Saturday, February 22, 2014

Tattered Rose is a Lifestyle

   
       (art collage created by the owner of Tattered Rose...please do not copy or reproduce)

It comes up every now and then....the fact that Tattered Rose is unlike most other stores and boutiques that sell clothing & jewellery for women....this is not about vanity on my part...it is merely the way things are because it is the way I wanted it to be if I owned a shop...it had to be different.

Being a middle child in a family of 5 children sometimes means that you are lost in the shuffle, and so you find ways to be noticed. Some middle children will do bad things because any kind of attention is better than no attention.

For me, it was about seeking admiration from others, usually my parents or big sister, of what I created...whether it was a drawing or a piece of clothing or the way I displayed the items on my Mom's dresser.  I needed to have someone I cared about tell me "that is great, dear" because it meant I was more than just the 3rd child, lost somewhere in the middle.

The other thing for me, was of course making people laugh.  I was a goofball before I even knew what it meant to be a goofball. I just knew that if people were laughing at my antics, I was getting attention and perhaps making someone else happy for a moment...not that I needed or wanted to be the centre of attention all the time, in fact far from it.  

Most of the time, I quietly went about my day of finding things to do....like drawing new clothing designs for my paper dolls (do they still have those cut out paper dolls?) or making something, even if it was a mud pie...yes, literally mud...all dressed up with rocks and cattails...or taking photographs of anything that wasn't moving too much (dolls, cats, horses, my little brother)or it could be a dress I hand sewed for one of my dolls.

So, many years later, when it came time for me to have my own store, it had to be different and it had to be part of me and what I loved.  Tattered Rose IS me...it is the things I love to own, the clothing I love to wear and it is about helping other women find themselves in the clothing sold in my shop....and I am there to help them with that mission to the best of my ability. If you share part of your own story during that time...well, that's part of it too.

Therefore, next time you visit Tattered Rose, please know that it is not only about making money....it is much more personal than that.  I want to share my knowledge and sense of style with my wonderful customers and have you walk away owning the type of clothing that makes YOU look your best....from colour to silhouette to style.

So, yeah....Tattered Rose is about a lifestyle...most of our clothing never goes out of style....it becomes YOUR style.