Things I Brought Back From Mexico

This tiny, perfect necklace. Made from tiny beads and little squares of felt in the colors of the country: cool, saturated pinks and yellows, warm aquas, and shiny black. And with it, a new understanding of why these colors always find their way into my work.

Blouses. You can never have enough blouses. I have a few old ones from the seventies with my grandmothers name tags still in them. They itch but I can't bear to rip them out. The one below is for sale at one of my favorite online sources for new and vintage clothing from Mexico, Aida Coronado.

mexican blouse from aida coronadoa nostalgic yearning for the old kinds of mexican blankets before they were made of soft cotton. A little itchy maybe, until they have been beaten up a bit.

vintage mexican blaket from Hacienda...and best of all: a husband who LOVES Mexico. The gorgeous doctor who appeared in a starched white fitted pantsuit to fix his stiff neck with a shot of something in the bum helped quite a lot, but there wasn't much that he didn't love.

A new obsession with the country's pacific beaches, like this one near Zihuatanejo. This was our view for nine days.

oh, mexico

my mother and my sister in Mexico, 1973My family lived in San Miguel De Allende, Mexico during the 1970's. For years afterwards our houses were all filled with chipped pottery, heavy wool blankets, diaphanous embroidered dresses, and enormous baskets. The baskets came in especially handy back in Vermont for trapping and housing small animals, and those blankets were so heavy and dense that you always worried a little falling asleep underneath them, like maybe you would never be able to wake up and you might just keep sleeping forever. My sister and I loved Mexico, especially on our birthday when my grandfather sent us a pair of bored-looking donkeys, which we thought were ours to keep. We had to give them back at the end of the day, which seemed supremely unfair. You can see a drawing of one of them here.

My mother drove a little blue pick-up then, with a fiberglass cap on the back. When we drove through town young boys would climb onto the bumper and open up the window on the back of the cap and ask for a ride. If they asked nicely we invited them in. One of them brought along his Abuelita, (who at the time looked like the oldest woman I had ever seen but was probably the same age I am now), and she gave us some of the very hot peppers that she had in a big bundle on her lap and then gave us a big toothless laugh when we panicked and spit them out. 

I went back to San Miguel after college and lived there as a student for a while. Maybe its because I'm such a visual person, but I immediately felt very much at home among the baskets and pottery and peppers and embroidered cottons. Its funny what feels like home sometimes. Unfortunately, avocados were a new discovery and nobody told me that they contain about 65 grams of fat each, so after three months on a steady diet of the things (plus a stack or two of fresh tortillas and a whole chicken here and there) I had gained so much weight that had to go and buy some of those diaphanous embroidered dresses. At the end of the school term I flew back to LA, where my sister almost walked past me without realizing it was me. I had spent the last few weeks of my trip on the beaches of the Yucatan, so my hair was bleached out and my skin was very tan. That plus the forty extra pounds plus my newly glistening complexion and mink-like hair all from my four-avocado-a-day diet and I looked more like a sea lion than a sister.

I used to head south pretty frequently when I lived in California, but not since moving back east. A few weeks ago TC and I were talking about where we should go on vacation and I suddenly had the urge to be somewhere familiar, somewhere that I knew that I loved, somewhere that felt a little like a far away home. Oh, and somewhere that has fresh tortillas and an excellent textiles market.... 

So we are off! I'll be back in two weeks. Hopefully tan and fat. Meantime, forgive me if I can't manage a remote post, I'm leaving anything with a charger at home. 

Alabama Studio Style

I'm thrilled today to welcome Natalie Chanin, the brilliant mind and nimble, patient hands behind the Alabama Chanin label and the new book Alabama Studio Style, from STC Craft. Natalie's broad range of work and utterly unique vision have had a substantial impact on both the industry of high fashion and the crafts market. She has been celebrated by Vogue Magazine, Nashville's music legends, mind reading chickens, pickle recipe collectors, and just about every spot in between.

HR: Natalie, Welcome! I met you a few years ago. I walked into your temporary showroom near Union Square, you were launching a new collection in a lovely loft space and had hired a bluegrass band to play and brought your studio chef up to cook. I was fasting at the time,(bad idea overall) but thought I was pretty safe going to a fashion event having not eaten for three days, usually its just lots of skinny people and bad, small, evil hors d'oeuvres. I walked in and saw that amazing long wooden table, stretching half the length of the room, covered with all of that beautiful home-made delicious food! I remember thinking: “With every other designer and celebrity out there trying to leverage and license themselves into becoming “lifestyle brands”, this woman is instead making a way of life. And dinner for fifty.” Then I started crying, went into the coat closet, and called my husband and told him to find somebody else to do the Master Cleanse with, I was out. Then I grazed my way up and down your buffet. Tell me about these launch events, and about how it feels to bring your work, your food, and your vision out of Alabama and into places like New York City. What do you want people to see? To hear? To notice on their own?

