I’m Failing. (But Failing is Succeeding, so it’s Okay).
This thing called entrepreneurship is filled with such crazy highs and lows — and a whole lot of roadblocks. I suppose I could hang on to the old adage “If it were easy everyone would do it,” but it’s so much more than that. The tenacity required can be enough to question your level of sanity.
Spending the better part of my life thus far on this planet as a performer, I am well accustomed to failure. I honestly couldn’t tell you my lifelong booking ratio, but there have been way more nos that yeses. Despite all the nos, I always soldiered on. Why? Because I knew so clearly in the depth of my soul that I was meant to be on stage. (And that people were meant to pay me to do so).
Posed outside my ensemble dressing room before a show, on tour with The Phantom of the Opera. Toronto, 2015.
I feel this same exact way about developing a line of beautiful, comfortable, and durable lingerie that can safely return to the earth at garment end use.
Recently a friend asked when I was launching. The question was followed up with a well meaning comment about how I wasn’t reinventing the wheel and shouldn’t it be simple enough to just find nice fabric and make some lingerie. She was sort of right. I’m not creating a new product. But I am creating in a new way — or rather what I consider to be an old way through a new lens.
Undergarments, specifically bras, are functional garments. Their job literally, is to provide support. And we, in a modern age with the advent of polyester fabrics (hello, spandex!), are used to the functionality that comes with that tensile strength. But there are so many other material options that exist outside that box. Materials that have strength, beauty, and functionality.
Most of us don’t think about all the components that go into our garments. We like it, we need it (or maybe we don’t), and we buy it. To step back a moment, and continue with the bra example, let’s list what might go into one:
Fabric
Lining
Elastic
Hardwear (rings/sliders)
Hook and eye
Thread
Underwire/Boning
Interfacing
Dyes
For Petal + Ash, I’m working to distill the materials we need in a bra — to provide comfort but maintain functionality — while making sure that the materials are ethically sourced, aligning with my values both as a producer and a consumer, and made from base materials that allow for safe degradation back into the earth.
It’s a TALL order! So what does this have to do with failure?
I fell in love with the “perfect” fabric. Silk interlock jersey from a regenerative farm. There are so many reason’s why I love this fabric for Petal + Ash (if you wanna know more, feel free to shoot me an email). But as I work through development, this “perfect” fabric might not be so perfect — at least for this particular construction.
I’m still troubleshooting to see if this fabric works. There are so many elements to consider in making it “work,” as all of my materials are non traditional in scope. It’s a lot of hypothesizing and experimenting.
If the fabric ultimately doesn’t perform like I anticipated, I’m going to have to pivot (a favorite term of mine because it is both a business term and a dance move). I’ve got some backup options waiting in the wings (or rather, I’m currently sourcing new potential options), and there’s no world where I wouldn’t have started with this fabric. So with each “failure,” I’m learning so much, and getting one step closer to bringing my ultimate vision to life, and to you!
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