Serendipity

Serendipity is my favorite word, by far. It is not really definable as a word, it is more of a state of mind; a certain expectancy that something wonderful could very well happen at any given moment. Living in a state of serendipity is not always easy to do. I used to think it was only a choice we make each day, to wake up, and tell ourselves “It’s a brand new day, anything can happen!” And chose to believe that the “anything” would be very possibly be something good. Yesterday morning, I learned that it is not always a choice, sometimes even serendipity happens when you are just trying to have a day of mere existence.

I woke up in a bit of a melancholy mood yesterday morning. The weather was sad. It was early, and I had regretted making a Saturday hair appointment for 9:30 am. What on earth was I thinking? I was not feeling my usual state of chosen serendipity, to say the least. I might even say I was grumpy and had chosen to stay that way. Not a good choice, but it is just the way it was.

Everything happens for a reason.

The moment I left the apartment, the expectancy hit me like a cool breath of fresh air, even in Paris pollution. Try as I might, I realized things were not so unfortunate and the morning air on empty Parisian streets is a pleasure, as I had discovered many times before. I suppose my steps must have become a bit, shall I say “springy” and I arrived a few minutes early, so, I bought the second Starbucks coffee I have ever had in my life, in a paper cup, in Paris (so weird) and took it in hand to meet my hairdresser.

*Important side-note to all Americans coming to Paris for business or pleasure: the French do not carry their coffee to work with them and you will feel like a fish out of water carrying a coffee anywhere in Paris; having said that, being a fish out of water, from time to time, is a very good character builder. I highly recommend it=)*

I arrived on time to find my hairdresser in a melancholy mood right along with me. We were two melancholy women meeting early on a Saturday morning. Misery loves company, and we were good company, as it turned out. My mood had become decidedly better than hers, thank goodness. As she cut my hair as she had done repeatedly during the past five years, she expressed the reason for her somber mood; she wanted to travel, she wanted to see the world.

In her salon, there are tanning booths. People come in every day to prepare their skin to soak in the rays of the sun in distant lands and with each visitor, she pleaded they take her in their suitcase. She promised to pay the supplement. It was a joke, but, as jokes so often are, there was a morsel of longing disguised as humor. Yesterday, she broke through the humor and got to the heart of the matter. After raising a family, she was alone she found her children grown, herself divorced, and her dreams lost, wondering if she had truly ever really had any.

“Why don’t you travel?” I asked. “You can do it!”

“No, I am too shy and afraid to travel alone”.

“So why don’t you join one of those travel groups and go with some other people in your situation?”

“Oh, I don’t know….what if we don’t get along?”

“What if you do?”

The hair cut was finished.

“Next time, I am going to do that mesh I have been telling you we need to do for the past five years. You will love it!”

“But I am afraid”

“Don’t be silly! You will never know unless you try! But I have another appointment right now; she should arrive any minute, so it will have to be next time. But, knowing her, she won’t even show up.”

I decided to seize the opportunity! Carpe diem!

“OK! We will make a deal” I said “if she doesn’t show up in ten minutes, I will take her appointment and get that mesh, even though I am scared to death….if…you promise to sign up for one of those trips!”

“Ok, you’re on, it’s a deal!” she agreed that we both needed a little courage…Serendipity was just ten minutes away.

Ten minutes came and went and the mesh began. As she expertly put the funny white stuff on my hair sandwiched in strange cardboard looking concoctions and tools of her artistic trade, we discussed where she would visit. A light came into her eyes as she dreamed of the possibilities and I continued to express my fear in the end results of the foreign color being added to my flat brown hair. I decided that even if I didn’t like the results, it was worth it.

As luck would have it, I kind of like the results….ok, I really like the results! Sometimes we all need a change. Her next appointment never arrived, and an unscheduled one did just as I was leaving. Perfect timing. All things happen for a reason. Now, let’s just hope she keeps her end of the bargain!

Synchronizing Fashion and Philosophy

As any young freelance designer in Paris will tell you, you must approach design houses in Europe with an answer to their plea for something new and different, innovational and having never been done before. It makes one question weather beauty and wear-ability is no longer important so long as the press makes a comment or two even if those lines in the press are unflattering. After all, there is no such thing as bad press, right?

