spring cleaning & rolling, rolling, rolling!

My idea of cleaning?  Throwing things away.  That's what my friend, Lorisa says.  But in this case, a bit of tossing, a bit of selling samples & old styles to open up space & possibilities for newness.  I love working with Sisongfa.  Just call her "Sis".  She makes me laugh as we work and helped me organize and tidy up the storage space we have downtown.  Over the past couple of weeks, we have been tackling a 10 by 10 storage space and reviewing 5 years worth of patterns, samples, and fabric.  Toss, keep, toss, revise.  Some styles & patterns needed to be completely eliminated.  Some... simply updated.  And others, to take a rest until the style or trend of the design comes back around.  Yesterday we laughed as we transported fabric from my cutter to the storage space.  We walked with this big fabric rack a few blocks down Broadway in downtown LA, past the new Ace Hotel, past the new Urban Outfitters, and up a freight elevator to deliver the goodies to storage.  Living the glamorous life!  XO, M.E.

sweet as strawberry ice...

I was downtown yesterday getting more fabric. As I was loading up my car, a guy came by with a cart. I'm used to the jingle of an ice cream truck or the whirr of a Slurpee machine at the local 7-Eleven, but the guy pushing the shaved ice cart was pretty low key. He stopped outside of the loading dock and people were putting in orders. I was convinced to try it out. $2.



Soooooo yummy! I loved the strawberry flavor for my first try. But this orange mexican fruit concoction was good, too!

Check it out. Hmmmm... I wish he had a Twitter page!

XO, M.E.

pondering studio space...

Right now my "design studio" is the 3rd bedroom in the townhouse that I'm sharing with my fiance. It houses a closetful of vintage samples, original samples from my collection, and leftover fabric. My collage books of inspiration are piled up there, too. Rolls of fabric are stored at the boutique in the stockroom, and the rest of my patterns and trims are downtown with my production team. I keep thinking of how nice it would be to have it ALL in one place.

I saw this studio space the other day and loved it. Downtown LA is full of fabulous working loft spaces. When the timing and price are right, I look forward to a sunny space like this. As ME & Blue grows organically, it makes sense to streamline my production.

And the view out the window of this Shepard Fairey "Obey" poster keeps me wondering, how did they get that up there? Hmmm... well, if I don't get this loft space, I can always get the poster.

XO, M.E.

Art around the corner.

Fashion is so glamourous. Not. But I love digging for new trims, talking to new sewers and manufacturers, and discovering hidden treasures both for my designs and for my artistic mind. As I was out last week, I went from finding trim, to meeting with some new sewers. Along the way I came across this great outdoor painting. I don't know who painted it, but I thank them for bringing color and a bit of artistic perspective to my days. XO, M.E.

I looked up and saw...

Dave and I were downtown last week and just enjoying the day. I'm normally in my car, dashing from place to place. I looked up and saw this groovy sign. Trimfit has been around for 80 years, making some pretty cool socks. I'm thinking that the sign was painted that long ago, too. It's a nice bit of random art/advertising that made me smile. Here's the street map if you're in the neighborhood.

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XO, M.E.