If you’re a regular reader on the blog, you’ve probably noticed that my posting has slowed down a bit. 2009 is Mama’s 5th Anniversary, and after 5 wonderful years, I’ve decided to take a break from Mama. I’ve actually been on “hiatus” since March ‘08 but since I design my collections a year in advance, I didn’t want to announce my break before all of my collections had been released. I want to thank everyone that’s supported me and Mama these past five years - from the customers, store buyers and press - it’s been a wonderful journey that I will always remember fondly.
You’re probably wondering why I stopped, and the simple answer is: It wasn’t fun anymore. I’ve had a lot of help but Mama has always been a 1-woman show. I decided to stop after my best tradeshow ever - sales and the number of accounts were growing - but with that came more work. I’m not afraid of work, but more and more of my time was spent dealing with issues like sales, production, and order fulfillment, and I had less time to work on the design and marketing - the two reasons I started Mama to begin with. It was a difficult decision to make, but I felt I had given Mama everything I had, and that I had done all I could on my own.
For the past year, I’ve been focusing on M.I.S.S. (Mama’s International Secret Society), the website I co-founded, with Liz Baca, that covers women’s fashion, art, design, music, culture - basically a curated collection of the things we love. I love working on M.I.S.S., as I feels it marries the two parts of my brain - the creative side and the nerdy side. I also love that I get to cover many brands from sneakers to high-end, as my love of fashion is vast, and when you have your own line you are always reppin’ one thing and M.I.S.S. gives me the chance to rep everything I love.
M.I.S.S. also gives me a lot of creative freedom to work with other companies on a consulting basis. We have projects lined-up that will start rolling out next year - it’s too early for me to speak about them now, but they are definitely something that we are very excited about.
In September, I also joined the Upper Playground team in San Francisco and I handle all the PR and Marketing there. It’s a great honor to work for UP as I have tremendous respect for their work and their product. I’ve had the chance to develop great collaborative projects for them and have worked with some of the most respected contemporary artists in the world.
As you can see, I’m not less busy, just re-focusing my efforts on things that I feel will help keep me on the path of happiness. I won’t lie, the transition took some time and the decision was difficult - I put my heart and soul into Mama. But, I feel like I’m now in a place where I know that I can have more impact as a writer/critic than as a designer of one brand. I have so much to say and share, and I’ll be doing it daily here. I hope you enjoy the new site, and thanks for reading.
