The other day, I received the first set of fit samples for the inaugural House of Caswell collection. Since the collection consists of 14 pieces, the fit samples are coming in batches of 3-4 garments which makes it easier not only for the manufacturer but also for me, because I can give each garment the attention it deserves when analyzing the fit and details of the pieces. The first set I received contained 4 pieces: the t-shirt, hoodie, cargo top, and cutout dress.

For all you fellow color lovers (chromatophiles?) out there, I want to talk a bit about the color I've chosen to represent the House of Caswell brand on the website and any other branded materials going forward. The official Pantone color is called Lavendula, 15-3620, and I've chosen Snowfall and Black Beauty as accent colors.

My husband and I were watching a documentary about Pee-wee Herman last night and something in it really resonated with me. Paul Reubens, the creator and actor who played the role of Pee-wee, had an audition at SNL before the character became really popular. Everybody was so sure he was going to get the job, and even he was so sure he’d get it, but then he didn’t. At first, he said, he thought he’d missed his one big chance and his career would be over soon. But he decided to keep trying with the Pee-wee character anyway, that he’d give himself the opportunity to succeed as an actor, even if it wasn’t going to be handed to him by an already established entity. He built something for himself out of nothing. That’s the part that meant so much to me, because that’s what House of Caswell is for me. I didn’t get the job either, but I’m making one for myself.

I always felt like I belonged to the wrong time. When I was a kid, there were countless things I wanted to be when I grew up, and one of the major ones was a hippie. Before stores were selling bell bottom jeans again (and before they were re-named flare legs), I had my grandma sew a triangle of fabric into the side seam at the bottom of my straight-leg jeans to create a bell bottom. And she even surprised and delighted me by adding a star-shaped patch of matching fabric to the leg. I remember girls at school asking me where they could buy a similar pair because flare legs were just about to be in fashion, and how smug I felt telling them that they couldn’t buy a similar pair. Mine were one of a kind. About a year later, all the stores were selling flare leg jeans, but I’d had them first because I’d known already at 8 years old my favorite rule of fashion—what’s old will always be new again. That’s the inspiration for the Mod Balls print in the first House of Caswell collection.

My favorite genre of books is the fashion brand founding story. I’ve listened to every book Audible has to offer in this genre, from high fashion brands like Chanel and McQueen, pop cultural sensations like Dapper Dan and Juicy Couture, streetwear like The Hundreds and Eckō, and sportswear like Vans and Nike. This is by no means an exhaustive list, because Audible has tons of books like these to fill my earbuds with a fashion-centered story and a cautionary tale about growing too quickly or the perils of taking the company public. I have learned something useful from every one of these founding stories, and learned a ton about fashion history over the past 100+ years as well, much of which I plan to reference in House of Caswell collections.

There is something I can’t quite explain about seeing my art on real, high quality fabric for the first time. I felt this feeling before a few years ago when we produced a 5-piece cut-and-sew sample collection for Berried Alive (only one of the pieces was mass-produced and sold), and today I felt that experience again when I received the first two strike-offs for my first House of Caswell collection.

The Layered Fruit pattern in my Still Life collection is the result of a lot of learning and experimentation, and it also tells the story behind the brand itself. I was taking a lot of courses through Skillshare last year on pattern and surface design for textiles. One of the courses was on how to make a layered pattern, which I chose to do with this pattern, and another course was on creating a pattern collection, which is actually how the seed of the House of Caswell idea was planted.

I’ve always loved a plaid. I like the way it can read as preppy or grungy, sweet or tough, depending on the styling and context. I had to include a versatile plaid in House of Caswell’s first pattern collection for that reason. Some people (like me) don’t want to feel like the same person day in and day out for our entire lives, and a plaid is always there for us, ready to be styled like whatever person we’re choosing to be next.

There are two main inspirations for the dot print. The first one is strawberry seeds. For anyone familiar with my background, you’ll know that most of the art and design work I did for Berried Alive was fruit themed. And that’s why the first collection for House of Caswell is fruit themed as well, because I think it’s important to keep who we’ve been in mind as we discover who we’ll be next.

This pastel painting titled Still Life is the inspiration behind the first House of Caswell collection. It tells the story of where I came from, and no matter where I go from here my past will always be part of me.

I have been a lifelong lover of color. I spent countless hours as a child listing every color name I found in my crayon box, from colorway listings in catalogs, and all the makeup colors used in fashion magazines. I filled whole notebooks with nothing but lists of color names. Colors are so important.

Every artist’s work tends to be a little bit autobiographical, and I each piece I create tells a story from my life. The story behind this particular pattern is that I was a psychology major in college.

I wanted to make a pattern that was equal parts retro and futuristic, and that’s how the House of Caswell pattern (and later the logo) was born.