall runway into Resort, but we are still working on a very focused collection that we will show when we can. Our stores are requesting it and I am eager to create it."
"Creativity is a true gift. It comes when it comes, rather than when I want it. I've learned to accept that. My process also includes a routine which is similar to the way it was before WFH. I wake up early, do a meditation practice, get dressed, and then go into my meetings which start around 9:00. I eat lunch at 2:00 and finish up around 5:00. That's when I go for a two-hour walk. It's a very simple life. And I do like simple.
"We are waiting to see if we can get the materials to manufacture PPE, but I do not have sewers on my team, so it is the factories' call to decide if they want to have their employees working right now to produce PPE. We are having conversations about it. I check on my team via FaceTime, or with regular phone calls every day. I miss them! [I use] paper and pencil, and a board – very old school. That said, right now I have put a pause on everything .
"My dream has been to be able to relinquish my day to day business responsibilities and really sink my teeth into full-time creative work. To design I need to paint and draw which for me are solitary activities. I have intended to create a home studio space where I can create without inhibition and interruption and there hasn't been a time until now. I feel pulled and guilt ridden if I don't go to my office and working from home has been so blissful and reflective.
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