Introducing Safari 1979
A Journey into the Spring/Summer 2024 Collection
Hello Dearest!
It's finally here—our Spring/Summer 2024 collection has officially landed, and I couldn’t wait to take the opportunity to talk (at length 🤭) about the process from start to finish. So refill your water glass or coffee cup, because we're about to dive deep into the creation of Safari 1979.
Picture it: it's early 2023, and I find myself staring at a pair of shorts I made from white cotton canvas with the maze print hand-painted onto it. A blast from my past, these shorts sparked a whirlwind of inspiration. I should also mention that I was going through yet another one of my disco phases of listening to mostly Sylvester, Phil Hartman, ABBA, and Boney M on constant rotation—disco just makes me happy.
Channeling the vibrant energy of disco beats and the allure of the great escape of an observation-only jungle safari, I embarked on a creative odyssey.
Inspired by the likes of Bianca Jagger, Liza, and Diana Ross, I envisioned a collection that seamlessly blended safari adventure with disco glamour. It was an escape from the bleakness of reality—an invitation to lose oneself in a world of music and adventure where we’re in an open-air discotheque in the middle of the jungle, it’s Bianca’s birthday and she enters the dance floor on the back of an elephant while the usual crowd of Andy Warhol, Halston, Liza and all of the Halstonettes cheer from the VIP section.
Now, let's talk prints.
That maze pattern? It demanded a comeback. But after my 30+ year-old hands said “absolutely not” to any hand-painting, I turned to modern technology. Digitizing the print and experimenting with colors, I settled on classic black and lavender for our Lucy and Leila blouses. When I tell you that it took days before I was convinced that the print contained no accidental hate symbols before it was officially approved for printing… Thankfully, I haven’t come across any. *UPDATE BELOW* No, it’s not what you think! 😜
As sketches turned into reality, the theme of Safari 1979 solidified. Sure, there were some wild ideas along the way, like a trench coat with detachable raglan sleeves (like, girl, what? *Cardi B voice* WHAT IS THE FUNCTION?!), and a draw waist parka cloak “thing”, but ultimately, I'm here to create wearable pieces for real women. And sure, that’s probably creating some sort of creative roadblock when it comes to experimenting in design, but I’m willing to sacrifice a little of that if it means not contributing to overproduction and pollution caused by textile waste.
Every decision we make is rooted in our commitment to the planet. That's why we're always doing everything we can to minimize waste by focusing on quality over quantity, and opting for more eco-conscious fabrics whenever possible, though of course there will always be room for improvement.
Despite our original plans, we launched this collection with only half of the planned styles. Why? Well, creating incredibly well-fitting clothes isn't always smooth sailing, especially as a self-taught designer without the extra funds to outsource and carry out multiple fittings with a professional fit model. Fit issues beyond slight pattern adjustments and/or photography challenges cropped up during production, leading us to make the tough decision to hold back on some styles—I am certainly not a professional photographer. The good news is that I’ll be using this time to perfect those pieces, with plans for a summer launch down the road. Additionally, we’re planning a release of our evening/bridal piece (pictured left.) We planned to show this piece during our runway presentation in January but unfortunately, the model had to cancel last minute. Stay tuned for all of the exciting launches to come, and join the VIP list by signing up for our newsletter to see and shop the launches in advance!
*CUSTOM PRINT UPDATE* During the second day of the VIPre-Launch event, I found myself in a nightmare situation: my supplier for my custom print fabrics no longer offers lower minimums under 21 yards. As a made-to-order brand, this presents a huge challenge as we only order enough raw materials (+20% extra for any mistakes) to produce only what gets ordered so we would have to figure out how to utilize the remaining yardage if we don’t get the necessary number of orders for styles in this print to justify ordering 21 yards. So, while we figure out what our best options are concerning finding a new supplier that will print on demand with eco-friendly printing methods on rayon with fast turnaround times that won’t drastically affect the final price, and get your piece from checkout to your door in 4-6 weeks.
In the meantime, we have made the tough decision to pull the custom print variations of the Lucy and Leila blouses until we have sourced a suitable alternative and have created waitlists; we’ll notify you when these prints become available for preorder again! Thankfully a conversation with a long-time friend of the brand about doing this print in silk on the Lucy blouse led me to the discovery and helped us avoid the disastrous situation of having to cancel orders. So big shout out to them!
Of course, if we weren’t so passionate about having as small of an impact on the planet as possible as a fashion brand, this would be a non-issue as we would either buy the 21 yards to produce in bulk or find a printer to print on any comparable polyester fabric and move onto business as usual, but that just doesn’t align with our values or vision. We can’t be just another brand polluting the planet with products no one wants or needs that won’t break down in the environment when it is inevitably thrown away.
To be completely transparent, I’m finding my way with accepting yet another pivot, and truth be told, I’m SO tired of looking at this collection. I’m so excited for the next collection and I’m ready to start getting into the bulk of development, mostly because the collection is so different from what I’ve done so far. However, releasing pieces that are not 100% ready and risk ill-fitting garments that don’t match their asking price (more on that later) leading to returns and a less-than-favorable reputation isn’t an option for me. There will always be opportunities for improvement, especially as a hard-core perfectionist, but I can’t in good conscious release a bunch of crap, you know?
So, that’s the (mostly condensed) story behind the Spring/Summer 2024 “Safari 1979” collection, the good, the bad, and the lessons learned. It's been a journey filled with creativity, challenges, and a whole lot of disco fever!
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