Addicted to American Fashion Podcast

Ever been liberated by limitations and overwhelmed by variety? Would you have thought that the designer (Lindsay Degan) saying it was talking about knitting?

I’ve honestly never listened to a podcast before…but American Fashion Podcast sucked me in, like hard.  For two weeks, every chance I had, I was listening.  I’ve always had a Vogue in my bag, and thought I knew all there is know about fashion. I was definitely wrong.  I started listening in July 2015 and I listened to so many in a row, that I finally caught up and actually had to wait the 7 days for the next one, it was almost painful!!
 While listening, I’d accidentally escape my world until one of my 3 kids starts yelling, “Maaaa!” or until I get hit in the head with a volleyball at my daughter’s practice.

I relish the conversation of various great minds, I almost feel like I’m part of it. You know just sitting at my dining room table conversing with Ralph Rucci. Normal stuff like that.

I definitely appreciate my buddy Seth ‘dumbing down’ the fashion terminology for me.  “For all those who don’t know…Pulling is, a Techpack is…” It’s like he’s reading my mind, because I really trully don’t know.  I love Charles’ humorous side comments, like when Sass Brown was speaking about sustainable fashion and he said, “Copenhagen is not actually a country,” just cracked me up. (Hmm, guess you had to be there.) No one I know listens to this podcast so unfortunately they don’t know my new friends Lisa, Seth, and of course Charles!

Now I must admit, AFP did initially take the sexiness out of what I thought fashion entailed.  And I definitely had to go through the 5 stages of grief to deal with it.  But once I got to the acceptance phase, I could appreciate art, beauty and grind of fashion so much more!  My brothers are both artists, one of which is co-founder of No Kings Collective (fusion of art/networking/event planning) and the other just graduated from Cal Arts with a MFA in film directing/screenwriting.  And unlike my brothers I can’t widdle a stool from a tree, paint, sculpt, knit, crotchet, or do graphic design; but like Lisa says, I am “so fascinated by the creative process.”

 I did my graduate work in medicine in Valhalla and the upper east side, but I was soooo broke I could barely afford an offbrand cup of noodles.  And at that time, I could only focus on utilizing every opportunity to steamroll into my career, with nothing, including hunger, getting in my way. This was the first and only time thus far, that I lived away from home (aka inner city Baltimore) and I unable to appreciate the incredible city in which I lived due to not only a lack of finance but also I knew very few people.  So close to the elusive world of fashion (physically), but so far away. Although I have been blessed with success in my endeavors, like they said on the podcast, “(You can) miss the opportunities you have because you’re so focused on your vision.“

 

This podcast makes me feel like I’m in resplendent Manhattan again.  However, the podcast is a cog in something even greater than the education of Naomi … Fashion Media Center  and Manufacture New York.  Their mission involves revamping the American fashion industry! Sounds easy enough, right?

In fact, in true ‘0 to 100’ Naomi fashion, I decided to take an online fashion business course at the New School.  Seth said its important to know the history of fashion. So, I’m starting there. Stay tuned on my progress…

 

Naomi