Its seems like 2020 brought out the crazy but also brought awareness on different issues. This week I chat with the owner & designer of Ains&Elke StyleHaus, Alixis, on how Covid has impacted her business & how she views "vintage style not vintage values" in her life and business.
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_________________
About Alixis Lupien
Owner and designer of Ains&Elke StyleHaus
Ains & Elke StyleHaus was created in 2014, out of a love for vintage fashion. Alixis Lupien, the founder and designer, is a self taught dress maker, and knitter. She pursued her passion for vintage and antique clothing, creating the StyleHaus for the modern person. Alixis' main goal is focused on inclusivity, as she designs for all genders, abilities, ages, sizes, and ethnicities. Any person who wants to feel and look like a million bucks should be able to do so.
As a nerdy gal, Alixis tends to create a lot of clothing that satisfies the inner geek in all of us. Whether you're a super fan of wizards and witches, or a follower of a fandom, she's working on a look just for you. We've been waiting for you and welcome you to our community with open arms.
________________
For more information
Website: www.ainsandelkestylehaus.com
Email: info@ainsandelkestylehaus.com
Insta @ainselkestylehaus
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Miss Pinup Miami (00:03):
Hello, and welcome back to the pitch
podcast where we talk aboutmodern topics with a vintage
flair. I'm your host of PinupMiami. And if it's your first
time listening, I want to giveyou a big welcome. I hope you
stick around. And if you're areturning listener, welcome
back. I love you guys. Thank youso much for the support the
comment. If you're not followingus on Instagram, make sure to
(00:24):
follow us on Instagram at thepin podcast official. I also
have a hotline that you can senda text with any questions or
comments or topics you want tolisten to at 183348 pinup.
Before we get started withtoday's episode, I want to talk
about our sponsor, which is mypins calendar that I do every
year it is my pet project, Ilike to select 12 girls that
(00:47):
apply give them a total makeoverand do a calendar. You only have
one week to apply. It's at thepen calendar.com you could check
out more info there. Also forthe calendar, I will be
designing all the dresses forthe calendar, which leads me to
today's guest we have Alexisfrom ainz and elk style house.
(01:08):
She is a designer herself andseamstress. How are you today?
I'm doing well. Thank you. Howare you? I'm doing well. Tell us
a little bit about yourself. Oh,and in case you're watching on
YouTube, I am wearing one of herdresses,
Alixis (01:23):
the dress gown all the way to the floor. So I basically
got into sewing about I want tosay I started sewing maybe eight
or nine years ago.
It was funny because my husbandand I, before we were married,
we actually went to a big banddance. And that was kind of my
introduction into the vintagelifestyle. And it was so cool.
(01:47):
It was held in an aircrafthangar. And they had you know,
the brass band. And it wasreally neat. So I actually made
myself a two piece skirt set forthe first thing I sewed. And it
was out of satin. So needless tosay there were a lot of tears
involved.
(02:07):
Yeah, this horrible, don't dothat ever. Nope. And after that,
it was caught sort of just ahobby for me. And then we ended
up getting, we ended up movingto California from Texas. And
out there I had to find a job.
And so what I did was I justsort of started sewing things.
And I made an Etsy shop and Ikind of wanted to see if I could
sell some things online. And Isold my first dress and I use
(02:30):
the money from that to buy morefabric, more patterns. And I
just kept doing that for for acouple of years, until I finally
reached the point where I wasactually making money. And I was
like, oh, maybe this is my jobnow. ripple just went from
fabric. Do you design all ofyour styles? Yeah, so most of
them I design myself. A lot ofthem. I do take a lot of
(02:52):
inspiration, of course from thevintage, like vintage era, you
know, the 30s through the 60smostly, is what I specialize in
just from old patterns, oldphotos, old movies, anything
vintage that I see that I'mlike, Oh, I like that. You know,
that was the first dress thatyou sold. I'm curious to know,
like the silhouette. I know. Ithink it was a 40s it was a
(03:15):
1940s style. It was a yellowfabric with grey polka dots. And
it wasit was a button down dress it
button straight down the front.
And it had like a yoke here andlike some gathered, Miss here
and then really pretty pointedcollar short sleeves. It was
really cute. And the girl whobought it ended up messaging me
(03:35):
and saying that she wore it toher like a dress up day at work
and she won some sort ofcontest. Oh, it was like, Okay,
were you nervous? I was sonervous. Because like, I don't
like confrontation. Generally,or at least I didn't at that
time. And I was like, Oh, pleasedon't hate me, you know. So when
I got that message from her, Iwas like, Oh, crap. She hates
it.
(03:57):
I would be nervous. So I'venever made anything for any i
will i did make something forsomeone once and it was so nerve
wracking. Because when it's foryourself, you like, don't care
about the scene. Yeah, exactly.
