(Shared to the Experiment list on May 20)
I hope you’ve been enjoying the change of season! Here comes another update, more of a logistical one this time...
I haven’t shared this yet because I think a part of me just thought I could figure it out quietly and that there would be no major impact on the business. Oh well!
The production side of any business is never for the faint of heart. There are many moving parts and a few of them tend to go wrong at times, but somehow, over the years, I’ve always managed to keep things moving pretty smoothly.
So when this happened, I just thought… okay. We’ll figure it out too.
In late February, the owner of one of the two local studios we use for production came to my house and told me she had to stop. She was closing her production studio. Effective immediately.
And for a solid two minutes I genuinely thought it was the end of harly jae.
I didn’t know how we would do this without her.
But at the same time, I knew she needed to make that decision for herself and her family. And honestly, given everything I believe in and what I’m trying to do this year with this experiment, I could only support her choosing herself.
The silver lining is that she still works with me on patterns and is helping us transition production to other local studios.
So after the initial panic, I recovered pretty quickly and thought: okay. This is figureoutable.
And it is.
But wow has it been hard.
Spring is our biggest season. It’s really the harly jae season. It’s when we create the most and sell the most. And behind the scenes it has been a lot more work than usual. Moving production, samples, patterns around, shifting timelines, all while intentionally trying to work less.
And I keep laughing because I asked for slowness this year… and now everything is slow.
Production is slower. Launches are slower. Things are coming out slower.
And it feels like the universe looking at me saying: that’s what you asked for ;) (be careful what you wish for, friends!)
People keep telling me, “wow, how are you so calm through all of this?” and honestly, I don’t know where that calm is coming from.
But strangely enough, there has been a blessing hidden in all this.
Because things are moving slower, I can’t keep adding more. In the past I would get excited by an idea and bring it to life almost immediately. Now I have to say:
“Okay, beautiful. You can come out next spring.”
And there is something really grounding about that.
It’s forcing me to think further ahead instead of constantly feeding the current season. We’re now fully ready to go for fall, which feels so good. And while spring has been slow, I feel like fall will really embrace the new rhythm I’ve been craving and I cannot wait to share more about it with you.
Our summer capsule was actually supposed to launch this week but I decided to postpone it a little because I don’t want the pre-order timelines to stretch too far out. And after sharing this on Instagram, the response that keeps coming back is:
We’re happy to wait. We just want to see the pieces.
So below I included the sketches :) Not all the photos yet because I still want a little surprise left in there… but enough so you can see the silhouettes and hopefully get you excited about what’s coming.
And if you’re local to Vancouver/the suburbs around it, this Thursday we’re celebrating the grand opening of our shared storefront with Looby Doo and I’d love to see you there!
As always, thank you for being here.
With love,
Laïla
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