Well Germany, its been… interesting; I certainly did not think I would be leaving under these circumstances. Crazy to think one day you’re planning a trip to Asia to work on photo shoot samples all while simultaneously applying for a US work visa because you were told last November you’d be in charge of moving the SG department to the Cali office. Then the next day your being escorted out of the building because your job has been terminated without any reason, but hey, that’s the way she goes sometimes.
Considering this company has never done clothing before, and the timeline we had, this is for sure my proudest work to date, and it feels bizarre that it will never see the light of day. Qualifying new factories, sourcing new fabrics, developing new trims, testing product, dialing in new fits; these are all things that would normally take around 2 years for the size of this range and number of designers/developers (2 people). To be roughly 75% production ready in under a year (with redesigning 160 tech pack pages because of a logo/brand change, as well as changing suppliers half way through) is something I was super stoked on, and for the plug to be pulled at this stage will probably leave me scratching my head for many moons.
Many people have been telling me lately to not take this personally, which I fully agree with, I haven’t doubted my quality of work throughout any of this. However, when you uproot your life to the other side of the world for a very specific job and sink so much time and passion into it, it’s hard not to get personally involved, especially the way this company has handled this whole situation.
Regardless of the outcome, this has been one heck of an experience, and there’s always something to be gained from any experience. There’s so much more I could say about what transpired over these last 16 months, but let’s leave it with this: thank you. Thanks for allowing me to meet and work with some amazing people, do a ton of traveling and ride my bike in places I never would have imagined. Onto the next adventure.
#livecaged
