Strike-Offs
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.
To be clear, I have designed many repeating patterns for Berried Alive. But, since it’s a streetwear brand, most of the artwork and patterns I’ve created have been placed on pre-existing garment designs from a catalog, so I didn’t get to choose the fabrics myself or feel them in their raw state before they’re printed on the garments. House of Caswell is completely original cut-and-sew clothing designs I made myself using repeating patterns, graphics, and artwork I created, and that just hits a little bit differently. When I opened the package up and pulled out the fabrics, I had tears in my eyes because they were so beautiful.
The first two strike-offs I received were the Layered Fruit print, which was printed on 100% silk charmeuse, and the Retro Balls print, which was printed on 100% lyocell twill. I chose the silk charmeuse because I love silky pajamas (they’re my unofficial work uniform), but I’ve never personally had 100% silk pajamas before and I wanted the first time I experienced that luxury to be on a pair I had designed myself. I’m also deeply interested in the history and production of fabrics, and of course silk has a fascinating history, plus it’s really cool how it’s the only natural fiber that doesn’t need to be spun in order to create threads. It’s in thread form straight from the worm.
To be honest, the lyocell twill wasn’t my first choice for the fabric, but now that I have it I couldn’t imagine any other fabric in its place. Like all small businesses, I’ve already been impacted greatly by the new tariff situation, and a few of my first choice fabrics became either prohibitively expensive or unavailable altogether, meaning I had to pivot my fabric choices and in some case even my designs to accommodate what is available to me now. But in the end I’m really happy with this lyocell twill because I’ve since learned more about lyocell and I feel like it helps me get closer to my goals for the brand.
At the suggestion of a book I recently read by Chip Wilson, the founder of Lululemon, I created 1 year, 5 year, and 10 year goals for House of Caswell. One of these goals is that I want to use only sustainable materials and processes by 2035. And lyocell is a fabric that will help me toward that goal because it’s a semi-synthetic fabric derived from wood pulp and it’s produced using a closed-loop process that recycles water and solvents.
I was extremely nervous to receive these first strike-offs because these are some serious, big-girl fabrics and seeing my prints on them feels like the first tangible step toward making this serious, big-girl brand happen. To be honest, it’s scary starting a new luxury brand (especially this year!) and the idea of failing to create the art for it terrifies me even more. I’ve been making graphic art and repeating patterns for clothing for years now, and I had this idea that if I couldn’t even get this right then I had no business even launching a luxury brand at all.
I waited for days while the fabrics were in transit to me, updating the tracking constantly and thinking about all the things that could go wrong, like maybe the print tiles wouldn’t be lined up, or the scale would be all wrong. Maybe I’d provided incorrect dimensions or Pantone numbers. So many things can go wrong with a repeating print. I moved through my day getting everything done that I needed to, but these first strike-offs were always at the back of my mind, making me crazy with thoughts of failure and the potential of inadequacy as an artist.
The package was originally supposed to arrive yesterday, but when I woke up and refreshed the tracking, it had been delayed by a day. I couldn’t believe my bad luck! Here I was, already tortured, and now I had to wait a whole extra day? Luckily, it was a busy day as Berried Alive is also launching album preorders this week and we had content to film, but I still couldn’t believe this was happening. I waited.
Today, the package arrived, and my hands were visibly shaking as I opened the door, accepted the package, and tore it open. My head felt light and I could feel my heart pounding. All of my fears of failure were either about to disappear or be confirmed.
And then the package was open and I pull out the two folded strike-offs, and my first thought was I couldn’t believe how beautiful they both were! They seemed to glow in the sunlight coming in through the windows and at first glance I couldn’t see any flaws in the colors or the patterns, and the scale definitely looked like what I was hoping for. I laid both patterns flat on the kitchen counter, because that’s how you can really tell if a pattern repeat is correct, and no matter how hard I looked I couldn’t find a flaw. Somehow, I had two beautiful, perfect strike-offs in hand made of art I created on gorgeous fabrics I chose, and for now I can breathe a little easier.
There are still other fabrics and repeating patterns in the collection I have yet to receive strike-offs for, but at least my confidence is up now. I’m still going to be cautious as hell when I provide the art, the dimensions, the Pantone numbers for each print, but I’m going to at least be armed with the knowledge that I can do this. So far, I’m not failing.