Interestingly enough, it seems the streets resonate a different attitude as reflected on the bodies of the people who are actually buying the clothes. By in large, it appears people want to look attractive and feel comfortable even as the fashion houses struggle to give the public exactly what they don’t even know the want yet. In fact, society may never want it.

The profession used to dictate what the public will wear. But the times, they are a changing. The public will not bend to fashion rules set out by creative directors tucked away in their ivory towers. The power has shifted, and the educated masses are interrupting a long held pattern. They want us to listen. They know what they want. They want to be surprised each new season, but pleasantly; as a thoughtful lover who remembers you love yellow roses, not an angry slap in the face from someone who is trying to convince them that they “love it”.

It is our job to find out where the key to their hearts is tucked away, find it, interpret what we find inside, and then entice the fashion disciples to choose what they will define as the look of any season. The trick is to interpret the social energy and create a fashion philosophy which reflects the wearers own. That means designers and trend reporters have to tap into every trend from music to the economy to politics with a global perspective. Clients are no longer buying into the “emperors’ new clothes” doctrine; “just trust the experts and wear it weather you like it or not” philosophy. They want real clothes, and they want their attire to reflect their beliefs without having to utter a word. They want their garments to live in synchronicity with their core values.

It is a big job, and finding the synchronicity between the trend setters and the old-school fashion houses is not an easy fit. Luckily, as people begin to discover and trust their own intuition, there are more choices for shoppers to adopt a personal representation. With the interesting new “non-trends” emerging on the horizon; consumers will have even more choice as their buying power increases.

As fashion creators in the world, it is our job to do more than cover bodies so they don’t get arrested in countries where garments are required. It is our duty to listen, hear, and let the public know we understand them and care about what they think. Not just in words, but through our gifts and offerings to them each season.

After Thoughts: South Park Winters

Yesterday, I had the distinct pleasure of sharing an afternoon tea with journalist, Alexandra Lampert at the beautiful Bristol Hotel in Paris. I was so happy to meet her and so glad she didn’t ask too many tough questions, since it was impromptu. She was kind with the inquiries, and is a charming lady. I was happy to have met her.

I know I am not the only person this happens to; whenever I leave a conversation which in this case, was, in fact, an interview, you have one of those “ah shucks, I know what I should have said!” moments, as you reflect after the fact. I had one of those moments at about 4:00 in the morning awaking me from my slumber.

Luckily for me, I was encouraged to “blog” and so now, I can at least record somewhere what I would have liked to have said, after the fact.

Ms. Lampert asked something to the effect of “ How did you get from a ranch in Colorado to Paris, France?” My answer was something similar to “duh, I dunno, just happened” not exactly the words (I hope not! quell couchemar!) but whatever they were, I am sure I could have done better! Whatever I did say, what I would have liked to have said would have been too long of an explanation, so I will share it with you here, if you are so inclined to read it.

When I was in Colorado several years ago, I briefly met a very nice lady from the North East of the United States. She was in her golden years, but quite lively and not knowing anything about my origins, my ambitions, or anything about me what-so-ever asked me where I grew up. We were in Breckenridge, at the time, so it was easy to explain that I came from the other side of the pass in South Park. “Oh” she exclaimed “then there is nothing you can’t do, you will succeed in whatever you put your mind to.” And she giggled a little. “You are a lucky young lady!” Of course, her observation intrigued me since South Park often experienced a bit of ridicule from the surrounding communities.

She went on to explain that she had graduated from a famous women’s university in New England, and she was impressed by a young classmate who graduated as valedictorian. The young woman had come from Alma, Colorado, a little town in South Park. She had attended a one room school house and had somehow gone from that little snowy town at 10 thousand feet above sea level to become the toast of the New England’s academic society.

The kind stranger went on to explain that the speech made by the valedictorian had impressed her immeasurably through her life. I don’t think she realized that by sharing her memory of it with me, she was implanting a still small voice in my heart which still encourages me each time I feel a little dismayed.

Though, naturally, she couldn’t quote the speech, nor could she remember the name of the woman who made it, she was able to paraphrase enough of it to change my life. The valedictorian described the winters in South Park, the horizontal snowstorms, the bitter cold, hyperthermia, and most of all, the constant wind.

