My latest collection came together while I was taking a vacation with 3 girlfriends: at a cabin in Upstate New York which was owned by the adult children of a local deceased composer and photographer.
His home, left the nearly intact, was a time capsule to this mans creative cocoon. Complete with holey floor boards, leaky plumbing and a rusty old fan which nearly severed my thumb one crunk evening. Its precariously perched atop an estuary off of the Hudson river, in an old mill house.
It was a long overdue chance to return to New York. I hadn't been back since leaving the City in the height of the pandemic (July 2020) and I was honestly a bit anxious about going back. A week-long rural getaway to relax with friends was exactly the right move. Armed with plenty of bug-repellant, a stack of books, and a huge bottle of whiskey. We each took turns cooking dinner every night on the charcoal bbq, and even took a loooong bath in the huge claw foot tub overlooking the river down below.
Mid-week, while the others went into town, I spent a rainy afternoon combing through the swatches of leather that Logan had found at FabScrap, arranging and overlapping, to hone my color palette for what was to become the 'Grey Gardens' handbag collection you'll be seeing the beginnings of here.
Occasionally looking up from my cluttered desk, my thoughts kept wandering to the 1975 cult film / documentary about the eccentric mother daughter duo: particularly 'Little' Edie. . . how she found a magical world in her seclusion, and her sense of creating her own 'fashion'.
(Little) Edith Beale would pin sweaters over her head as a scarf, and wrap scarves around her legs as a 'skirt', to perform dance routines on her crumbling mansion porch in East Hampton.
It was time to make some fashion of my own, with this 1970's era chevron skirt I bought from Circa Fabrics, that was far too narrow-waisted for any human to comfortably wear. I mustered the bravery to cut into this exceptionally well-pieced skirt into some crossbody bags.
I hope you are as thrilled as I am to cozy into the fall season and channel a bit of our inner 'Little Edie' . . .but hopefully without 52 cats to feed.
Here are some other beautiful members of the Grey Gardens fall collection!
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