Wouldn't You Know It?: A Whole Exhibit Focused on What I Write About Most!

Want to know my thoughts on this? Check this out.

'Guess I'm going back to New York, this summer...

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Musings (Or: I'm leaving Montreal In a Handful of Years And I Don't Yet Know Where I'm Going)

I've always been a nomad at heart and, when I moved back to my hometown in 2000, I never imagined that I would still be here in 2013. I had planned on staying here long enough to have Ava and figure out what my next move would be. I thought about maybe working for Club Med for a while so that Ava could learn how to swim in the ocean and pick up different languages from the other kids passing through. Then I had my darling son and I haven't been able to move anywhere else since. 

I've always known that, ideally, I want to have a pied-à-terre in a city and a house in the woods. Next year, I'll be moving into a duplex that I will buy after two years, so I will have a home in Montréal, no matter where I go and it will also serve as a nest egg for my kids. I used to want to buy land an hour or so NW of here but now I'm eyeing the coast of New Brunswick because the most amazing thing for me would be to be able to sit up in bed in the morning and see the ocean. 

Last fall I decided I want to leave Montreal as soon as my son is either done high school or wants to leave with me, beforehand. Living in a town you know want to leave is interesting. I am committed to exploring every last nook and cranny of this place on the one hand and, on the other, I'm already disconnected from so much of what I used to think was important here. I've let several people go from my life and I'm sure I'm not quite finished with that process.

I'll miss my mom and a couple of friends but, overall, I'm excited! I intend to spend the next few years making myself as employable as possible so that I can work in fashion and/or media or, in an ideal world, so that I can write and design from wherever I am and not be tied down to any one office (unless it's for my own line!). 

Four to six years will go by quickly and so I'm already working on so much! To come: The new etsy shop will be up and running in April, I'll be making a few more announcements with regards to band merch, also in April; I have begun to look for someone who can work part-time and help with pattern making and sewing because I've designed new pieces for riff-raff and for another label, which will be revealed in the fall, and I've begun writing fiction again. I'm also working toward a certificate in photography as I have no doubt that that will help me along the way. Amazing times ahead!

I wonder where I'll end up...

My current facebook profile picture. Photo taken by me. Unedited. 

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Etsy Fashion: Key Pieces For your Spring Wardrobe

Every time I purchase fast fashions or suggest doing so to others, I feel the need to balance things out. I sew a few pieces for myself or buy at a thrift store. Another way I can even the score, so to speak, is by taking the time to create shopping guides that support small businesses. 

Here is a list of eight etsy shops where you'll be sure to find a few key pieces for your spring wardrobe:

1. Our Little Daisy:

$70.30 CAD

$79.74 CAD

$51.71 CAD

2. Three Little Ducks:

$115 USD

$180 USD

$120 USD

3. Dresstore 2000 (I must admit that I am dubious regarding just how "small business" this one is, due to the price of the cape and other garments they offer but, given that they have listed less than 150 items, I decided to go through with this.)

$58.00 USD

$65.89 USD

$49.99 USD

4. Laura Galic (Etsy is a big, big place now and this shop definitely makes my top 50 list!)

$179.90 USD

$229.90 USD

$120.00 USD (While I do think this dress should probably have been lined, due to how transparent the fabric is, one can easily wear it with a slip)

P.S. I fully intend to buy the above coat and jacket.

5. Raluca Martinescu (Also from Romania, like Laura Galic, this shop is very small but has so much potential):

$24.00 USD (top)

$24.00 USD (skirt)

$23.00 USD (blouse):

6. Daria Karaseva:

$130.00 USD (blazer)

$210.oo USD (I have seen this type of overlapping sketched out before-- I have sketched some myself-- but this is the first time I see that someone has gone through the trouble of making pants like these and I think they're fantastic!)

Classic, side-draped pants $110.00 USD

7. Ella Lai:

$99.00 USD

$119.00 USD

$99.00 USD (pants):

8. Jekyll und Kleid

$165.00 USD

$154.00 USD

$159.00 USD

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Week-End Roundup: Birthday Dinner, Rest, Organization and Urban Sugar Shack Goodness

This week-end was exactly what I needed. After a hectic birthday week-end, last week, that involved too little sleep and pee in my suitcase (don't ask! ...and no, it wasn't mine), I was craving tranquility and good vibes by the time Friday rolled around. And that is exactly what I got!