The winters of South Park are long and hard and eventually give way to wildflowers with lives as short as butterflies. There is a small relief when the flowers appear through the snow; it makes it all worth while, for a little while, until the hurricane force winds come again blowing the heavy snow against the fences and the rest all the way to Hartsel.
But, when the snow covers the flowers again, the children remember their promise that they will be back again very soon. It is too bad that the adults sometimes miss their promise and curse the cruel winter for invading the spring.

The gentle stranger described the chill they all felt in the room as if they were hearing Jack London reciting “To Build a Fire”. The valedictorian explained that if you can survive a South Park winter, everything else in life is easy. If you are fortunate enough to have survived many, then life is a cinch.

Sometimes, people give in to difficulties, because those adversities are not extreme enough to force them to find a way to survive. Life in South Park is much less difficult these days, but I remember the wind, the horizontal snowstorms, trying to get home in the car at night with the headlights off because turning them on only reflects the light back into your eyes from the white wall of snow. None of that has changed. I remember, all too well, the terror of not knowing where the edge of the road stops and the cliff begins. For people in South Park this is not a one time experience, it is a way of life. People who grow up in places like that survive. I don’t think it is necessarily a conscious choice; it is just something that becomes a part of us, like the color of our skin or the size of our feet. We just do it, we just survive.

Spring is just around the corner in South Park, but they will endure some very treacherous spring storms before what I have always called “the snow flowers” pop up their little heads. As a little girl, I used to look for them, and when I found one coming through the snow, I would get very excited and announce it to everyone. They are little violet “furry” flowers and are my favorite, I don’t think you can buy them at any florist; you just have to find them in the snow.

I hope there are children in South Park looking for snow flowers, and I hope they will let me know when they find the first one.

The Brides of June

It’s hard to believe how quickly March is flying by. It seems that we just had Christmas and rang in a New Year and we are already looking at spring. Fashion and work wise, it means I am a busy bee, which is always a good thing. In addition to regular collections, in which I have to always have to look more than one year ahead, I have the pleasure of being in the moment. Sometimes it is a little difficult to know if you are coming or going! Literally! Wait…is this trend for 2006, or is that something we are saving for 2007? It feels like the fashion industry is akin to Microsoft, sometimes….you know we’ve got the goods, but we are just not unveiling them yet, anyway, that would take all of the fun out of it! I suppose that is the all too necessary commercial, business, bread-and-butter part of the business, so, with it, we live, and honestly, it is fun to be a part of designing the future in some small way.

My favorite part of my job often happens in the season, or just before the flowers bloom. It’s the one on one part I love so much. There is nothing commercial about it. Last minute June Brides, special prom dresses, or just those special dresses inspired by the spirit of the moment. How could I resist? I get to spare no detail. I don’t have to think “Will this work in production?” I can use a special antique button, spend hours on embroidery, hand beading, and get lost in a beautiful world! I love it! I don’t think about how much money I am making by the hour, or if it will be “cost effective” though, perhaps I should! I just see it as a higher purpose, and I create to my hearts content. I love working with my hands, working little invisible stitches, and imagining the dress handed down to daughters and grand daughters. I always dream that they will outlive me, so the “bottom line” doesn’t apply in these cases.

This afternoon, I will meet with one such bride. Her enthusiasm is absolutely contagious on the phone, and I can’t wait to see her shining smile and find the source of her joy. Since I have an appointment for tea this afternoon (a working tea) the bride and her mother will join me just after at one of my favorite places to work, sip tea, and design beautiful dreams.

In fashion, if you think it is just a job, you are in the wrong business. If you think fashion is shallow, you don’t get it. It should be an expression of the deepest parts of the soul. If it isn’t, then they are just clothes.

I can’t wait to make this gown, I need it right now.

Live today with synchronicity. (Not a command, just a suggestion=)
And have a nice day.

Oh, and if you need a special dress, email me, please, it will be my pleasure. I will be traveling a lot between the US and France for a while, so we can meet somewhere along the way.

jennifer@jennifermarvin.com
www.jennifermarvin.com

Afternoon Tea

Well, it is already Wednesday, now isn’t it? The week is flying by, and I haven’t done an entry since Sunday.

The days are getting longer and the jackets are getting lighter. Spring is just around the corner. I admit that I have hardly noticed. I have been buried in a project this week and can’t seem to pull myself away from it for even a moment. Do you know what I mean? I am just lost in my own world at the moment.

