La Marionette Rouge
This image, "La Marionette Rouge" captures more than a story...it is the result of weeks of strategy and work.NO joke.
It all started with a dress....or better said...it all started with a party, where the dress was to be worn.
I had committed to going to the WWD CEO Summit in NY. I knew from the past, that this venue was an amazing opportunity for me to hob-nob with 'la creme de la creme' of the fashion industry.Mahlia Collection is a small, YOUNG company. I guess if I had mega million investors, I would not be so small; but that is not the case. I have built this small company by my bootstraps through the last five, [and the last three, very difficult] years....from Tucson. One more time..from "Tucson." which means I do not run into these people on an everyday basis. I run into them when I'm out of town, because my work has caught their attention, but not because I live in the center of their universe.SO, I decided to go,which was a big financial comittment for me. then I was told that it was W magazines 100th anniversary, and that the black tie event was going to be a very big deal, with everyone who was anyone from the industry invited...not just the CEO's that were gong to attend the summitt...who are an impressive group on their own. SO...being me, being a girl and being a fashionista...all bets were off... and I was going to wear a 'killer' dress that was going to get attention. If I was going to go...I was GOING TO GET ATTENTION.
The dress I designed demanded an excellent back...it was going to be open and cut down to by back dimples.that meant upping my workout schedule by at least a couple of notches. The fabric for the dress inspired the cut... an amazing devore silk velvet, with this sort of abstract floral/peony pattern in an unusual wonderful peach apricot color that could not be missed. It shimmered, gleamed and changed to shimmery red when the light hit it from a certain angle. Magic. femine, unusal, soft, sweet and sexy...it had it all.
I had enough for a short dress. Cool.The event was a 'coctail party'. Perfect.
Workout schedule began... all fats were cut OUT of my diet, ( which meant chocolate...'sigh'... as well) and the dressmaker and I met for the first appointment to get the muslim started. ( The muslim is the dress pattern, cut out of cheap fabric so that the real fabric won't be spoiled with the mistakes) I have to say, that my goldsmiths, dressmakers, carpenters... all LOVE to execute my designs. They not only are my biggest fans, but they love that I challenge their considerable talents.All of them have lost sleep trying to figure out the engineering of what I want them to do. The dress was ostensibly simple...but to the trained eye...very difficult to make perfectly. I was going to be with Ralph Lauren, Stefano Pilati of Yves St. Laurent, Oscar de la Renta, Carolina Herrera- my dress was going to be prefect.
Shoes. The shoes had to be prefect. The dress was short- mid- thigh length-...my legs...if I may say so...quite nice...so the scale and color had to be perfect to finish off the composition. Hours and days later...'eureka!'...I found them.-" 5" red satin slingback stilettoes by Guiseppe Zanotti. You wanted to sleep with them and only them, they were so beauitful.And my legs looked pretty good in them too;)
We got a call from W Magazine. If we liked, we could include something from Mahlia Collection in the gift bags. If I wanted? "Are you kidding?!!! " 50 of the top CEO's in the world...a captive audience to whom to spoon feed my brand? I was going to find 250 of something, anything... but something from Mahlia Collection was going to be in those bags.That call came in at 3:45 Wednesday afternoon my time. The product had to be delivered to WWD's offices in NY by 3:45 pm Tuesday...which left me three working days to get them there packaged and delivered. I had 45 minutes to make a decision... and the only thing I had 250 of ( soon to be 300) was my book, The House of Many Faces...warehoused in New Hampshire.And the best way to get 250 copies to W's offices on time for the lowest cost ( they weight about 1lb each, and at this point had to be overnighted- which cost their weight in gold)..was to fly to NY myself, package them myself, and deliver them myself by 4:30 Tuesday, and then fly home the next day.I had just been home from my Paris trip for a week. And I was sick.
My plane ticket was booked, the hotel reserved... and I was flying out Sunday. The warehouse was called, and the books were to be delivered to my hotel in NY by Monday as well.We had a plan; not free, easy or even cheap...but a plan that was going to work.
