Does this mean I'm a 'real' designer now?

Aw, my front page cherry was popped. The lovely Jessie of westbyron alerted me that my custom green stripe tee was on the front page of Etsy, woot! Check it out.

Today I was interviewed (in person!) by a journalism student from RMIT. I've been interviewed by email before over at I'm Not Antisocial, Just Short Sighted, but in person is a whole different kettle of fish (what is with that phrase, anyway?). She asked some insightful questions and I'm looking forward to seeing the final piece (and perhaps posting it here if she gives me permission). It was my first face-to-face interview so I asked for the questions in advance, and spent most of the morning thinking about my answers. Otherwise my fingernails probably would have been bitten down the cuticle with nerves. I like to be prepared.

One thing she asked me to talk about was what the fashion industry is like. Since I work from home and largely sell online, I have very little contact with other people in the fashion biz. In other words, I pretty much have no idea. I do, however, feel that I'm very much a part of the handmade world. There's such a sense of community. It is supportive, welcoming and friendly. Pretty much the opposite of how I perceive the fashion industry to be, so I'm happy to align myself this way.

In other news, I recently listed these two new dresses on Etsy.

S/M/L polka bib dress

S pattern block dress

I actually have blogrolls now, with the latest post and title, rather than the list of links I used to have. There's one for fashion and one for makers. Check them out and spread some blog lovin'. (Note: No that wasn't a reference to this site.) If you'd like me to add you, just let me know.

Wearing the colour red

I used to be afraid of wearing red. I thought it wasn't versatile enough and that I could only wear it with black. And I thought red and black was boring and didn't want to wear them together, so I just didn't do red. I also thought that it's a risky colour because it's easy to overdo and it gets attention.

I have a few red items of clothing now, which I wear regularly. I still think it's one of the hardest colours to style and so I do a little inner jump for joy when I think I've gotten it right. Yesterday I wore red and black anyway (my rules never really rule), but put it with some brown and cream, too. This was my first time wearing shorts with tights. I must say, it felt good.

Black tee - Cotton On
Cream tank - Portmans
Vest - Sunny Girl
Shorts - Buss
Tights - Columbine
Boots - Josef Siebel

Excuse the blur of the first shot. I meddled with the settings on my camera and it is not impressed with me. Every full body shot I take ends up blurry and noisy. I'll get the expert to look at it later.

I just realised that the Sunny Girl label on the vest was sewn on upside down. Weird. And sad. That sweatshop worker must have been tired. This is the last new and cheap item of clothing that I'll have. Mother dearest bought it for me early this year, before I had sworn to her that I wasn't buying new and cheap clothing for myself ever again and didn't want any from her either. I've kept my promise. And it hasn't been much of a struggle.

Reinvent your existing wardrobe

My wardrobe history is a little embarrassing. When I was living with my parents, shopping was my thing. I bought an item of clothing most weeks, and cleaned out my closet often (and things weren’t actually thrown away, just stored “for later use”). And yet, my style wasn’t any better for my frequent shopping. It was probably worse, because all I could afford so often were cheap clothes, usually tops.

Another problem is that I didn’t experiment. Every item of clothing had its set purpose. Tops didn’t get worn if they were too loose in the waist or too short. All my pants and skirts sat at the hips and bare-midriffs aren’t really my thing, so I thought those tops were useless. I was very conservative with colour coordination, so that limited my outfits, too. The extent of my layering was ‘I’ll wear this long tee under this shorter one’. When my closet got full, I thought that I should throw out anything that didn’t fit into this mould.

I get that not everyone wants to dress outrageously. But there are ways you can experiment with your wardrobe while keeping a simple style. If you’re more confident you can be as risky as you want.

Part of my current closet - skirts and tops

Your clothes are more versatile than you think.

Think about why you don’t wear something in your closet. Then try ways of wearing it that rectifies the problem. Too revealing or short? Wear something underneath or over the top. Too big? Cinch it in with a belt or a high waisted skirt. Sleeves too long? Snip ‘em shorter (jersey will usually hold up with raw edges, but you might want to hem other fabrics). Neckline too high and doesn’t suit you? Wear something low-necked over it and you’ll have a more flattering silhouette. If it’s simply uncomfortable and you can’t fix it, then get rid of it. It’s not worth having.

Experiment.


Combine colours and patterns you never thought would match.

Try a tee under a tube or singlet top.

Tuck a dress into a skirt.

Pull up a low-waist skirt and hold it up with a belt.

Cinch in your waist with a ribbon or belt.

Try a top over a dress.

Layer two skirts.

Mix styles. Wear a dress with army boots, or denim with a business shirt.

Layer items that are different lengths.

There are no rules in fashion. There are opinions and there are trends, but neither should fully dictate what you wear. Wear what you love. Sometimes you might regret it (I sometimes do after walking out the door) but don’t let that get you down. Someone else might think you look fabulous. Be confident. Fashion is fun.

If you have any other experimentation ideas, please do comment.

Overcoming the procrastination beast

If, like me, you’ve looked for answers to procrastination and found only directions to 'make a schedule', 'just do it', 'prioritise' and other seemingly simple-sounding tasks, then you’ll understand how frustrating and hopeless it can appear. These instructions don’t work. But I can tell you what helped me.

