What Started It All.

Like most other people who end up in fashion, I was obsessed with the idea from a young age. It’s usually the same old story: I would drool over editorial magazines and the idea of moving to the big city since the first time I heard about Vogue and Edie Sedgwick. The glamour, the lights, the Metropolitan Museum of Art… I couldn’t get enough of it! When most other kids had a hard time deciding the best college to go to for medical studies or journalism, or if they even wanted to take that career path in the first place, I knew the whole time mine was fashion. It was always fashion, there was no negotiating.

Of course as any fashion designer knows, the path to “success” is mostly the same. You go to college, you pull one all nighter after the next…you cry, sweat, and bleed over each top, skirt, and jacket design which you have already poured your soul into. You live on 3am Red Bulls, and bags of chips. If you’re lucky, the studio may have a bin of extra fabric you can take a nap in. Then the day is finally here: your four year undergrad career is coming to an end. If you’re lucky, you get your creations in the final runway show (if the faculty (a.k.a. panel of critics), didn’t eat you alive first). You take a look around and somehow you’re one of only 16 designers left. Where did the other 50 from freshman year go? (they were eaten alive.)

You put on your cap and gown and march your way into the fashion industry. All fresh faced designers think it’s their time to shine… I have thousands of ideas, what could go wrong? Then its five years later and you realize you’ve been “designing” 5 dollar sweaters made by cheap (probably not legal) labor in China that seems to be a knock off of a knock off and so on… This doesn’t mean your bad designer, but unfortunately yes, you are trapped in the fast fashion cycle of shit.

It took me five years to realize I was standing at a fork in the road of this industry. I go right and I continue my current job. I get a nice raise every once in a while, continued career stability, benefits…. (you’ll learn dental doesn’t come cheap). Yet I have to deal with the constant scrutinizing of how I answered an email wrong, or how I incorrectly organized a presentation for a buyer who came a half an hour late to the meeting and demanded we get her a venti mocha non-fat waste of my time. My real designs fall through the cracks and I’m TOLD to knock off a $2,000 sweater within a $5.00 price point… I’m a designer not a magician. Or I can go left, and actually stand for something. I can quit this job that sucks all the creative juices out of my soul and start my own business. It’s a wonder you don’t meet many designers still in the industry after the age of 50 or so, they dry out.

I started Sutton Dolls with a wish, a will, and a couple dollars set aside. I wanted to create a brand with purpose, one that didn’t just end up in the back of someone’s closet. I wanted the brand to be transparent, I want the customer to know exactly where that sweatshirt is coming from, and the exact idea behind it’s design. I want to give people clothes that inspire and lift their spirits up. So in September 2020, I launched my first full Sutton Dolls Collection, Neo-Femme.20 .

(Of course as we all can guess, COVID got in the way a bit, but that’s a story for another day)

Now it’s your turn. Are you an artist, writer, singer, sculpture, author, musician, or designer? Do you do something so unique that it doesn’t really fall into one category? How do you feel about your industry or just the world around you? It’s 2020, let’s hear what YOU have to say.

My goal is to set up a platform bringing unique and amazing artists together. I want to showcase how great people can be and that the world around us isn’t as bad as it seems sometimes. I don’t want this to be a place of opposing views or cancel culture. Everyone has a right to stand for something, let’s hear what they have to say!

Each week I will set the spotlight on someone or multiple people who are doing amazing things! They don’t have to be changing the world, one small act of kindness could spread for miles. Stay tuned, repost, share, and let me know who you love now and who you would like to see next.