The first outfit I made wasgoing to California and I was
like, Ah, it's not gonna fither.
But it ended up fitting her likea glove.
Unknown (04:17):
I don't know when I'll do that again, though. That was
just, yeah, it's definitelynerve wracking, especially the,
you know, the first couple timesyou do it because you just don't
know, you know,along the way, and then it all
ironed itself out over time. Andthen how has COVID affected you?
I know that I said, I'm wearingyour dress on this. But COVID
has affected me by not lettingme zip it all the way.
(04:41):
Well, I'm definitely gained afew pounds also.
So basically, the biggest issueright now for us is shipping. So
since COVID happened last year,and then the Postal Service kind
of got gutted. So things aremoving much slower now some
people get thingsYou know, and just a few days,
some people will get things inweeks
(05:04):
when you go to the post office,because that's who I generally
ship through, is when you youknow, you can you have the
choice to either by first classmail, Priority Mail, or like
expedited, the priority isusually like two to three days.
But they now they've completelytaken out their guarantee. So
you won't just because it saystwo to three days, just because
(05:24):
you pay for it doesn't mean it'sgonna happen.
I had a calendar that I sent outin November, and the girl got it
in January. Oh, my word. And Iwas thinking like I sold out. I
don't have any more. I hope youfind.
That's awful. It's nerveracking. But yeah. And then your
other. Yes. And your well.
(05:46):
So I'm in Texas.
So last week, we had thathorrible winter storm roll
through here. And so I literallyjust had to shut down for the
whole week, because I there wasthe post office completely shut
down. So there was no shipping,first of all, and then
everything's covered in snow.
And we get a lot of black icehere in Texas. So under the
snow, you're slipping and whatis black guys, because I don't
(06:07):
know much. So basically, when weget when it's really cold here
and it rains we get like thattar slash ice mixture, and it
makes your tires like extraslippy slidey. And we don't have
nobody here invests in any snowequipment for your car, like,
what are they called tirechains, like the North has
because we don't get snow. Ithink the last time we had snow
(06:29):
I think I was in high school. Sothat was probably 15 years ago.
Wow. Yeah. And I've never seensnow like it was last week. Last
week was the most snow I haveever seen here. And it was
Wyoming. Yes, it was falling andjust freezing and people's pipes
froze. So we didn't have waterfor a week. Oh, yeah. So we had
(06:53):
to melt the snow to flush thetoilets, you know. And then the
city, the city's pipes evenbroke. So they basically shut
off water to a lot of a lot ofthe city. And then they started
to tell you if you do havewater, make sure you boil it
before you use it before youbrush your teeth before you
drink it. So it was it was not agood time.
(07:19):
Oh my and then I'm sureresourcing your fabrics was
taking forever. Yeah, that's abig part of it, too. Right now,
a lot of people like I said, Iget my I get my stuff from all
over the place. So you know,California, Pennsylvania
everywhere. And it just it'sit's kind of a crapshoot right
now as to when you'll get it,you know, they could ship it the
next day. But who's to say whenyou're actually going to receive
(07:41):
stuff, I've had things made andshipped to me. And it's arrived
way past the date that it wassupposed to arrive so that it
kind of messes with your, likeprojected launch dates. So you
want to launch like yourFebruary stuff right before
Valentine's Day. But if yourValentine's Day stuff doesn't
get in until the day afterValentine's Day, what are you
(08:02):
gonna do?
You have it ready for next?
There you go. And I'm sure youcome up with better ideas next
year. And that's how exactly iwhere I do social media for
manufacturing warehouses here inMiami.
There's one that does foam andall their phone companies and
(08:23):
like the plants are inCalifornia and in Texas. Oh,
mine get anything. And theyactually today they announced
that they're like laying offpeople not yet for like, a weeks
because they can't get any foamanywhere. Right. That's, that's
sad that the whole businesscloses down because that's their
main. Yeah. Yeah, unfortunately,that's just, that's that's the
(08:44):
nature of things right now. Andthen you've got COVID on top of
that, you know, whether COVIDall kinds of things. And how do
you balance? Because Do you youdo everything yourself? No. Yes,
I do. So I so I, you know, I doall the knitting myself. My
designs are amazing. Those aremy favorite. Thank you. Oh,
thank you. Um, so yeah, I do allthis stuff myself. I do have
(09:05):
somebody who runs my website.
And I have a wholesale team oftwo gals. The gals that run my
wholesale team, they're calledthe Fox and the vamp and you can
find them on Instagram. Butthey're fantastic. If you need
some sort of PR for anything,they they can do that for you.
And they take a lot of stuff offmy shoulders. They helped me out
a lot. But yeah, I generally doeverything myself. And it's
(09:25):
getting to the point where I'mgonna have to start hiring out.