I was less than thrilled to be putting my memoir into the hands of these 250 people. The book was worthy...a finalist with both the New York and Hollywood Book Festivals in 2008 wasn't chump change...but it was a pretty personal book, and I had written it five years ago.' Sigh." still not happy about it. Biting the bullet...but not happy.
Friday morning I got a message on Facebook from Esther Marie...an FB acquaintance whom I could not add as a friend because of FB's restrictions. She had messaged me that she had some question about my background. I GOOGLED myself to accurately answer her, and this link came up which surprised me." Eric Hoffer Award" Finalist. What !!? And that was how I found out that I was an Eric Hoffer Literary Award Finalist in 2010...just in time to make labels and attach them to each book that went into those CEO"s gift bags. That was what we did all day Sunday at my office... and I still hadn't had time to do my Paris trip laundry... was to make Eric Hoffer Ward Finalist tags for every book. Which i was more than happy o do. We were pretty excited...believe me.
To Be Continued...next segment tomorrow of "La Marionette Rouge"
We bought me a ticket.
The MUSE...
Everyone has highs and lows and though I know some that operate on a more even keel than others, some are so mercurial they set new inter-terrestrial standards! The path of the creative is one of euphoric inspiration balanced by the drudgery of actually bringing the idea to life...and then making that life self sustaining. I have an idea, and once that idea is born...I am not satisfied until I see it come to life. When I actually see it, feel it...a space I've composed, a piece of jewelry, writing, a coat or dress, a dish that came up out of an mix of textures and flavors...there is a brief moment of respite, "Ahhh,,, there it is." followed by..."How do I share it?" that is me...that is what drives me. I am not possessive of my creations,and the inspiration comes from a place within me that is for others to enjoy. And I do too. I need to be surrounded by balance in composition or I feel off kilter... my energy shifts and I'm out of sorts until the visual balance is right again.
I am a creative..and I am very fortunate to be a very left-brain, right brain creative. I have people( producers, stylists, lawyers) that work with a lot of 'artists'... and one said to me that I was such a pleasure to work with because I was SO normal.Most creatives live in their own world and can be very narcissistic and tempermental. I have often seen the briliant ones find themselves a partner who can carry the burden of a relationship, home life and routine while they are off in their own stratosphere- creating. I once read that artists are " messianic and utopic."In my case, that would be true.I want to change the wold to be a better place through my art... and I think that musicians, chefs, designers, writers, poets, painters all carry this muse...this drive... to put beauty into the world, because the universe gave them the gift, the ability to see, create and share a gift that enriches the world, which is why, "Creatives cannot be destroyers, and destroyers cannot be creatives."
There is the part of this process, where you need to be alone.The act of writing, the act of designing, painting...are solitary moments that then need the executioners...the agent, fellow musician, dressmaker, goldsmith...to bring them to life. When that transition happens, the process becomes collaborative -but at the genesis, the beginning -the artist is alone with that moment...with that process.. and that is why many don't deal with it well and turn to drink, drugs...something- anything- to placate and quiet the loneliness and solitude.Some want to create beauty because what they have known is ugliness; horror, abuse, sadness....and their souls need to create beauty to compensate for that part of their existence...that burden. It never ceases to amaze me the explosion of art that occurs in poor, economically deprived cultures...as though the human soul must compensate for the misery and darkness- the dirt- of life with beauty for balance.It is as necessary as breathing, as eating...as water.
I travel the world and where do masses of people congregate in every major city? What can they all share with a common experience regardless of race, color, gender, generation or creed? Art. The Louvre, The Prado, The Metropolitan are iconic places because they are archives of little bits of human soul on display..Every piece of art is physical evidence of a soul manifest.I say that the people flowing through the museums are "soul voyeurs."
When someone said to me" You can see the love in your work," I could not have been more touched. They saw "ME" in my work- my heart.. What an honor. Another man, another time looked and looked in the cases until turning and saying to me, "I have never seen jewelry with so much character." One of my first clients.. my very first show.. someone brought her to me. She spoke with me, looked over the collection and very soon chose something without much thought... and my pieces are not inexpensive. It was her comment that made sense of her actions, she said, " I have had some news today, that is not good. About my health. I think that your piece is going to help me."