Procrastination is something I've suffered since I started high school. Assignments became less of a curious and creative joy, and I took less and less pride in my work. I might have been saving my honour, because if I didn't try as hard as I could, I couldn't really 'fail', could I? After I started university, which brought with it a new freedom, I left assignments 'till closer and closer to the deadline, until I got to the point where I finished them with just minutes to spare. Sometimes I went one step further and thought, 'What's the worst that could happen if it's handed in late? I need more time, so it's worth the late mark deduction.'

I'm still a student, trying to finish off my Arts degree during gaps in the rest of my life. I'm taking the current semester off and will resume it next year. At the moment I'm working solely on my clothing line, heidi and seek. So when the procrastination beast crept into my making life, which is meant to be an endless motivation, I knew I had to try harder to fight it. That meant not just looking for quick-fix tips, but unearthing the real root of my procrastination problem.

Years ago I bought a book called The Now Habit, a guide to overcoming procrastination. I read a little of it then and all I took away was one quote that I thought was inspiring. This time I approached it with a new perspective, and found it incredibly helpful. I don't believe that self-help books have all the answers. The authors don't know you personally and they write for a wide audience, so they generalise their advice. I skipped over parts in the book that I thought were irrelevant to me, and used the case studies and other information to determine my own answers. I didn't fit completely into any of the profiles given.

I want to share with you some of the things I learnt and found helpful, because I know procrastination affects most people at some point.

#1. Humans are naturally curious and creative and have a natural motivation for meaningful work. Procrastination happens when negative habits get in the way.

#2. Procrastination is a learned response to anxiety about doing something. Have a good think about why the task makes you anxious. Why don't you want to do it? You might fear success, failure, or imperfection. You might want to live up to someone else's expectations, rather than choose your own path.

I found that I felt anxious about making clothing because I placed immense pressure on myself. I turned one task - getting up and starting to make something - into a massive dilemma because I felt it was a measure of my worth as an entrepreneur and as a productive person. My ability to do that one task was the deciding factor of whether I was lazy or not, whether I was cut out for working for myself. It's no wonder I resisted it so strongly. I can now see that this not rational. One task is one task, and I’m now trying not to put any more meaning on it than that. I accept that I am not a lazy person and that I am capable and productive. I also realise that I do love to create, and I’m bringing the joy back into my making by letting go of the baggage it previously brought.

#3. Find out the root of your anxiety. Try talking with someone or writing down your thoughts. Think about how you were treated as a child. Were there high expectations? Were you criticised a lot? Was your good work ignored? Were you allowed to pursue your own interests? Were your siblings or parents high achievers? You might have learned to be critical of yourself, to judge yourself, or strive for perfectionism. Reading a book like The Now Habit might help you find answers, too. Once you find the cause of your anxiety, you can start trying to resolve it. If you procrastinate in more than one area of your life, there might be different underlying causes.

#4. Procrastination temporarily eases the anxiety. Each time you do it, you reward yourself with immediate relief, and over time this response gains momentum as your go-to defence against the anxiety.

#5. You are not lazy. That is not the reason you procrastinate. Don't label yourself or use it as an excuse. People aren't born procrastinators, they're born wanting to learn and work. If you think about it, there is some area of your life that you don't procrastinate with, and that's because it doesn't hold anxiety for you. It might be making something, writing or journaling, doing chores, or something else. Once you resolve your anxiety in your problem area, you'll be able to apply your true level of motivation to it, like you can in those other areas.

#6. Be nice to yourself. Listen to your inner dialogue. Thoughts like ‘I can't do this’, ‘I'm just lazy’, or ‘I'm not smart enough’ all work against you. Don’t allow them to fester. Cut yourself some slack. Understanding the reason you procrastinate might help. Accept that it's not as easy as it might look from the outside and acknowledge that your response to the anxiety is understandable. Replace negative thoughts with positive ones.

#7. Don't fight yourself. Every time I encountered procrastination, one side of me thought ‘You have to do this. If you want to be successful you'll do it. Just get up and do it, or you might as well give up now.’ It was as if that one side wanted to beat the other side into submission. But threats don't work for long, if at all. And they definitely don't make you feel so good about the task. It worsens the anxiety. I changed my thoughts to ‘I'm not lazy, I'm creative and curious. I don't have to do this. But I choose to. This one task is not a test of my worth. It's just one task. I want to do it, so when can I start?’

#8. Talk yourself into being a producer. Change your ‘I have to,’ to ‘I choose to’. Change ‘I have to finish,’ to ‘When I can start?’ Change ‘This is so big,’ to ‘I can take one step’. Change ‘I don’t have time to play’ to ‘I must take time to play’. Change ‘I must be perfect’ to ‘I can be human’.

Once you’ve found the cause of your anxiety, you can question it, try to resolve it and begin to change how you talk to yourself. When you feel good about yourself, you feel good about producing. And if you have this foundation to your procrastination problem, those scheduling and prioritising tips might actually come in handy.