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WHAT IS SO FASCINATING ABOUT DESIGNING?

Did you ever wonder what a fashion designer finds so fascinating about designing? Since I am married to a designer and that my business partner is also a designer, and since designing is part of my every life I never fully understood until recently when I started to really pay attention as I watched them work at their craft. Paying special notice as they worked, (my part in fashion designing revolves around shopping for pleasure). I asked them the question.

My business partner Nicole gave me some food for thought with her quick response of it when it came to designing she enjoys it immensely. One of her passions is leather handbags. Designing for her has nothing to do with trend setting. It is more like having fun letting the color, fabric, shapes come together to express an idea or a set of mind she may be in. Lines are of great interest to her, they can change much of the design with a slight degree of modification or a curve. The materials she chooses to use are for her interesting, if you use pastel color chiffon in designing a dress you get a dress that has a lot of fluidity and moves with the woman wearing it. Try the same design with a different fabric and you have fashioned a totally different look. Even if the lines are the same the final result will not be the same I guess it comes down to creating and how we all see things in our own way.

She went on to say that at least for her the creating part of it is hard to explain because it is subjective, it can be related to a given time, a certain place, your temperament and what your idea about what fashion should be. Anything that she created at any specific time would probably not be created the same now today since we all evolve and grow.

On the other hand my husband Renald who tends to be a little eccentric believes that some aspects of designing are based solely on inspiration. Example: the specific shape may not be the first source of inspiration for him but a color may be his inspiration.

If we take a look at fashion from the past, we can somewhat understand how the sixties and seventies were inspired by the need to shock. Remember the flower children during the sixties how they dressed. With such artists as John Lennon and Yoko Ono doing such things as a "Bed In" the young people took notice and had a need to show solidarity with them.

The designers of the time in his opinion knew that this generation needed and wanted very Peace oriented clothing. This to him was their way of making a statement about the war in Vietnam and he believes this to be one way of sticking it to the establishment. Designers used a lot of bright, vibrant colors and shapes that were non conventional. Haircuts went from clean cut to long and hanging and a bit greasy. The women's movement had a huge impact on the direction that society took. Women were part of the working force unlike their mothers who stayed home and took care of the children and their husbands. These women became a consumer that earned their own wages and whose time had come to make a difference. The nineties brought back some more refined design ideas. Even traditions like getting married instead of living in communes or living with different partners was back in style. The fashion designers of today brought back styles from that specific era. When we are out shopping we cannot count the times we have looked at a piece of clothing only to say to each other do you remember wearing this? How very retro. Without doing a profound and elaborate study we can easily understand how it works. If Coco Channel lived in this specific time her designs would not be the same as they were when she was the most famous designer in the world. Her designs would probably be just as contradictory as they were back then.

From what I believe to be in my humble opinion that whether one is creating a handbag, a purse, a leather jacket, an evening gown, fashion jewelry, or even a building I believe that the process is the same. It is impacted and guided by the same reasons such as specific events and the times in which we live. The item being designed is not the most important factor. To my understanding it is a choice of a specific. It is guided by personal interests. The person designing a building for example is influenced by the same events as the clothing designer. Society has the same needs and reacts to the changes taking course which in turn also influence the designer. If the designer was not in harmony with his surroundings he has to know the needs of society. If this is true then would the designers have more difficulty in working their magic to create if they were not in touch? Is a painter or sculptor not inspired by many of the same things? It would be fascinating to find out the answer. Maybe next time I will ask one or two of them these same questions and maybe compare answers If any painter, sculptor or fashion designer reads this a comment or two would be great.You can also visit me at Otraditionhandbag.com

HOW DO THEY DO IT?

OK! In my first blog I told you that I would point out the different ways professional thieves go about working their craft when in a grocery store since the introduction of Reusable Shopping bags.
One effective method that they use is to: Fill up a shopping cart with high end stuff such as :
Expensive cuts of meat(lots of it), followed by a good variety of seafood such as bags of shrimp, frozen Alaskan king crab and frozen lobster tails. Since most grocery stores now carry other non food items it has become easy for the thief to grab huge boxes of things such as fans or air conditioners, or better yet large boxes that contain pots and pans. These large items cover up their items that are underneath. Next thing they do is cover up as much of it with beach towels or a tablecloth. Most people would not even glance twice at a cart that looks like this.

Most petty shoplifters I have come across will take small stuff such as vitamin bottles, a small pack of meat, condoms or something like nail polish. NOT THE PROS....

These pros will sometimes leave the cart parked in an inconspicuous spot then leave.
A little while later their partner in crime comes into the store takes that cart and simply walks out. No reusable shopping bag! Have you paid for your items? No one asks...

What do you think of all this? I know that personally I'm tired of paying for their gain.

Thievery on the rise

Thievery in supermarkets has to be on the rise. Since the introduction of Reusable Shopping bags earlier this year theft in our local supermarkets is definitely on the rise. As a manager in one of Canada’s top supermarket chains I and my co-workers have apprehended and hindered five obvious professional theft attempts all ranging in the four to five hundred dollar range in the last Four months alone. These are just the ones we have come across. How many others are getting away with it? If this is going on in our store alone can you imagine the amount of money just walking out of other stores? AND AT WHAT COST TO YOU AND ME THE AVERAGE CONSUMER WHO HAS TO ACTUALLY PAY FOR WHAT WE WANT?

Since we have eliminated the use of plastic bags in order to reduce their harmful Effects on the environment, and since we cannot force people to bring their own Reusable Shopping bags when they go out and shop nor can we insist that they take a box or plastic Bag many customers just put their purchases back into their shopping carts to carry out their groceries. Although most people are honest enough to pay for their items some do not. THEFT in stores is not a new concept. Shoplifting will always exist. That I think is a given.

In our store we have augmented our security, updated our surveillance cameras and also trained the staff to look for certain things that would indicate to them that a professional thief is working his craft. This kind of theft is really starting to anger me. I wonder if saving the environment from plastic bags and as much as I know we need to do everything to attain this goal do we need to pay even more than necessary for our groceries? I know that using recyclable Shopping bags is what we need to do. We need to come up with better and bigger ways to stop this kind of professional thief. I would like to hear from you and I would you like your comments and some of your ideas on this subject. I believe that unless something is done it will become a bigger and more costly problem.

In my next blog I’ll give you some of the methods that these professional thieves have come up with.

For more information on reusable shopping bags I invite you to visit us at otraditionhandbag