Friday, February 3, 2012


New Projects, New Goals, and the Process of Growing as an Artist Through Fluxus

As I work my way through my new collection, I grow more and more interested in focusing on the minute details of the clothing, in addition to the overall picture that the outfits will create and the story they will tell as a collection. I have special plans for this line, hoping to introduce it as the new Petey, the better Petey, the learned-good-shit-at-design-school-before-I-peaced-out-of-there Petey. The whole reformation is going to take approximately a year, including the design, construction and completion of each outfit I've got in mind. The collection will feature both men's and women's clothing and will include both practical, wearable pieces as well as art clothes.
In addition to the new plan is a new name, or rather, a simplified version of the old name. I'm just calling it Petey. Plain and simple, with the demise of the Troll alongside my old approach to my own designs, my business sense and my knowledge of clothing construction, pattern making and fabric.

When I start my new blog, it's going to be basically the same thing, with a little more structure and a little more consistency. I've been writing in this blog for over two years now and cherish it as my little online diary, containing my thoughts on fashion, business, art, history, life and of course, my own work and progression in this field. For me, this whole transformation is coming with a new outlook. Basically, I'm sick of sitting around on my ass, not being a fashion designer. It's who I am, it's who I will always be.

Another thing that I am and always will be is a collector of friends with extraordinary talents in arts of all kinds. I've been very lucky with the people I've met over the years and these include oil painters, wedding photographers, dancers, actors, directors, costume makers, musicians and writers. Thus, I've decided to incorporate a lot more different kinds of arts in my discussions of clothing and fashion in the new blog as well. I'll be considering music as an inspiration, contemporary art as a backdrop for design and reviewing other fashion commentary with the intent of participating in the ongoing dialogue within the national and global fashion industry.

It may be cliche to say, but my life long dream has always been to co-found and help run an artist collective. A “collective” sounds so socialist, but that's exactly what it is. It's artists doing favours for each other for the benefit of the whole group. It's print makers making screen prints out of designs made by Photoshop masters on t-shirts representing a clothing company who is styling local musicians. Right? It's a lovely idea and continues to be a goal of mine over the next five years (pending the apocalypse, of course...)

Lots of big things to come and more structure is needed to do it. I feel the need to push forward with my business, my art and my life.

Check out my new blog – Le Couturier, Mademoiselle Petey: Fashion, Toronto and Everything About Clothes, debuting on Friday, February 10th at http://mademoisellepetey.blogspot.com/

Thank you all for reading as always!

VanessaPeteyHughes