How do I respond to these gifts that have been given to ME ? My work has touched people in a way that is very personal. My work is very personal.- their reaction to it is personal....so the symbioism begins.Where does my gift end and theirs begin? It doesn't -we're connected.It's all part of the same ebb and flow. We ARE...WE are...WE ARE... and my gift is that I have been fortunate to be given a plethora of abilities with which to create and share beauty with the world.
My gift, their gift, our gift...it's all there....for us.
I am a creative..and I am very fortunate to be a very left-brain, right brain creative. I have people( producers, stylists, lawyers) that work with a lot of 'artists'... and one said to me that I was such a pleasure to work with because I was SO normal.Most creatives live in their own world and can be very narcissistic and tempermental. I have often seen the briliant ones find themselves a partner who can carry the burden of a relationship, home life and routine while they are off in their own stratosphere- creating. I once read that artists are " messianic and utopic."In my case, that would be true.I want to change the wold to be a better place through my art... and I think that musicians, chefs, designers, writers, poets, painters all carry this muse...this drive... to put beauty into the world, because the universe gave them the gift, the ability to see, create and share a gift that enriches the world, which is why, "Creatives cannot be destroyers, and destroyers cannot be creatives."
There is the part of this process, where you need to be alone.The act of writing, the act of designing, painting...are solitary moments that then need the executioners...the agent, fellow musician, dressmaker, goldsmith...to bring them to life. When that transition happens, the process becomes collaborative -but at the genesis, the beginning -the artist is alone with that moment...with that process.. and that is why many don't deal with it well and turn to drink, drugs...something- anything- to placate and quiet the loneliness and solitude.Some want to create beauty because what they have known is ugliness; horror, abuse, sadness....and their souls need to create beauty to compensate for that part of their existence...that burden. It never ceases to amaze me the explosion of art that occurs in poor, economically deprived cultures...as though the human soul must compensate for the misery and darkness- the dirt- of life with beauty for balance.It is as necessary as breathing, as eating...as water.
I travel the world and where do masses of people congregate in every major city? What can they all share with a common experience regardless of race, color, gender, generation or creed? Art. The Louvre, The Prado, The Metropolitan are iconic places because they are archives of little bits of human soul on display..Every piece of art is physical evidence of a soul manifest.I say that the people flowing through the museums are "soul voyeurs."
When someone said to me" You can see the love in your work," I could not have been more touched. They saw "ME" in my work- my heart.. What an honor. Another man, another time looked and looked in the cases until turning and saying to me, "I have never seen jewelry with so much character." One of my first clients.. my very first show.. someone brought her to me. She spoke with me, looked over the collection and very soon chose something without much thought... and my pieces are not inexpensive. It was her comment that made sense of her actions, she said, " I have had some news today, that is not good. About my health. I think that your piece is going to help me."
How do I respond to these gifts that have been given to ME ? My work has touched people in a way that is very personal. My work is very personal.- their reaction to it is personal....so the symbioism begins.Where does my gift end and theirs begin? It doesn't -we're connected.It's all part of the same ebb and flow. We ARE...WE are...WE ARE... and my gift is that I have been fortunate to be given a plethora of abilities with which to create and share beauty with the world.
My gift, their gift, our gift...it's all there....for us.
Facebook? "The Social Network" leads, but doesn't tell.
The Social Networkisn't just a story about the genesis of Facebook..it drives a deeper question to the surface...which is,"Who, and what are we made of that this social network has become such an intercontinental, international social glue of disparate human beings?
The reason is,and one of the things that most fascinates and drives me - "What makes us the same?" Because what makes us the same is the 'glue'.
Here is my list:
We all need: Food, shelter, water. We have a need as a species to procreate; we as a species to seek nurture and love. We respond to beauty, touch, love, cruelty, pain and hatred. We are inspired by the heroic, the survivor against all odds. We have a need to believe that our fragile, brief existence has a deeper purpose... and that our existence wasn't just dust in the wind.
