My visit to a local, um, silk screen shop

Well, today was interesting. Starting with not being able to find where I was going, despite a mapquest map and quite likely because of it. However, I persevered, drove around, called for help, and finally arrived at the silk screen shop I mentioned in yesterday's post. The company is owned by an incredibly nice guy named Charlie.

Now, I was under the impression that this was a shop that produced silk screened fabric for clients, designers, that sort of thing. This impression was based upon a rather vague conversation with an old friend of my dad's with whom I made contact back in January of this year hoping he knew of someone who did this type of work. And he did. He actually worked with or for this person about 20 years ago and said he'd find him and then get back to me. My dad's friend did finally find Charlie - who was pretty much still in the same place geographically - told him about me, what I was looking to do and asked if it was ok for me to call him. Charlie said, sure, no problem.

Over the next four months Charlie and I played a convoluted game of tag - either he was way too busy or I was traveling - and then he was going on vacation - but we finally hooked up. And that was today. Charlie met me at my car as I pulled up in front of an industrial building on a rather nondescript back street, which, as I mentioned earlier, was pretty hard to find. Charlie shook my hand, introduced himself and invited me upstairs to the shop.

OK. And then we walked into the main office/studio area where I met his sister and his wife. All three of them have art degrees and work together in symbiosis to run the business. This is when I saw that what they are producing, silk screening, etc is NOT yards and yards of fabric for whomever, but rather clothing which they put through a patented process of Charlie's design. Due to the proprietary nature of what I was seeing and what I was going to hear, I was informed that I would be asked to sign a non-disclosure agreement before I left the premises.

I'm not sure if any of you have heard of the designer MARIKA CHARLES? Well, that's Charlie and his sister, Marika.

Here are some links to check out:
Augustina Boutiques
Barneys New York
Fashion Magazine

Charlie showed me some pretty cool looking clothes - cashmere sweaters and fine gauge t-shirts, among other things. We went through the shop from where the product begins to where it ends and then into the art department where the designs are created and worked and reworked.

It was all rather astonishing. The colors were fabulous, the patterns were subtle and created a great visual texture. I wasn't able to find anything online that reflected what I saw today - which makes me think most of it was from their fall collection. Actually, I know that some of it was, as I asked and that hunch was confirmed. While showing me one of the sweaters, I asked Charlie what it would retail for and he said, "Oh, about $400". Crikey! Way out of my league.

It was a really good visit and Charlie and his family were very gracious. He and his sister even took time to look at my portfolio and a sample of my printed fabric - all of which I felt quite shy to show them after seeing the extent of their work and success. Man. But, they were very encouraging, made suggestions, talked about options and sent me off feeling inspired and invigorated.

I'll be staying in touch with these people, let me tell you.