Sew-Wear
(Sow?-Where?: We must sow. Where there is ground.)
Season One
Episode 6: The 6th Day of Labor
Prologue:
(Don’t be mistaken for one born with ‘White Privilege’ Sarah she says with disgust in her inner voice. Mother Sayer was right. She basically talked to me like I had to be reminded on how to tie my shoes correctly so they would stay on my feet. I’m going to keep track of what I do by writing everything down. From the color of every roll of fabric to the date and time the designs patterns appeared as ideas in my mind. Dedicate your ‘ARC of Time’ to devotion to details, duty and dedication to Sew-Wear.
Make this happen Sarah is all I want to get out of you. I will no longer tolerate behavior that identifies me as a person as if I mope around as though there is nothing to do. I started this company. I will introduce the first line of clothing. I will keep a record on video. I will publish a small handout that illustrates how my clothing fits with their chosen career, lifestyle and lounging around the house. Thank you Mother Sayer for your belief in me. In women. I won’t let our gender down either.).
_________________Movement Time__________________
Sarah W. Certainty: (Sarah arrives at the office space Mother Sayer gave her in the building she totally owns now.). Janea. Good morning. I want to start getting my designs out there in the marketplace. I want a set of my designs in my closet to wear to work every day. I want Sew-Wear on buses in Louisville. I want on the radio.
Janea: Alright. That’s what I’m talking about. I already have some thoughts on what clothing outlets to markets if that’s the way you want to go, but I have a few suggestions on how to approach locations with a new designer.
Sarah W. Certainty: Tell me.
Janea: The boutique shops in the mall. You know them right? Let’s offer a special service that will enhance or increase their foot traffic. Their fee will be a cut of every sale.
Sarah W. Certainty: A partnership?
Janea: Yes. Let’s not have your product on racks or shelves like they just came off the assembly line. People don’t actually feel special or unique when they buy a copy of a thousand of the same dress. Do they?
Sarah W. Certainty: No they don’t. I like where you’re going with this.
Janea: Okay. Let’s give them, women or men, a fitting in the store by a design specialist. We hire people that are our employees and assign them to boutiques in the malls. Our people know what looks good on people. I’m sure you’ve come across many quirky people that display a certain flair for taste and style. Some even to the point of being rude, or uppity like we say in the Black Community.
Sarah W. Certainty: Yes. We can use that. Say. Olfosa has his finger on Black culture. He will dress you in ways that everybody else will ask you where you got that from.
Janea: Yes, exactly! Batriss, a French lady that speaks her exotic language in cultural context that makes a person feel sexy buying, ordering, and wearing your designs.
Sarah W. Certainty: I can speak my Italian when I engage with the office. Yes. I could pretend I’m speaking to the corporate office as they speak to my Italian supplier of silky smooth fabrics to make the clothing.
Janea: Add to that brochures that can be handed out with each order. We reserve the brochures for buying customers only. We dramatize everything around the designers even when we hand out our brochures. Put some acting weight into everything. Make everything about the designers special.
Sarah W. Certainty: Yes. I like that. Don’t give an inch of perception that our designers come cheap. When you are dressed by Sew-Wear; you’re dressed with style and flair unlike any experience you’ve ever had with shopping for clothes.
Janea: That’s exactly the business model we should establish and maintain at all costs. I mean once we establish it there is no turning back. I mean no ‘backsliding’ like we say in the Black Community.
Sarah W. Certainty: I got my initial set of designs ready to produce the first pieces of clothing.
Janea: Okay. Let’s take them down to the sewing and alteration personnel and get this thing going.
_________________Now we’re cooking with Crisco_______________
Sarah W. Certainty: (Sarah spends the next two weeks approving, fitting, styling her designs to get them ready to be photographed for the brochure.). Janea. Do you have a working script for what the design specialists will say?
Janea: Here is a sample of the first script I’ve written with your creative team. We’ve tried to keep every word in strict accordance with the purpose of your vision. ‘The stylish designs are worth more than what you’re paying. The designs can be outfitted with different pieces to create a specific image that fits your specific purpose in the moment’.
Sarah W. Certainty: Also I want to add a phone bank to answer calls from current customers to potential customers that have seen how the clothes look and make their friends feel about themselves.
Janea: Absolutely. Let’s talk about expansion. What about our internet profile? I believe we can have contracts that pay some of the same cuts we give local boutiques. Like a flat fee that we can export anywhere in the world according to their level of currency of course.
Sarah W. Certainty: That tells me I need to pay you more and make you my right hand.
Janea: Dam right my lady. I want a contingency to bring in your father as well. C’mon. Don’t pretend you haven’t already made clear to me that your father is a clothes horse. He will be and he is an important part of your life. He is a marketing dream no?
Sarah W. Certainty: I know. I am playing his entry as close to the vest as possible. You on the other hand will be the first to know when I do.
Janea: I got you. Are we good to go with what we got for now?
Sarah W. Certainty: Yes. Make sure the team has got this down. Make sure you transcribe the tape as quick as possible. Get it on paper so we can keep ourselves in tune. We go now with this plan exactly as stated. We will make adjustments as we go.
Janea: Got it. Let’s do it.
Epilogue:
(I wasn’t born thinking I had it made. I never want to think that now! Mother Sayer. I am glad my Mother gave me to you to work under you to learn what I needed to learn. What a life Sarah thinks. All this promise is just that. Promise. If I never removed the ‘dross’, so that the silver can be seen and a price tag put on it. That’s what most people think of as waste. The effort and the discipline it takes. It’s just dross to most people. Gold has to be mined. Diamonds have to be dug out from under tons of rock and Earth.
There’s nothing given to you fully formed. All that is given is the ‘idea’. It takes work to uncover the promise underneath the idea. Sarah says she knows now without a doubt that people are reality. People make their version of reality happen every day. There is always a choice between two realities. One reality is living a life hoping that your dream comes true while you’re sitting on your ass. The other reality is making your dream come true by digging it out from under ‘tons’ of doubt keeping it buried.
Sarah has joined Mother Sayer fully now. ‘Thank you Mother Sayer’, she says. Now I’m paying my ‘dues’ until the debt is satisfied!).
P.S.
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Written by: Victor E. Moseley
Email: vemoseley@landcause.com
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