NC: That was such a beautiful night and how wonderfully you recreate the mood.  I am honored and happy that you saw the work as a way of life. You know, I am a hostess and story teller at heart.  I love to have dinner parties, events brunches and such but it is always wonderful when the dinner or event has a story to tell as well.  

And better, when the story can set the stage for people to tell and make new stories.  It is wonderful when a guest – like you – really gets it.  And I guess that this is the same rush that you can get with design – when someone really appreciates the work that you have done and finds it compelling, beautiful or disturbing – any emotion will do.

These events – like the books – are an extension of me.  I want you to feel like you have just sat down at my table, eaten a luscious meal, heard delicious stories, laughed, smiled and are headed home feeling enriched, satisfied and refreshed.  This is what I strive for and if it comes across at a party or when you sit down with the books then I feel joy.

HR: Naturally, I was thrilled to see that your new book has recipes. Can you tell me about what food means to your work, and to your workplace?

AC: My world is so connected to food.  The Slow Design movement takes its credo from the Slow Food International:  Good, Clean, Fair.  These are good rules for running a company or your home kitchen.  I am an avid gardener, cook and am really happiest when I am in the kitchen, music playing and preparing something I just pulled out of my garden plot.  

You know, I believe that my industry – the fashion industry that you mention above – could learn a lot from the food industry.  Perhaps sitting down for a good meal should be the beginning of every show!

HR: When your first book came out I showed it to all of my students at Patchwork in Soho. Most of them, being good New Yorkers, already knew about your work via Barneys. They couldn’t believe that you had published step by step instructions that would enable them to make a blouse or a skirt that would cost them thousands of dollars at a store just a few blocks away. I explained to them my own theory, that this was a sign of a company and a designer with a lot of integrity. The corset, for example, costs what it costs because the time and skill of the person making it are being honored and respected, and if you buy the book and make the corset yourself, then your time and your skills are being honored too, and rewarded with a very valuable and personal article of clothing. You also host workshops, where your techniques and methods are taught and shared. Tell me about your decision to include your most coveted designs and patterns in your books. What’s behind it?

AC: This is a really interesting question and at the core of my work at Alabama Chanin and the answer is not an easy one.

The only complaint we have ever received as a company is about the cost of our garments.  What’s funny is that once you actually make one, you really understand why they are worth so much. At the same time, I realized along the way that these traditions were dying in my community and communities all over the nation.  Consequently, it became one of my missions to collect stories and techniques and work towards not only incorporating them in my work but using that work as a means towards cultural preservation. 

In the end, I simply found that making something with my own two hands added to the value of that object in my life.  Does that make sense?  In essence, making brings added meaning. And our clients for the couture garments understood/understand that added meaning.

These factors combined made me embrace this notion of open-sourcing. As you mention, our garments are hand-sewn in America and very expensive.  In fact, many of our garments wind up in museums and private collections.  If people cannot afford to purchase our garments, we offer our best-selling patterns in our books so they can make the garments themselves – or pay someone in their own communities to make them.  We sell the fabrics and the supplies to make those garments.  And if a client wants to shorten the steps, we offer DIY Kits that simplify the process.

This philosophy is unprecedented in the global fashion industry today and I am proud that Alabama Chanin has chosen to take this route. And honestly, it was a very difficult  (and scary) decision to make and was not met with positive feedback from my industry colleagues.  

However, looking at my decision today, I know absolutely that it was the right one. I could never have guessed how this small decision would bring so much beauty to my life.

images from Natalie's "Songbirds" collectionHR: I loved your Songbirds collection. Lately I have been trying to channel Lucinda Williams when I shop for clothing. I saw her play a few years ago and she had on these amazing leather pants, with wildflowers tooled into them along the out-seams. Obviously leather pants are out for me, but I do often ask myself, while in the dressing room, would Lucinda wear this? Can you tell us about how the Songbirds idea began, and how it became a reality? And, what songs did you listen to while you were working on the collection?

AC: I love that method; may I adopt it for getting dressed every morning?  In fact, Lucinda was on the playlist that inspired Songbirds…

At the time of Songbirds, I found my day-to-day life filled with music and musicians in so many ways.  One of the defining moments came when Allison Moorer (an amazing designer and sewer aside from being a Grammy nominated artist) came down to Alabama to attend one of our Weekend Workshops.  Sunday morning – while we were all having breakfast together, she picked up her guitar, sat down on a stool and played Alabama Song for me.  I could not stop crying.  It was the most beautiful thing I had ever heard.  That weekend formed the collection.  

I started dreaming of songs and singers shortly afterwards… Emmy, Lucinda Williams, Allison Moorer, Gillian Welch, Abigail Washburn, Elizabeth Cooke, Patty Griffin, Sam Parton from the The Be Good Tanyas, the list goes on and on…

Finally, Traci Thomas, a dear friend in Nashville who works in that industry, arranged for me to meet so many of these women who so inspire me every day.  The collection was born as a tribute to song.