Two friends of mine invited me and another friend over for birthday dinner at their Griffintown loft. We had seared tuna steaks in a sesame crust with a delicious quinoa salad and another equally tasty papaya, mango, cucumber, lettuce salad with a yummy Thai dressing. Everything was topped with coconut and coriander and I was in heaven! My other friend brought a dozen deluxe donuts from a great shop in St-Henri, too.

The kids and I were all feeling a bit wonky come Saturday and so the day was spent drinking ginger lemon broth, watching movies and going through my fabrics, deciding what I will work on first for the shop. I'm a few weeks behind schedule but not really stressing about any of it.

Some fabrics that will be seen within the first week Pandemonium opens online are these nautical print cottons: 

And this great, Mexican inspired, Alexander Henry printed cotton called "Ojo des Dios":

I started pressing and cutting and getting everything ready so I can just start sewing this week.

Today we did more of the same but we went out for a walk. My daughter wore a headband she made from fabric scraps:

We decided to head over to the canal to Verdun, where there was an urban sugar shack of sorts set up on Wellington Street, between Galt and de l'Église.

Chalkboard cow, anyone?

The best part of this event, after the food and maple syrup on snow (for those of you who live across the pond, we poor hot maple syrup on snow and then twirl a wooden stick in it as it congeals. It makes for quite the tasty treat!) was this wall. Verdun wants to know what its people want to inhabit this vacant space. Everyone was invited to share their ideas on this wall:

Here's a photo one of my chums took when we were out of town and on the Lower East Side for a few days, last week. You can't see it but I'm wearing an awesome, pleated, mullet skirt from Top Shop that I got for an amazing $13. The biker boots were a gift from my ex and the coat is vintage and was purchased at Frip Prix Renaissance, in Verdun. The scarf is my daughter's and I bought it for her at H & M.

And now for some writing and sketching but nothing too exciting, as I have a long week ahead of me!

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The Bad-Ass Girl's Guide to Wearing Floral Dresses for Spring 2013

I've re-read this title several times and I still can't believe I, of all people, am writing anything that bears these words! That is why, if you're someone that usually says they wouldn't be caught dead in floral prints, you can trust me on this one. If I'm writing this, you can wear a floral dress. 

I cringe at the thought of this one particular outfit I wore sometimes during grade nine. It was a dark blue skirt and blouse set with large, light blue flowers printed all over it. The blouse had cap sleeves and the skirt was long and a-line. It was made from that horrendous poly blend fabric that most nineties floral outfits consisted of and, when I remember it, I can't believe some girls were jealous that I had it. You can imagine the palm-to-forehead moment I had when I saw that florals are back in full force. 

That said, if you read any of my Roots installments, you know that I'm trying to break out of my subculture heavy mold and so here we are. If you're a bad-ass and you're not sure about floral prints, read on. I dare you. ;-)

Look number one:

The Hi Lo Freak of Nature Dress in Desert Rose Print from asos.com. $93.

Their styling isn't bad but I would wear this dress with biker boots, a cropped leather or denim vest or a cropped and sleek leather jacket, some black leather bracelets, my favourite Dior red and maybe a smidgen of Guerlain Khôl. I would also omit the fringes on the purse or on the boots. Or on both, really.

 Look number two:

Trollied Dolly Lauren's Retro On The Go Dress at modcloth. $85.

In this one, 1950's retro meets the slightest touch of bohemia thanks to the dress' silhouette and the bangles. I would opt for either of these shoes but definitely stick to classic pinup make-up and maybe even go a step further by wearing a red hair scarf or leather head band. 

Look number three:

NW3 Silk Dress in Flower Print. $287. asos.com

This dress makes me think of small towns and a casual lunch at a vineyard, somewhere on the countryside. It could easily be worn with what you see here but also with a black blazer, black ballet flats, a gold necklace or two and some slim, brown leather bracelets or gold bangles. I'm digging her hair like this but would also recommend a high bun with small braids leading up to it or even a small crown of slim braids. 

Look number four:

The Warehouse Floral Body-Conscious Dress once more from asos.com. Now on sale for $30.52.

