For the first part of this year I was applying to do a degree in fine art following a 2 year art course. My final interview was at Goldsmiths and as I nerve-wracking-ly went through my portfolio, showing my best work I came to the final piece, a painting of Kate Moss that I did in black and white acrylic. Now this happens to be my favourite painting – I love painting beautiful women. I find women inspiring in all our forms and for this reason I love to capture something I see in the moment, in a painting. However I came crashing back to the interview room with a bumb as one of the women interviewing me, Professor ***, openly scoffed at my work shortly before pushing my portfolio away from her and leaning back in her chair with a look of revolt. I was sorry that I hadn’t brought in something a little more crass than some paintings or perhaps something toilet related but there we have it :) I like the old traditional stuff, painting.
And sure enough, four weeks and three agonizing days later, Goldsmiths became the final of my uni choices to turn me down. So, after an incredibly tough, two year endurance test on the Central Saint Martins foundation course, working at a job for three years that I never thought I’d be able to do and months of soul searching, I realised that all the while I’d been dreaming of working for myself and was now quite relieved that I would not have to commit to a 3 year degree. CARiLOVES was something I had created and no-one could tell me whether I was right or wrong. Only my customers had that right – they would buy if they liked it and that’s all that matters. The new chapter in my life was born. CARiLOVES the market stall. I was going back to my true roots, I’m a free spirit and I have never been able to follow crowds. Whenever I try to do 9-5, Monday to Friday it just doesn’t work out for me. I’m so grateful for my previous job because it helped me to persevere and taught me so much. But I know where my heart is now, no matter how cheesy that sounds. I’ve caught up with myself and I’m excited, nervous, scared, hopeful, have no idea where this is going to go, but I’m certainly alive again that’s for sure.
It’s now Monday morning and I’m fresh from the ‘soft-launch’ / ‘dry run’ of the market stall. It seems to be pretty tough going for many of the traders who have endured the last 3 years of recession. However I love the fact that for the most part, the folks are friendly, encouraging toward newbies like me and everyone is so hard working. By 12.40pm on day 2 though, and I still had not made my first sale. Also, as helpful as it is, everyone wants to tell you how to run your stall. I’ve managed to pick up all sorts of really useful advice about how to set up, pricing and getting out to meet people. But it stings a little when my neighbouring stall holder tells me that I should lose the t-shirts from the table top and replace them with accessories. Like, t-shirts is my actual business?! When setting up a business it would be easy to get swept away by people’s comments until you no longer remember who you are and what your purpose is. I consider myself, at this point in time to be establishing a brand – a brand that stands for looking at the positive side of life and my core values; love, family, fun, creating, comfy clothing, believing and the miraculous.
The day began by someone saying that I had taken someone else’s pitch and it made me feel very uncomfortable because they were talking about it behind my back. Upon hearing this, I made it quite clear to them that I was not here to cause any problems and that I could easily move but that I would first speak to the market manager as they had issued me this stall. I got to stay as it was the market’s mistake and the person whose space it normally is, happily and kindly moved to another pitch. I understand that the person who was talking about it was just looking out for her buddy but I know I would never want to upset anyone – at the same time, I will not be intimidated by someone because it’s my first Sunday. Then, later in the day, the person I thought had a problem with us actually bought a hoody and shades from me! Awsome. The morning was so slow again that I was wondering if I was doing the right thing, but then a pretty, peroxide punk girl came up with her boyfriend and wanted a grey tank with the planet heart logo. She got changed down to her bra in front of the whole market, not giving a hoot who saw (and causing quite a stir) and put on the tank inside out, stuffing it into her (tiny) shorts so you could barely see the heart logo! She gave me a handful of change and said it’s all she had - it was actually 44 pence short of the price, but hey it was my first sale and I was gonna take it! After that we had a few sales including a German guy who wanted to buy a grey believe hood for himself but instead got one for his girl friend.
A week ago, I had just a few days to prepare a new collection of stock, stitch in labels, sort out the layout for the stall, make a sign, get all the hanging equipment and get it all from Bounds Green to Brick Lane. And it felt good to look at the stall all up and running and making sales yesterday. All round it has been a challenging and exciting week which ended on a very positive note. I still have a lot of work ahead of me but I’m just starting each day with a fresh attitude and a lot of gratitude for each and every sale we make.
Let the Good Times Roll!
Cari xx
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