I remember back there was a movie starring Meryl Streep called ” Sophie’s Choice” in which Streep played a Jewish mother forced to choose between her two children. A get a sense of that’s how our head designer, Lee Cunningham, felt when it came down to choose our selection of our Fall/Winter line to be produced.
As we sat down at one of our favorite coffee-house/ think tanks we filed through all of Lee’s various sketch pads and design books it came very clear how two different minds tackle which design would actually make it to the production floor.
A sketch book to any artist is pretty much regarded as hallow ground. It is usually kept within close proximity and could even at times be viewed as something that should never be tampered with. So, when you put one of these items into the hands of a very left brained thinker trying to organize a possible clothing line you may want to warn said right brain thinker of that fact first. That way you could properly prepare them for the sacrilege that I performed on Lee’s sketchbooks when I ripped out the drawings of a potential production candidates and sorted them into different piles.
When I ripped the first page out the expression on Lee’s face was that of shock and utter disbelief. When inquired if everything was alright he just responded ” Well, it’s just that was one of the first designs I ever came up with.” to which I replied ” Cool, now it’s going to be a made into a reality.” After saying that Lee’s demeanor took on a different air as he went through his designs looking for sketches that could be made tangible.
As the process went on I gained an appreciation of how an artistic mind works as Lee would show a sketch and tell me what influenced him to create it. I could see that some of the choices were hard for him to let go when it came down to whether or not they were cost effective for production.
In a weird way it’s an art and science. You have to mix different parts of arts, profit margins, design, production cost, and then hope it comes out into something that encompasses the designer’s vision and business manager’s bottom line.
Drive safe,
Barry
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