HR: I grew up in the country, too. We were forever making and fixing things without the benefit of easily being able to get to a fabric or hardware store, and I think I see a lot of that in your “studio style”. So, play along with me. You are wearing the beautiful “Inked and Quilted Camisole Dress” from page 119. (Insert names of women you greatly admire here) are coming over for brunch in one hour and you have just splattered beet juice all over the front of your dress. You have one hour to disguise, alter, or celebrate the stains, using ONLY the tools, notions, and fabrics that are on your worktable at this very moment. OK Go.

AC: Remove the dress, splatter (or dip) the whole dress in beet juice (or red wine), dry and wear.

Inked and Quilted Camisole Dress, page 119

Never Too Old For The Muppets

This year, for Valentines Day, I gave TC a muppet version of himself. The likeness is really sort of alarming. I had it built by the amazing and dedicated team at the fabulous Muppet Whatnot Workshop, (this link takes you to the site, where you can build one online!) which is tucked inside a corner of FAO Scwartz  that has been styled to look like the wardrobe department backstage at The Muppet Show.

photo: scott mccartney

The beard is custom. I took him down to Purl and found the perfect color yarn, I was even granted a small corner of their cozy worktable during the afternoon rush (for which I am extremely grateful) to sit and sew with encouragement. The eyeglasses are from the drugstore. It helps that TC is already sort of a muppet. When people who have never met him ask me what he is like I often tell them to picture Scooter from the muppets, post MBA.

Denyse likes to say that TC has an "aqualine profile", and luckily so does his muppet. This picture was taken right after the two of them met. Its a little eerie, right?

Remember The Muppet Show? Maybe some of the best television EVER. Though it only ran for a few seasons, the variety show attracted some of the biggest stars of music, stage and screen of its day. Celebrity hosts (it was sort of like Saturday Night Live, but with lots of backstage action... and muppets) included Steve Martin, Johnny Cash, Paul Simon, Buddy Rich, Debbie Harry, John Denver, Kenny Rogers, and many, many more. I loved it so much as a kid. Even my grandfather watched it. This was a man who wore ascots, mind you.

My favorite muppet was Animal, my grandfather preferred the two old men, Statler and Waldorf, who sat in the balconette and guffawed. A few years ago I was working on a project for Disney (who now owns The Muppets) with Munki Munki and did this artwork, which of course is based on the iconic photo of Jim Morrison. Everybody agreed that it wasn't quite in keeping with my usual style, and it was scrapped pre-production. I still want this as a poster, though I can't imagine where I would hang it....

Animal was usually in a euphoric drummer's haze, pounding his way through drum solos, but showed restraint and versatility when called upon. I like to think of him as a patron saint to all commercial artists for that reason. I especially love the clip below, where he accompanies the incomparable Rita Morena as she sings "Fever".

While he was much better known for this style of playing exhibited here, where he and Harry Belafonte go head to head-bashing head, he also turned in a few ballads during his tenure at The Muppet Show. The one below is one of his best...

And here's the best part: Word is that they are currently staging a come-back. Meantime, you can buy the first two seasons here. And, you can make your own muppet right here!



Announcing Heather Ross (me) for Spoonflower!

In just a few days, some of my long out of print fabric designs will be available through the magic of Spoonflower. We have been working hard these past few weeks to bring new life (and new colors!) to some of my earliest work and can't wait to show them to you.

I am especially thrilled that these prints will now be available on such a great selection of fabrics, including jersey, bamboo/cotton/rayon, a cotton/linen blend, an organic knit, and a quilting weight cotton. I also think its pretty great that there won't be a limit on whats available, and that anyone who wants some can have some.

First up are my little gnomes, who I have really missed. I think they look particularly dashing in purple. There is also another colorway, a lovely springy green and pink. Print groups will be available for ordering for a limited time, but not too limited. Our first batch of gnomes, for example, will be available for thirty days. After that, another re-issue will take their place. Next up? We'll see... Most likely something else from Lightning Bugs. I won't be attempting to match the original colors, Its too much fun to come up with new combinations anyway.

And yes, of course, these fabrics will be a little different than the lovely and perfect japanese fabrics that Kokka and I are so proud to continue to collaborate on, but thats sort of the point. This is about finding new ways, new formulas, new technologies, and new resources in a field that is changing every day, and I am very proud to be a part of that. The more we invest in this new technology as designers and sewists, the more finely tuned (and affordable) it becomes, and the more it can do for us in return.

I'll be adding updates and posting my collections for Spoonflower over here, and will let you know as soon as it launches! We are just nailing down a few final details, but it should be just a matter of days...

Meantime, let me know what you think, and which prints you would like to see come back!