November 2008
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Multitasking - the Balancing Act
Today is the first day that I have had to truly embrace summer as I sit in our pool area, praying that I have enough battery left on my computer to effect this editorial. I’m also exposing my very pale body to the sun’s life-giving rays, prompted by my cash-strapped daughter in Dunedin, from whom I have just had a call.
She has come to the realisation that her financial position is so dire (this I know all too well after seeing the state of the credit card that I settled this month – in my name, but at her disposal for emergencies!) that she will have to work two jobs over the summer. Easy, I say, I will set you up a job in the ever-needy hospitality industry. Great, she says, and I can work for you during the day? Yes, of course, I reassure her. And then there’s a pause. But I will get some time off, won’t I? What for honey? I enquire. Well, Mum, I will need to get a tan. It’s an absolute essential for the New Year celebrations that I have planned.
I mean money’s one thing, but there’s more to life than just settling the debt, especially when the main creditor is an ever loving mother. And once again, I will have to watch my daughter bake her body, regardless of those sun warnings. It is a generation that is quite particular as to the drinking and driving, yet so many of the other warnings go unheeded.
Having just scoured the Sunday papers, I’ve absorbed messages of all types, from the ongoing issue of sustainability to the depressing media-driven financial downturn. The sustainable articles have made me reflect on the grocery shopping that I’ve just completed. Yes, I am eating a lot healthier: my chicken roams the range, as do my eggs; my rice crackers are Australian not Chinese – it’s the carbon footprint thing; and there are several items that I simply don’t buy anymore as I really don’t need them.
I do, however, worry about the clothes thing. How the hell is a fashion designer supposed to practice sustainability? Perhaps I can just quietly review my shoe collection, given most labels are now made offshore, with the ever declining manufacturing base in this area. Yep, I’ve decided shoes – well, some at least – will be the casualty.
As a company, I have always inadvertently engaged sustainable practice, in that before it was sustainable it was simply seen as tight! I have never been able to not use both sides of the paper – buying memo cubes of note paper has never been an expense for me when one can simply cut up recycled paper.
Our stock is sent to stores weekly in boxes that I carefully recycle. We make carry bags out of our old billboard skins. I never buy new furniture when refitting a store; the preloved look is so much better. And we make the most stunning one-off frocks out of our leftover bits of highly embellished fabrics as I simply can’t bear waste. It all spells money to me, money that I work so hard for every day, but now I have the added bonus of being labelled sustainable.
And finally, my last word on fashion week. The question that so many have asked is how did I feel about the tripping model? Answer… It’s simply all part of what this week is. The front page coverage that I got in so many of the national newspapers, including the Herald, would not have happened if the model hadn’t tripped. The papers only want the bad news story.
The week for us is all about branding, as all our selling had been done in Australia before fashion week. Therefore, our focus is on hosting a great show for local customers and sponsors alike. The papers certainly helped us achieve our branding goal, with their coverage the next day. It was a great memory for the attendees and fortunately no one was hurt.
Remember, there is never a truer word: good press; bad press; it is all the same. And no matter what, it is over the next day and no one cares or remembers. Start worrying when they stop talking about you.
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Embrace the start of the festive season. I will be!
Annah
