fashion for freedom.

ok you guys. i know there have been a lot of somewhat serious topic posts this week. i guess that's where my head's been at. today i had a revelation.

i'm starting a non-profit that works with purusha. it's going to be called fashion for freedom. basically it's going to be an organization that raises money for the health, well being, and ethical treatment of employees in clothing factories, as well as spreading education about sweatshops to consumers, supporting brands that support fair trade, and just an increased overall awareness to everyone involved that we need to care about where our clothing comes from.

i've said this probably like 10 times on my blog already, but i think buying clothing made ethically should be right up there with buying organic food. we are ready for this change. the exploitation of humans and our planet for the fast fashion of my generation is not acceptable.

i'm going to begin with making a collection of t shirts with phrases on them that go along with fashion for freedom's mission. and we'll take it from there. the wheels are turning. i think this is going to be amazing!

if you have any ideas for me that would be awesome too! i'd love some feedback.

thank you! have a beautiful freedom filled weekend! xo.

all you need is less.

i posted this quote on the purusha fb page today, and i've really been feeling it recently.

every 2 weeks i go to the fashion district in downtown LA. i buy fabrics and supplies and meet up with nadya. we exchange finished orders for the next 2 weeks' orders and supplies. and this makes me feel really good! every week i give nadya more and more work, we are happy working together, and more and more people are wearing purusha! yes! moving forward!

i love shopping around at all the different fabric stores. it's really fun to immerse yourself in colors, textures, ideas... but then there's this whole other part of the fashion district which i honestly kinda hate. just past all the fabric shops are the cheap clothing/shoe/accessory stores. they pretty much sell all the same things: leggings, trendy tops, heels, sunglasses, knock offs of designer things... stuff that is going to break or come apart at the seams in a few months. (not to mention made in terrible conditions overseas, most likely.) as you can see from the photos above, everything is dirt cheap. and, there's obviously a huge demand for it.

this post relates in a way to my previous post. why do we think things should be a bargain? i know we are in a recession, but not having money makes me personally feel like i should be getting by with less. and not less as in i don't have what i need, but less as in i only have a few high quality items instead of lots of crap. ya know?

i was just talking to patrick about how the world basically goes around because of the exploitation of people and animals. most businesses do whatever they can to maximize profit, at the expense of the customer and the employee. wtf?! and it's pretty easy to ignore this as a customer, at first. 'oh these leggings are $10?! they have a pretty label on them and they're in a pretty store where cool music is playing? k. i'll buy them.' and it's hard to avoid buying stuff made my slaves. the computer i'm typing on, the phone i talk on- made in china, by poorly paid slaves. ugh!!!!!! it's such a bummer.

i blame the businesses, but we as consumers have to be educated as well. if there isn't a demand for cheap shit, it won't be manufactured anymore. i know in my generation already there is a movement for change. a lot of people want to buy special things, products that are made in america by people that are passionate about their work. handcrafted products with a story behind them are cool. when i think of the woman i'd like to be, i imagine someone that values quality over quantity, living a lifestyle that reflects her core values. it's definitely not easy with all the mass produced garbage out there, but i'm going to do the best i can.

whenever i pull onto topanga canyon blvd after visiting the fashion district, i just feel, aaah. open space, mountains, birds singing. then stepping in our front door and not being bombarded by useless items (there's only so much you can fit in a studio apartment! so that helps!) is a relief. little by little we find we don't need as much as we thought.

i want to find a way for this minimalist mentality to transfer into my brand, into purusha. i don't want you to buy too much purusha. lol. that might be a weird thing to say business-wise. but i do want you in the highest quality forms of purusha! or your wardrobe is only purusha, that would work. haha just kidding... kinda. well, it's a journey. i'll keep travelling towards my vision. i am so glad, because you must be reading this, that you are travelling with me.

thank you, and namaste.

coupon websites.

let me start off by saying this photo has nothing to do with my blog post. i just like it. hehe. it's on my street. i thought it would brighten up this topic below!

coupon websites. do you use them? you know, sites like groupon, living social, fab, scout mob... i know a lot of people that do use them, i can't remember if i ever have? i don't think so though.

anyways, i've been getting requests to sell purusha on a few sites at marked down prices. and i feel really torn about it. because : why mark down perfectly amazing stuff? do i want customers that are bargain hunters? why do we always feel like we need a bargain in order to buy something? will selling purusha at discount prices cheapen my brand? or will i get lots of new customers that come back again (not just for the deals)? and why not give deals to the beautiful loyal customers i already have, like through my own site?

as you can see, i have a lot of questions! part of me sees a purchase order and wants to just go for it! but then another part of me knows to be very careful about every choice i make with my business.

so i thought, why not ask you? i would really appreciate any feedback. if you are a small business that's sold on a coupon site, how did it go? do you shop on coupon sites? what do you think of brands on these sites? are you a returning customer, or just stick around for the deal? really anything, any information you can give me is mega huge. big thank you!!!!! xoxo.

respect yourself.

my meditation this morning :

RESPECT YOURSELF. respect yourself enough to...