This one made me hesitate the most and not just because the print reminds me of the one that made up the aforementioned skirt suit from my high school days. It's just so... nineties. After much deliberation, I decided that it should be part of this set because I can see it being a hit with a lot of people, despite my own original misgivings. 

The two jackets I can see this with are definitely the ones I put in the collage. A nice boyfriend blazer with the sleeves pushed up completely changes this dress. It could also be worn with tall, black biker boots and/or a black pork pie hat. If you want to wear shoes instead of boots with this, I don't recommend the socks and heels shown on the model but maybe a pointy, black ballet flat or basic black pump instead.

Look number five:

The Bailey Floral Dress from Gypsy Warrior. Currently on sale for $24.00.

This dress comes without a collage because I really feel that it stands alone. I wouldn't wear a crown of roses on my head but almost all of the style elements mentioned in above collages work with this piece and make sense for spring. It can also be worn just like this, with a skinny belt, some simple jewelry and a pair of flats, on a hot summer day. 

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Roots. Part Ten: Boutique Pandemonium (And Why I've Changed My Mind). 2012.

I began 2012 in NYC with two of my friends. There was friction with one friend and we haven't hung out much since, even if we were pretty much best friends prior to heading down there and the other friend and I just went back there together. All in all, it was a fun trip. I felt strong, confidant and optimistic about the future. It was a fantastic way to start the new year.

A few months prior to this, I had decided to take the plunge and open a store in Montreal. I chose the name Pandemonium and planned on selling art, clothing, fashion accessories, home decor and paper products that were aimed at mods, skinheads, punks, psychobillies, goths, etc. I am privileged to know a multitude of insanely talented people in Montreal and the idea of displaying and selling their work and throwing in some of mine thrilled me to bits. I had taken a bunch of notes but the trip to NYC was what I had needed to push forward and actually sit down to write a business plan. The most important thing for me was that 75% of the goods sold in the shop be local.

In April, I flew to Jamaica with one of my best friends and her mother. We spent a week in Ocho Rios and this girl, as usual, was amazing to hang with and just bouncing ideas off of her made me see what I wanted to do even more clearly. 

Our resort:

One of my best chums and one of my favourite three people to travel with, Amanda:

Every time I leave town, my head is cleared, I find introspection and inspiration and I come back ready to attack. My trip to Jamaica was no different. I came back and started sketching again. I also started looking up locations for the shop and planned on opening summer 2013 in order to give myself time to make it perfect. I found all sorts of grant possibilities and started to talking to people with experience in this. 

In May my contract ended and I found myself without work. I actually didn't mind it too much, as I was able to get employment insurance and I worked a few temp gigs to compensate. That summer, my daughter and I were invited to Prince Edward County, Ontario, where we, along with her grandmother and her grandmother's best friend, got to eat at lovely waterside cider houses and rustic restaurants; body board on some pretty nice waves on Lake Ontario, visit art galleries and antique stores and enjoy activities such as napping in a hammock (if you've never done this, you should). I got to talking with my daughter's grandmother and we decided that I could use some mentoring. We agreed to meet in the fall and talk about my life and where it's headed.

My daughter at North Beach, in Prince Edward County:

Here I am at Dead People's Stuff, an antique store in the County:

I was asked to meet with my mentors in September and to prepare for said encounter. I drafted up info on the store and when and where I wanted to open it, thinking that that would be the focus of the meeting. Within minutes, it was clear that I had the wrong the impression. This meeting was about me getting a full-time job and moving along with it. I bucked and tried to explain that I need to creating and building something for myself, for my future. One of my mentors has been working with artists her whole life and she understood exactly what I meant. We decided that we would split the mentoring in two so that I would get to talk about that aspect of my life in great detail and also seek advice on it. 

Something happened during that meeting, though. I was asked why I wasn't working in the fashion industry... And I didn't have an answer. I left the hotel the meeting had been held and, got home and opened a bottle of wine. I sat and thought (mostly aloud and to my daughter) for a while. Have you ever had one of those eureka moments? Everything pretty much hit me like a ton of bricks and I suddenly knew what I want. Not all of it was easy to admit to myself but I finally had the strength to suck it up and just do it. 

