Have you ever been in the midst of doing something and realized that you are doing EXACTLY what you were meant to be doing? Well, that’s how I felt this past weekend.
The SPIRIT Fashion show was on Saturday, April 6th in Pittsburgh at Carnegie Mellon University. In my last entry of The Life & Times Of A Fearless Entrepreneur, I gave you a small glimpse into everything that I’ve been going through since joining the SPIRIT show this year.
Getting everything together for this show has been one of the hardest things I’ve ever done in my life! No bullshit. I mean, this isn’t the first time I’ve participated in a fashion show. It’s not even the first time I’ve been involved in this particular show. This time was just much harder for various reasons. The main reason being that all of the styles were handcrafted by yours truly. And if something could go wrong, it did!
Before sewing a single thing, I started as I usually do. I sketched out my ideas. But that seemed to be the only thing that panned out prior to the show. It was pretty unbelievable. The first mishap was the lost fabric packages. Which I never found (by the way.)
After countless trips to the fabric store, cutting patterns, and carefully creating 8 designs, I took two extra special packages to be shipped by Priority Mail. This is my shipping process everytime a package goes out. But this time was different. The worker wanted to give me a hard time about everything from the type of tape that used to them not wanting to give me a receipt. He didn’t know who he was trying…obviously.
After winning that battle, I patiently waited for the required two days for them to arrive at the college. On the 3rd day, the tracking number was entered on their website. Out for delivery…it said. I called USPS, held for 68 minutes and the damn phone hung up on me. I immediately called back. The USPS worker answered, after another hour hold. By that time, I was in tears. I’m a gangsta but how much can a girl take?! LOL Anyway, his answer to me was, “We will do an investigation and get back to you within 3 day.”
3 days. Who the hell had 3 days to wait??
That package needed to be there ASAP! In the midst of freaking out on the guy, I received the best email ever.
Hey Kristie,
The packages were delivered yesterday. I will let you know how everything fits!
SPIRIT Design Team
I apologized to Mr. USPS and hang up the phone.
After my apology, I thought I could coast. Working on show deadlines was a thing of the past. That didn’t last long.
Then this happened.
Hi Kristie,
Here are pics of the styles. There were some issues with fittings.
SPIRIT Design Team
“Issues with fittings” was the nice way of saying it. Some dress sleeves didn’t fit. Two of the models couldn’t even slide their skirts up. I was horrified. How could this have happened? Something was wrong with the measurements. For sure.
I headed straight to the fabric store. There was much work to be done! With only 3 days to do it. The only thing I had to do was make two dresses, two skirts, and adjust a skirt set. How hard could it be??
The next three nights were the longest and crankiest days of my life. This madness carried on until 4am on the morning I was scheduled to fly to Pittsburgh. I had to be at the airport at 630, so I was running off fumes by the time the plane hit the friendly skies.
After a safe arrival, I got tried again. First by trying to overcharge me for a rental car and secondly because our hotel room was somehow no longer available. Went to war with both, won, and then hit the town for a bit of a tour.
The next day was showtime! I went to CMU early in the day to meet up with the girls and finally fittings. It was a relief to know that the pieces fit great.
That’s when I knew that all of the madness was worth it. Sleeplessness nights, lost packages, frantic calls and breakdowns. It was all worth it.
Now you know the steps that lead up to the show. Shots from the runway very soon. Stay tuned!
Did you catch these beauties on the runway?? My mother blessed me with these masks that she did by hand and these aren’t the only ones! She killed the masks the girls are wearing. They are a must see! Big, big, big shoutout to my Mama for doing this!
If you didn’t get a chance to catch the show or want to watch it again here or copy the link; https://livestream.com/cmuTVlive/sfs219
Thoughts?? Let me know in the comments…
Stay Fearless 💋
Fashion Not Fear 