The need for nurture versus nature led Facebook to metastasize across all boundaries of culture, social caste and geography with unforeseen, but understandable consequence.
The onset of industrialization has driven modern societies to become de-socialised... and the consequence of that has been an isolated, lonely population with the very human and normal need to be connected to other human beings. Humans want their brief existence..be it daily or on a grander scale... to have meant something to someone.What we like, what we dislike,how many friends we have, what we do, who we are,where we go...everything....everything means that WE WERE HERE.
A line from a corny,not so well known movie about a gorilla said something quite profound; it was"All creatures are happiest when they're understood." All creaturesTrue...I see that and hear that as a truth. I understand what that means...and what Facebook did was try to create a bridge that most people have a hard time building about who and what they are. It gave people a format so that they didn't have to figure it out.Now it has gone to another level where there are so many fake profiles, it has often defeated the purpose it was built for. Nonetheless...WOW.... from an evolutionary perspective...WOW...that the world was ready, and adapted to using this new tool so quickly. This is not a bow and arrow, penicillin nor electricity...but it is no less of a phenomena because it cannot ignore the fact that as human beings, our emotional needs are as important as our physiological needs.
The 'between the lines' story in The Social Network...is that the characters are no less human than those they have captured in Facebookland...that is what fascinates; that these brilliant minds are just as vulnerable and human as any others. They are human and they are flawed and that always grabs us...because we can identify, maybe not with the thought process... but with the 'heart 'process.
I am still trying to understand my own complicity and reality within Fabebookland. I cannot add anymore friends. Facebook has blocked me from adding anymore; I do not know why. I do know that I have met many people in realtime, because of Facebook, and only because of Facebook that I would never have met under any other circumstances... and for that I am very thankful. I know that it has given me a platform with which to give my vision and art a broader audience- and for that I am thankful.That that audience has mushroomed in the last year and a half tells me that being personal and having an opinion is a good thing.That a defined value system and sense of self is a good thing that it is palpable across a computer screen.That I have an ability to connect to people who are different than me...means that underneath it all...we are the same.
That's where "The Social Network" leads us.That is the story.
The reason is,and one of the things that most fascinates and drives me - "What makes us the same?" Because what makes us the same is the 'glue'.
Here is my list:
We all need: Food, shelter, water. We have a need as a species to procreate; we as a species to seek nurture and love. We respond to beauty, touch, love, cruelty, pain and hatred. We are inspired by the heroic, the survivor against all odds. We have a need to believe that our fragile, brief existence has a deeper purpose... and that our existence wasn't just dust in the wind.
The need for nurture versus nature led Facebook to metastasize across all boundaries of culture, social caste and geography with unforeseen, but understandable consequence.
The onset of industrialization has driven modern societies to become de-socialised... and the consequence of that has been an isolated, lonely population with the very human and normal need to be connected to other human beings. Humans want their brief existence..be it daily or on a grander scale... to have meant something to someone.What we like, what we dislike,how many friends we have, what we do, who we are,where we go...everything....everything means that WE WERE HERE.
A line from a corny,not so well known movie about a gorilla said something quite profound; it was"All creatures are happiest when they're understood." All creaturesTrue...I see that and hear that as a truth. I understand what that means...and what Facebook did was try to create a bridge that most people have a hard time building about who and what they are. It gave people a format so that they didn't have to figure it out.Now it has gone to another level where there are so many fake profiles, it has often defeated the purpose it was built for. Nonetheless...WOW.... from an evolutionary perspective...WOW...that the world was ready, and adapted to using this new tool so quickly. This is not a bow and arrow, penicillin nor electricity...but it is no less of a phenomena because it cannot ignore the fact that as human beings, our emotional needs are as important as our physiological needs.
The 'between the lines' story in The Social Network...is that the characters are no less human than those they have captured in Facebookland...that is what fascinates; that these brilliant minds are just as vulnerable and human as any others. They are human and they are flawed and that always grabs us...because we can identify, maybe not with the thought process... but with the 'heart 'process.