I will leave the studio tomorrow and see the sun again, unless, of course, it rains. I have meetings outside all afternoon so my project will just have to wait until I return.

I am having the most exquisite cup of tea as I write this and stop for the evening, I think I am officially “spent” for the day, but only for today, tomorrow will bring new life to my sleepy brain. If you have never had a cup of Wedding Imperial tea from Marriage Fréres, it is a delight you should not miss. http://www.mariagefreres.com/ . I often treat myself to a cup of this wonderful black tea with hints of chocolate and caramel on a sleepy afternoon. Divine! And no calories!

Enjoy the simple pleasures and the good things in life!

Best to you,
Jennifer

Monday Morning, Sun is Shining

It’s Monday morning and happily the sun has graced Paris with its presence, yet again, as we begin another work week. What luck for me that my work isn’t work at all, but just a chance to do what I love.

Every week, I fill my appointment book with all of the things I have to do, followed by those I would like to do and hope to find a balance somewhere by Friday. I still haven’t mastered it. If you have, please tell me how you do it, I am all ears…Or Eyes, as the case may be.

I am off to do a fitting at the atelier late in the morning. It will be a bit unusual in contrast to a routine fitting as this dress will be moving around, bending and stretching on a stage as her wearer croons those love songs she is so famous for. She is a lovely person, so it is always a great pleasure to work with her. I am conclusively fortunate that all of my private clients are lovely people whom I genuinely adore, famous or not. I have heard the horror stories from some of my quite talented designer friends and I have incredibly fortunate in managing to avoid them in my career, which, incidentally, as a result of my enchanting clients, seems to be much shorter than it has been.

The day will be quite busy, as I will meet others as well and put out what I hope will be only small fires which inevitably come on Mondays. (You know I am speaking figuratively, of course). Thank goodness for cell phones! I will need to balance those with my motherly duties which I am delighted to still have, working of the sketches and patterns for the handbags for spring 2007, and making what I hope will be only small changes to some last minute spring 2006 pieces I have been working on.

Life is full, and life is good. I wish the same for you, where ever you may be.

Best to you from Paris,
Jennifer

Illumination

The sun found its way to Paris reminding us, even after the greyest of days, the city of light remembers its reputation. It was a welcome day walk alone, take a few photos and discover hidden treasures. Today, I had the intention of doing just that, but, just as I was finishing my sushi lunch, my cell phone rang and changed my plans in an ever so pleasant way.

There are conversations between creative types which only occur in the company of like minds. I suppose it is not unlike when computer programmers or horse trainers find themselves sharing a Sunday afternoon together.

I spent this afternoon with a dear old friend, a fellow American in Paris. We window shopped, took in the ambiance, shared an absolutely terrible chocolate chaude and found it amusing to have discovered possibly the only such a concoction of dark chocolate flavored with saw dust existing in the city of the most delightful culinary delights. The ambiance of the “salon du the” was adorable, however, and while it was a bit “girly” for the taste of my screenplay writer friend, he was a good sport managed to find pleasure in the irony of it all. I found the ambiance positively inspiring.

My friend and I are both busy working on projects of which neither of us have details or dare to ask one another. Instead, when we speak, we inspire without effort. We philosophize, sympathize and perhaps dramatize a bit as well. Today, we made a lovely memory and the light not only shown in Paris, but in our hearts as well.

Enjoy the Unexpected interruptions,

Jennifer

The Grey days of Paris

It is a rather grey day in Paris. This time of year, that is not uncommon, in fact, it is not unfamiliar any time of the year in the city of light. The clouds create a solemn stillness when they come to rest over the city on the weekend. People opt to stay home rather than venturing into the streets. They like to weave their cocoons in their cozy apartments on days like today. It is as if everyone in the city is in the same thoughtful mood and it creates it's own collective consciousness.

It's already 3:30 in the afternoon and the light entering my Parisian abode inspires a beautiful sadness. It's quiet, it's calm, it is certainly a bit melancholy, but it is beautiful. It is a good day to reflect and let the ambiance inspire.

Don't forget to live in the moment today, even if it is an unilluminated day where you are too. Find something in it and let it move you.

Creatively yours,

Jennifer
www.jennifermarvin.com