> do what you say you're going to do.

> get your work done.

> not procrastinate.

> not put up walls around yourself to excuse yourself from going stuff you don't want to do.

> set goals for yourself and follow through with them.

> not waste time.

> treat yourself as well as you treat the most beloved person in your life.

it's all about loving yourself, we know this. but what about respecting yourself? what about putting yourself in a position even higher than you thought? the self that deserves to be worked hard for, and that deserves to not suffer through another day of habitual responses. today is the day. to change it up. why not try, for one day, just today, to truly respect yourself? do the work you need to do and take enough time to nurture yourself. it's funny, the things we really want and idealize, we often don't do. it's easy to lecture to someone else to do these things, but when they day arrives to live your words, i think... maybe tomorrow, maybe next week i'll have more time for that. ugh. such nonsense. 

this morning i vow to respect myself enough to live the life i imagine. i'm awake, breathing, and healthy, so i absolutely deserve to be fought for. it's not easy. but we have to fight for the self that requires our utmost respect and devotion today and everyday. 

namaste.

i love macklemore.

you probably do too. what a cool talented dude. i fell fully in love with his music after watching this video.

what my yoga has become.

good morning my friends! how are you?

i just wanted to take this post as a chance to document where i am in my yoga journey. yoga, for me, has changed dramatically in only the past few months. and it's all because of a class i took with my mom at the gym in connecticut back in january. a weight training body bar class. yes. a weight class at the gym has changed my life in 2013.

how so? how can lifting weights change my yoga practice? it's really taken the pressure off my practice to be a form of strenuous exercise. for me personally, i tend to want to reap maximum benefits from each activity i do and not short change myself. quality is where it's at. the way i used to practice yoga was a bit stressful, i am embarrassed to say. i felt like i had to get a hard core workout heaped with arm balances and mega challenges, AND find time throughout that for meditation. trying to get my leg to go higher in flying pigeon did not help me spiritually. i'm obviously not saying this is true for arm balance and inversion lovers out there, it's only true for me. it became gymnastics, and 'i can't wait to photograph this and share this on instagram! it's going to get so many likes!' NO. this is not the yoga i need. it's almost a struggle egotistically to let go of that desire to photograph my somewhat advanced asana postures. and an even bigger struggle to watch as i can no longer do postures i used to be able to do.

why does it matter if i can't get my feet to touch my head in dancer pose? why is this a goal? why has there become this standard of postures we must try to meet? these questions have stripped down my practice. it's super freeing to not care if i can do a handstand or do one legged crow. to just not care. and know you deserve happiness if you simply wake up in the morning. it's crazy, because at the point where you do care if you can do a pose or not is when you've totally lost the point of yoga. or at least the spiritual aspect of yoga, which is to unite the body and mind.

what is yoga? this is the ongoing debate amongst the yoga world people. and i'm at the point where i could give a shit what your yoga is. all that matters is what my yoga is. i am being selfish in keeping my peace, i don't need to dictate the peace of other people. yoga postures absolutely do not guarantee you will be a nicer person. with this revelation, and me getting a body work out elsewhere, i no longer feel dependent on a full asana practice for my happiness.

what my yoga has become... is my sanctuary. my place to find my breath and listen to my body. there is no pressure to do anything but sit. once i sit and breathe for a few minutes i usually find i'd like to move my body and enjoy it. there is such power and stillness in just feeling your body open up in the simplest of postures. i don't want to kill myself and see how far i can push myself. that part of me is now reserved for my pump it up gym class and my running. i don't need this type A part of myself to be present on my holy mat. i still like to have fun and throw in a handstand when i feel like it, but i don't have to. there is no guilt, no list of poses i must do, nothing that is imprisoning my mind.

yoga has become very special, like an unconditional love that will take me in any way it can. it's there to simply make me feel good. TO FEEL GOOD. because we deserve it. that's it.

namaste.

recently. it's been the same. and i love it.

it's been mostly a lot of purusha, topanga sunshine, exercise, delicious meals with my man, and my favorite part of the day- relaxing in bed with puppos and patrick. seriously, i wake up in the morning and say to these two, "i can't wait for the damn day to be over so i can be back in my favorite place, going to sleep with the people (liam?) i love." not that i don't love my damn days, haha, because i well know that if i didn't bust my ass all the time in the daylight i wouldn't really love the night as much as i do. it's my reward. and it's a good one. the end of the day, eating dinner by candlelight and watching some goofy comedy, followed by reading and cuddling... it doesn't get much better. this weekend patrick and i drank wine, watched 'to catch a predator' clips on youtube (and debated immensely the integrity of the show and how we kinda feel bad for the guys. and then we would laugh at chris hansen saying dirty things.), and went out to eat down the road at the inn of the seventh ray. HEAVEN. let me tell you, my heaven right there. aaah. i want to do it all again after a long week of work. heheh! i love my life. :) sending that love to YOU right now! xo.