I am still trying to understand my own complicity and reality within Fabebookland. I cannot add anymore friends. Facebook has blocked me from adding anymore; I do not know why. I do know that I have met many people in realtime, because of Facebook, and only because of Facebook that I would never have met under any other circumstances... and for that I am very thankful. I know that it has given me a platform with which to give my vision and art a broader audience- and for that I am thankful.That that audience has mushroomed in the last year and a half tells me that being personal and having an opinion is a good thing.That a defined value system and sense of self is a good thing that it is palpable across a computer screen.That I have an ability to connect to people who are different than me...means that underneath it all...we are the same.
That's where "The Social Network" leads us.That is the story.
Saturday morning, October 23, 2010. Pretty much exactly 5 years since I started my business and ...basically... a new life. I don't know... after the craziness of Paris, and the book gift bags that I had to get ready for New York last week...I have time to reflect today.
Hmmmm....I never did like playing games and I still don't. Pass.
( I found out last Friday that I was a finalist with the Eric Hoffer Awards with my memoir, The House of Many Faces. Pretty great news at any time, especially great since 300 copies were going out in gift bags to the top 300 fashion CEO's in the world next week. The memoir began as my english thesis in 2004..I was an english honors student at the University of Arizona, and it is beyond cool that it is still finding it's voice.)
What is a new life? A new life is... a shedding of the old and creating, building something new. My new life was personal, business, social...everything, but 'everything'. The only thing that stayed were those who were the very closest to me. A handful of people.
As a woman, on her own for the first time....living alone, traveling alone, making all these life changes decisions and moves alone... it was such a journey to find my comfort zone. I am an omniverous learner...I read at my count, over 37 business books my first two years of 2005-2007; never mind what I read online and in magazines. My business sucked me in wholesale for the first three years.It was an infant... and it needed to be held, nurtured, cared for and encouraged to grow strong and healthy, so that eventually it would not need me at all times.
I am constantly astounded by the societal pre-conceptions that are so ingrained and unchallenged by people; such as... a successful woman cannot possibly have time for a relationship and be a successful business person. Yet, men do... all the time and people do not assume that they have no life if they are successful. They usually have a job, a wife, family, children, and often, the very successful ones a mistress as well. Oh...and they find time to play golf. No one comments that "They can't do it; that it is too much; that they have no time for a partner; or any kind of personal life." But they do to me... all the time.
I think that most people are most comfortable going along the trodden paths of what has been done, and that that will take them where they want to go. I am always looking for ...not only a shortcut...because I have no need to waste my time or effort...but a new way to get where I want to go that is undiscovered. "DRAGON TERRITORY" as one friend said to me. I will define what kind of woman I am, in which society I fit, wher I belong, where I fit in, with whom, eschew the established caste systems, discard and re-invent my connections to the people and places I want to be- and create my own path....my way. My choices. I am accountable, I will live with the consequences.
"You should live in NY." "You should date an older, established man ( or become his mistress) and it will get much easier." " You should give your jewelry to celebrities...then the press will follow." "You should...".
I just gave a sampling of the "You should's." There have been many, many, "You should's" thrown my way since I started this. And "You shouldn'ts".
I grew up in Canada in the 20th century, I live in the United States of America..I am a dual citizen of the two most egalitarian countries and societies on the planet... and on top of that...I grew up on the west coast within the least traditional and free society for a female to grow up in -in THE world -and I have to listen to this all the time. And I don't look like an androgynous facsimile of a business person, and I don't dress like I live in Tucson, nor, nor do live to socialize with those that are always appropriate or perform the 'dancing monkey' routine that others would like me to dance in the right places with the right people. Antone trying to tell me what "I should' do...is going to have a hard time...until i can think it through for myself.And I cannot be bought, nor will I be sold. In this world with the current value systems...it does make things more complicated and difficult than for those that are willing to compromise and as one "You should" told me,"Play the game, to stay in the game."
Hmmmm....I never did like playing games and I still don't. Pass.