Here's what it comes down to: I don't want to live in Montréal for the rest of my life or even for the next ten years so setting up shop here wouldn't make sense. More importantly though, I realized that I  truly want to design. To design and to write. I will get to do neither of these things if I'm busy with inventory, managing, ordering supplies and basically working retail. 

It was hard to start telling all of the people I had talked to about this for a year that I would no longer be doing this but that's just pride. Pride gets wounded and then it bounces back and continues to get in your way. Besides, my chum Joe, who has worked at Cruella for many years, seems to have had a similar idea because he's opening a shop called Créatures this month. A sliver of my being was wounded upon learning that, as I had gone on and on about Pandemonium to all of our mutual friends and even booked Joe's band for a fundraiser I organized for the shop, but then I reminded myself that a)That's just pride again, b)I'm the one who chose to no longer do this and c)All of the people I had approached about selling in my shop may now have another opportunity to do so, in this new store instead, if they decide to sell local products, too. I have made peace with my decision and I wish Joe and Créatures all the best!

The most important thing I realized is that I don't have to bury myself in a subculture-related grave. I know who I am and I am part punk rocker, part rude girl, part psychobilly. part death rocker, part skingirl, etc. but I also fit into mainstream fashion and I no longer have to spend all of my time pretending to myself that I'm angry with it and that I hate all of it just because one of my closets is full of studs, spikes, patches, straps, zippers and vintage Fred Perry and Ben Sherman shirts. I can be each and every one of those things but also get out there and be a part of the mainstream fashion world. This sounds simple enough perhaps but the minute this dawned on me, it was like a light finally turned on in the darkness. A real "growing up" moment, if you will... I somehow never clued in to the fact that this could happen, despite people approaching me at least once a month and telling me I should be a stylist. Maybe that's what happens when you grow up as the underdog, the one everyone jeers at and deems the ugly duckling. As a teenager, you start relating to whatever angsty, morbid, underground communities you can and you delve into them and hate the mainstream, way passed the healthy point of doing so because god forbid you should actually adhere to anything that rest of society believes is stylish or good. Well, I'm done. 

I've basically divided it up into four parts and here they are:

Boutique Pandemonium

It's not because I don't want to open a shop in my town that I've abandoned the idea altogether. I will be featuring a lot of the artists whose work I wanted to include in my shop on this blog and I'm pleased to announce that Pandemonium will be opening as an etsy shop within the next few weeks! The shop will feature riff-raff clothing co. designs, and anything that I make that isn't for my new label, whether it be clothing, accessories or home decor. Added bonus? I'll be opening up my vintage vault and selling a ton of gorgeous vintage jewelry, lingerie and home decor. 

Rosemary Hosson: Fashion Designer, Blogger and Stylist

I have this blog, I've written for Cult Mtl and am looking at writing for a few more newspapaers and magazines, both online and in print. I'm stylist a photo shoot next week and working on my portfolio. 

riff-raff clothing co.

riff-raff clothing co. lives, as mentioned above. This line is now my punk rock, 'billy, glam, etc. outlet. I've just become the official womenswear designer for Batmobile, under this label, and I am also in talks with The Koffin Kats, having just purchased a selection of t-shirts from them. I'll be reconstructing those, as well as about three times as many for Batmobile. Expect dia de los muertos inspired home decor, studded clutches and peter pan collars, belts, hair accessories and a variety of clothing. These will all be sold on the new, aforementioned etsy shop, Pandemonium.

Designing for Mainstream

I'm finally doing it. I'm working on two collections that represent who I am but will also appeal to the masses. I don't want to divulge too much too soon but expect to see the first few pieces in an event's fashion show, this fall. I will also be applying for Fashion Week, for next spring. I'm not really interested in showing in Montreal, given how weak our Fashion Week tends to be (this year was appalling) but I'm honestly not sure where else I will be looking to. More to come on that later.

I enrolled in a photography class (I'm loving it!) and I intend to take one evening course per semester, for the next few years so that, when my son is done high school in six years, I am more employable than ever and can relocate to wherever a fantastic job in fashion awaits. That's if my clothing line doesn't take off. If it does, I will go wherever that leads me. 

***

And so now we're all caught up. I just got back from a four-day trip and I'm ready to rock. And now that the news on Pandemonium is out, I can move forward and shed this last layer of weight that had been holding me back. 

Onward!

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