the problem of inventory. {and being a small boutique business}.

hello! good morning and happy mondee my friends!

you're probably wondering, what the heck is that disaster in photos above? WELL, it's my inventory stash and my workspace. yeah. not going on pinterest.

but it's real, and it's a somewhat organized mess because i am merrily busy all the time with orders. {thank you thank you my beloved customers!}. i'm lucky too, because we have an upstairs {or upladder!} loft where i can keep a lot of clothes and fabrics without taking over our entire studio apartment. ok let's be honest, i do take over our entire apartment. good thing patrick doesn't mind messiness!

so, in a way, i'm writing this post to make sense of my business to myself and to you, if you buy purusha, or if you're thinking about buying purusha. i ponder about inventory A LOT. i think, i wish i had clothing made and waiting whenever a customer buys. i feel kinda terrible each time a customer buys something from me on my site or etsy, and i have to tell them the wait is 3-4 weeks. i can only make about 20 orders a week. arrghhhh!!!! it's just not ideal is it? until an order is placed, most likely the piece of clothing doesn't even exist yet. and it can't because it's just me and nadya. {nadya is my seamstress}. i can't have sizes S-XL {in my sizes i call this 1-4. i don't like people being called small or large. that's another blog post in itself. AND not to mention XS or XXL or XXXL. i can't even stock the "normal" sizes. whatever that means} in 82 different styles of clothing. 1. because even if i have 1 of each size in all items, a lot of people could buy the same size of one item, while one size no one buys. then i just have inventory sitting. wasting space and money. 2. there is no way for me to know what item people will be loving and want to buy a lot of. and 3. i don't have enough orders for it to make sense to have a fully stocked store. don't get me wrong, purusha is doing great. but it's still a completely small, very small, cockroach of a business {as kevin would say on shark tank}.

with my website i've tried to do the whole inventory thing. i thought, HEY! i'll make the website have inventory and see if people buy more from there. there will be less clothing, but people won't have to wait! guess what? no one cared. lol. most of the time customers don't even read those little details. {that's ok customers btw. i still love you.} i still got people buying more from etsy than the site, but of course i realized this is partially because etsy is my main squeeze. i list all my new stuff there and work harder on it than my site because i get a lot more traffic there. i know i need to work on my site more though. eventually i plan on leaving etsy. another problem with having inventory on the site was some stuff just doesn't sell. i put up some really cute stuff, clothes i thought were really f-in sweet, that no one has bought. just last week i had to put them on sale. i can't handle clothes sitting lifeless in the store for more than a month or so. they've gotta go. so even when i do create inventory, there's no way to know if customers will want it. and then i'm stuck with 6 pairs of pretty pants that i have to mark down in price. dumb.

and like i said, it's all because my business is a baby. if i had a bigger base and more people knew purusha existed, i might be able to design and make 12 pairs of something and sell out no problem. and that's still thinking really small. can you even imagine making like 1000 pairs?! AH! my dream.

patrick is always really great in helping me to see where purusha is. and he compares my business a lot to small boutique guitar brands. like froggy bottom guitars made in vermont. they have a wait time of up to 1 year. 1 year!!! because they have different styles of guitars, and can't just have them all made and waiting. it makes more sense to make the guitar when the order is received for it. unlike gibson or fender, they are so big that you don't have to wait for anything. and it's a trade off. with the wait you receive something handmade and very special that takes time, and you support a small business. without the wait you receive something that's also awesome, but made in a factory and you're just one order in hundreds of thousands with the same guitar as everyone else. there's a customer for each too.

just like there is a customer for purusha. you guys, i don't like making you wait. at all. but where i am, it just has to be. i will most definitely continue to adapt as my purusha grows, but i can't be gibson yet. trust me, i wanna be!, but one step at a time. little by little. i'll get there.

so thank you for sticking with me and nadya and purusha. i love you all and am so grateful you are on the journey with me. i promise to always give you an incredible product made with love, time, and the utmost gratitude for your business. xoxo.

my hot rod shoot.

or me in purusha on a dirty volvo. sorry i'm so immature, but these photos crack me up. patrick and i were playing this morning and he picked me up and put me on the car. somehow as soon as i landed on the car these poses came out. what's a girl to do? i just turned into a hot rod model instantly. magic. i think the socks are a really classy touch too. ;)

girl crush.

i love jennifer lawrence. how could you not?! i haven't even seen her movies, but now i'm going to have to see the silverlinings playbook. have you seen it?

sorry for all the recent videos on the blog! eh. next week i won't post any, i promise, ;). love you guys! hope you have the happiest most peaceful weekend! xo.

oh man, this made my morning. ah!