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Welcome to the Designer's Plants and Coffee podcast where we discuss how to succeed as a designer

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while staying true to yourself, finding peace in the process, and making money doing what we love.

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Subscribe on YouTube and wherever you get your podcast.

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Today, we want to invite you all into a discussion we were having the other day, and it centered

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around, are you a creative nerd or a fashion nerd?

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And what we mean by that is I always consider myself a fashion nerd. I'm the creator, designer.

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Tish is the technical, make clothes, but I'm gonna make sure your clothes fit.

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And Zahiyya is the, I'm just gonna design everything and have somebody else make it.

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And we realized that that is how we ended up in our separate careers.

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So the vision that I have in my head, I can make it to make sure it comes to life.

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But after that, I'm like, it's done. I'm finished.

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I can push it on to somebody else.

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At the top of my fabric bookcase, I have a stack of fashion magazines that I've collected throughout

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the years, and I'm gonna look and see what the oldest one is.

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I just love Fashion That A Lot.

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And so I wait for fashion week.

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I used to watch all the shows that I wanted to watch.

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So I would only watch shows that the designers I like.

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That's how I discovered a lot of new designers.

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And Tish, I think you know this.

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I am in love with Tom Bright.

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Like, I am a groupie. I am a fan.

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When I teach it and it's a rainy day, I make them watch his shows on YouTube. Like

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Who is Tom Brown?

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Believe London based avant garde designer, but even his avant garde pieces are wearable.

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So you get these big puffy coats and these dog shaped handbags and I mean, but his stuff is

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really wearable, but at the same time, he's putting on the show.

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I would say I watch shows.

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I I love, like, the fashion collections and history.

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And but I also like the creative side.

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But I will say I don't want to sit and create a full collection.

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I don't. I wanna create pieces.

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I just wanna see something or dream about something, and I wanna get up and I wanna make it.

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I mean, but a collection tells a full story.

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You can't necessarily show everything that you want to express in one piece Because otherwise,

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it'd just be too busy.

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So but then you put a collection of pieces so it's cohesive and it works together. It's the same thing.

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Like, I think about a collection as a wardrobe.

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So, like, for for the season, it's just like, okay.

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How would I present this piece as a part of a bigger collection?

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Well, see for me, my collection would be like, the only collection I would ever want to make is coats.

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And I would make a whole season's worth of coat. Right?

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But I don't wanna make the pants to go with the coat.

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I just want a whole bunch of different coats, and I want that to be my entire collection.

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I've designed a collection before.

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I think it's more of having the inspiration and the creative thought to think a full collection

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because I'm thinking about how everything is going to tie together to go back, but I'm also

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thinking of of the fits because that's what I do.

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I'm thinking of the different silhouettes, making sure everything kind of looks balanced but cohesive.

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And it's it's really interesting because I was working at this company.

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And I'm listening to the owner say, this is a lifestyle. We're selling a lifestyle.

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We're not just selling clothes. We're selling a lifestyle.

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Where are they gonna wear it?

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I'm not I'm not I'm not person to say this is a lifestyle.

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You have to sell the lifestyle.

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You have to sell the you know?

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But, I mean, the way people stylize it and wear it is totally different than sometimes I would have thought about it.

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You know what I'm saying?

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But I love coming up with the the inspiration, the pieces, and people do what they want with it. You know?

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Because when I see people wearing some of the stuff when I that I designed in the street, it's

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like, that's not necessarily how I intended it to wear, but it still looks good.

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You know what I'm saying?

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I would be the person who is wearing it not necessarily how you intended to wear it because

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if I can, I had the pleasure of testing one of your patterns, and I wore it?

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And I don't think you intended it for it to be a matching set with the shorts I made with it.

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So I think I'm more of a fashion style girl who creates.

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I'm a creator because, I mean, we're just talking about the size of our wardrobe, you know.

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And I'm like I mean, you would think I would have a lot of clothes, but I do not have a lot of clothes.

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I I make a lot of my own, but it's very specific pieces.

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And the stuff that I don't like, I give away.

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But, Naima, why don't you explain to the people how big your wardrobe is?

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I have a very extensive wardrobe, and I have pieces in that wardrobe.

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And I like, for for prime example, and I also take a picture of this.

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I used to work at a major department store.

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And, at that major department store, if somebody bought a garment back from say California and

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they returned it in DC and we didn't have that, it would be marked to 1 cent and sent to like

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a TJ Maxx type place.

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Just so happens this coat ended up on the sales floor for 1¢.

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Employees couldn't buy 1¢ things. Right?

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Because you can't use your employee discount.

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So what did this girl do?

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And this coat is gorgeous. It's it's woolen cashmere. It's thicker. Gorgeous coat.

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So I called my mother, and I said, I need you to listen very carefully.

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I need you to come to the store.

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There is going to be a rack with 6 coats on it.

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I want you to try on 3 of them, and I'm gonna point you in the direction of the 3 you need to try on.

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And you need to buy the one that cost a penny. Right.

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Because if you find a penny coat or a penny garment on the floor, they have to sell it to you.

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So she takes the coats and she's trying them on, and I come from out there.

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I worked in the back, and I come out the back.

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I was like, oh, yes.

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My mom, she wanted a code.

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You know, I'm gonna get it for her with my discount.

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You know, we we played it up. Right?

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And the the guy rang it up, and he was like, this

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is a penny. She said, I'll take that one.

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And I still have that code.

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Now I might not can button it, but I'll never get rid of it.

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And this is how I tend to collect.

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Tell you a story behind most of my favorite pieces.

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I can tell you why I got it, where I got it, how I got it.

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But, yeah, I I do have a very extensive wardrobe.

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I wear most of it.

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You know, you just I could go for 3, 4 weeks and not repeat something.

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So Tisha, what about you?

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How does your wardrobe compare to Nameless?

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Just as bad.

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I have a reason though.

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Because as a tech designer, everything that is in the stores come across our desk. I literally come home.

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I got trash bags right now of samples.

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And can I just tell you she's an enabler?

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In those trash bags, there's probably half of the stuff is for

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because when you work in the industry, the designs are the last people to see it.

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Not unless I mean, we see, like, the first fit sample, but when it comes to, like, the production,

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tech design sees it and they snag it before the designer that designed it actually gets a sample. So that's not right.

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I'm just telling you right now because designers are the last people to see the stuff that they made.

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And then it's like on

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the sales floor. No. It's like as it's it's in the showroom in themselves.

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Like, oh, I didn't even know that came in.

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And you're just like, oh, yeah.

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And everybody has a sample but the designer.

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Alright. And that's all for now.

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I'm Leticia of Keeping You in Stitches along with Zahir from Regent Design Lab and Cover Me

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Chic and Naima of Fearless Threads. Until next time.