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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