There must be a genetic wanderlust in my family.
My scientist-professor father travels constantly for his work. He goes to Antarctica for six weeks almost every year. (He’s even had a mountain named after him there.) After the fall of the communist government, he spent a year living in Albania, working with the new government to establish a watershed. And he regularly makes trips to do research in South America, Europe, China, and the Arctic circle.
A bit closer to home, my sister and her husband recently purchased a vintage Airstream trailer in which they hope to spend their summers moving around the country. And before the birth of our daughter and the launch of our company, my husband and I regularly traveled all over the world for business and pleasure.
So it seemed natural that the story behind my new Lisette brand would be based on travel and people with an adventurous spirit. The idea of an Adventurous Spirit, actually, is so important to the mood I wanted to convey with this line that I’ve used that name for our first collection of sewing patterns and coordinating fabrics.
With the direction my life has taken in the last five years, I don’t get to do as much travel as I would like. But I’m fortunate to live in New York City, where I can interact regularly with people and styles from many different cultures. Here I can be collect the same global influences as my fictional Lisette without having to rack up the same number of air miles as she does.
Here is a little inspiration book I put together more than a year ago, when the idea for Lisette first came to me. The book is a scrapbook full of photos, sketches, and notes that I assembled and presented to our business partners when we first started talking about the Lisette concept.
In addition to helping me tell the story behind Lisette, it also contributed to the final look of the Lisette brand. Each pattern envelope is designed to look like a page from a scrapbook in which a designer (my friend Lisette, perhaps?) has assembled photos, sketches, and swatches of fabric as she works out her ideas and makes her selections.
I hope you’ll be inspired by Lisette and will, in turn, create clothing that you love using our patterns and fabrics by making them fit your own look and lifestyle. I can’t wait to see what you sew!
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