Spring Summer 2013 Debuts!

I'm very excited to present my newest collection for Spring Summer 2013!

"Starla is Shipwrecked" showcases versatile knit pieces, inspired by Russian Orthodox sacred imagery and the deep sea, which can be mixed and layered to create a variety of looks for all occasions. Each piece is made by hand by the designer (myself) and my team, and the collection as a whole integrates hand dyeing, custom embroidering, and a special collaboration with Austin's Chaos Card Company who worked with me on screen printing glow-in-the-dark artwork on some of the pieces (which I LOVE and am super excited about!). I am also excited about the two beautiful micro modal fabrics made from birch tree fibers that I was able to use for this collection. One is blended with 8% spandex for an extremely comfortable fit and silky surface, and the second is a 10% silk blend which creates an unbelievably soft and delicate, yet durable, semi-sheer knit. Most exciting of all, the whole collection is available for pre-order from NOW through December 31st! Orders placed before Nov. 15th will begin shipping in February and later orders will ship by May 1st. You may pre-order through Etsy or contact Katastrophic directly at katastrophicdesign@gmail.com. View the whole lookbook featuring gorgeous photography by Shayne Stroud on Katastrophic's facebook page!

the wage and pricing dilemma...

There is a lot that goes into creating a selling clothing that most people don't see, and a lot of factors that I have really struggled with in trying to keep my brand affordable, but also ethically produced.  I wrote this post while going through the pricing process for my Autumn/Winter 2012 collection, and it brought up a lot of the fundamental ideas behind my business and why I am spending my life designing and selling clothing.
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This morning I'm trying to finish my sales packet to mail out to a few special boutiques I really love, and I'm having to finalize my pricing calculations. This is probably the most cringe-inducing part of the design and production process for me. I've kept track of how long it takes to cut and sew each design, and the yards of fabric and other notions for each, and I have to plug in the actual dollars into my formula to get the wholesale and retail prices. Here's the formula I use, and you get to have a special preview of my Fall 2012 collection because I'm going to use the numbers for my Charles dress in the picture above. It feels kind of revealing, but I have nothing to hide:

Why you should buy organic cotton.

If you follow my fashiony creations at all, you probably know I use pretty nearly only organic cotton fabric. One thing I never do is buy new non-organic cotton to use in my studio. For some reason organic-loving people seem to be thought of as either overly-earthy people who wear comfy green, brown, mustard, and terracotta clothing with no underwear. They are usually yoga instructors. While this (maybe unfairly stereotyped) little section of humans may have been the first to really attach to the idea of eating and wearing organic things, it's arrogant and prejudiced to turn up your nose at something that actually affects every person on the planet in serious ways.

When I was trying to come up with my shoot-you-in-the-eye reasons for supporting the organic cotton industry I realized I've read and heard a lot without ever trying to really memorize the main facts of the issue. After doing a little research I came across the Organic Trade Association's website, and it has an incredibly eye-opening list of facts about the whole cotton industry that are pretty hard to stomach. For example,

"Cotton is considered the world's 'dirtiest' crop due to its heavy use of insecticides, the most hazardous pesticide to human and animal health. Cotton covers 2.5% of the world's cultivated land yet uses 16% of the world's insecticides, more than any other single major crop (1)."

Why try?

I'm hitting the age where it's way too easy to kind of forget about the things you want to change in the world, and instead spend most of your energy just trying to keep things together: pay bills, buy nice clothes, rent movies so you don't get bored and sad at night, keep yourself and your belongings insured, think about buying a house, get new tires on the car, clean the house, cook good meals, maybe get a better paying job...

it's all crap. At least that's what I would have said 4 years ago when I was still in college.