To date we've been slinging bags close to five years.
It's easy to remember our frazzled nerves and edgy anticipation when we'd show at markets for the first time. Our initial predawn journey to the Long Beach Antique Market as we're wrapped around three city blocks of a line filled with junkers and their burgeoning wares. We were the big time when accepted to the Melrose Trading Post in Hollywood. I grew up in Hollywood on Western and Santa Monica Blvd. It took over 50 years but it was good to be home.
The bags sold. Monies exchanged hands. Commerce.
A few weeks later back at Long Beach we noticed a gaggle of ladies wearing our bags as they haggled with vendors for better prices. I felt a pride not known. I remember their flock. Five of them, all talking faster than the next--laughing and speaking in slang. They all drank coffee from personalized, overgrown containers.
We all had something in common. We were all hard to contain.
We decided to travel farther throughout the state. The Great Junk Hunt got us up to Sacramento. We worked weekends on Treasure Island in San Francisco. Then we crossed state lines for the 4th Ave Street Fair in Tucson, Arizona. Yes, sales are important. There is a bottom line, but the real buzz is returning and seeing our bags and designs in play. Slung over shoulders and coloring the day-to-day workmanlike grind of living large.
This is the juice.
Next week we are due over thirty new designs. It's a wild ride as boxes are opened, bags are counted then inspected and first impression judgements are made. I've learned not to put much weight in these first looks. It's you. It's you wearing one of ours that speaks to sensibilities and personal style.
We cannot wait to see you out in the world.