That's a good thing. Yeah, itisn't doing COVID Darn it. No.
You can't have meetings, andthen the zoom meetings always
get like all like staticky.
Yeah.
And I feel like zoom meetingsare not like the real thing. I
(09:48):
feel like you don't get a lot ofdone because you're just
chilling in your house with yourdog or something. Right, right.
So along with COVID and being athome and being able to go out, a
lot of people have gone online.
I've beenTalking about different topics
about in about everything underthe sun. And one of the topics
that have come up a lot is aboutrace. And along with the events
(10:08):
that have happened last year, doyou find how has that affected
you in your business? So yeah,so basically, I know, they say
that you should separatepolitics from your business, but
I am my business. So therereally is no separating for me.
And I don't, I don't deal wellwith people dehumanizing others.
(10:30):
And since I run my business, mybusiness also won't stand for
that. So I have expressed thatin the past on my business page,
and I lose tons of followerswhenever I do, which is really
sad. Yeah. Which is really sad.
And also another thing is, Itend to use a lot of models of
color on my page. And I do findthat when I post models of
(10:55):
color, I tend to lose fans aswell, which is not going to stop
me from doing it. You know whatI mean? Like, it's just that
goes for everybody.
You know, but it's a huge dealright now, do you feel like in
being your style is mostlyvintage? So most people, I'm
sure you've heard him say like,you're probably born in the
(11:17):
wrong era, if that's how youwant to dress, you know, black
people weren't dressing that waythey weren't allowed to show off
or walk on the streets. Is, haveyou ever gotten any comments
like that? On your? I have, Ihave been asked why I'm involved
with a community that idealizesvintage ideals. Yeah. And while
(11:39):
that may be true for some peoplein our community, which is sad,
I would say that there are a lotof people in our community who
do not think that way. And like,I saw a hash tag going around a
few times. It's vintage, whatdoes it vintage style, not
vintage values. And I think thatthat's pretty much me, like I
love you can love the clothesfrom anybody. But it doesn't
(12:02):
mean that you have to take ontheir outlook on life or other
people. Yeah, that's why whensomebody says, Oh, you must have
been born in the wrong era. I'mlike, No, I actually love it
right now. I just write. I lovethe silhouette. I know I'm not
historic. And then you get thepeople that are like, you're not
historically accurate. You haveyellow hair too many. I'm like,
Well, I'm not trying to writetime period.
(12:24):
Right? You're just comfortablein your skin and doing what you
do. Yeah, like your silhouetteson your dresses. They're
reminiscent of the 50s 40s 30s.
But they are not, like justleading a narrative of like the
lifestyle from back then. Right?
Like, look at this print, forexample, like this has snakes
(12:45):
and black hearts. I don't thinkthat they would be wearing this
at that time. No, but you couldwear it now. Right? Exactly. And
it's what you said, I feel likenowadays, even on tik tok, and
on social media, you see a lotof people romanticizing, you
know, the 1950s, or when yousee, like, old photos and be
like, Oh, those were the daysthose are just laid back. And
(13:07):
that's just making it seem likeit was okay, when it's like, not
really, we need to focus on the,you know, not that narrative,
but that we're all equal. Andit's not the time, you know,
just because that picture looksgood. You don't know if that
person's been suffering, orgoing through a rough time.
Right. And you're right, we allneed to treat each other better,
(13:29):
and make space for everyone,which is a thing that I do a lot
of very vocal within thecommunity. And I've been behind
some of like, the little pushesto like, for example, for Viva
Las Vegas that one year wherethe Confederate flag was
removed. There were a group ofus who push for that, you know,
because things like that don'tjust happen until people raise
stink about it. You know, andI'm sorry, but, you know, places
(13:53):
like Viva Las Vegas and otherthings, you know, there's more
people of color coming to thosethings. And we shouldn't have to
look at stuff like that. That'sjust ridiculous. Even on a
smaller scale, when you go to alocal car shows not in South
Florida, but when I travel upnorth, there seems to be more.
A, what's the word I'm lookingfor? Well, I'm just gonna put it
(14:15):
bluntly, like racism, like,girls, I'm Cuban. But Cubans
come in all different types ofcostume. I'll be hanging out and
they'll be like, Oh, why are youwith? You know, this person?
Like, why she dressed like that?
Wasn't she like a slave in the50s? You know, not, you know,
they're not even knowledgeable.
But you right? Just that I'mcoming across. Yeah. And most
(14:35):
people aren't knowledgeableabout a lot of stuff like that.
So I tried to give people thebenefit of the doubt. And even
though it's not necessarily myjob to educate everyone, I
didn't I thought it was yourjob, right?
Like nobody's paying me to dothat.
But I do when I have when I feellike I have the energy and the
time. I do try to take take outtake the time out of my day to
(14:58):
help people get to a betterUnderstanding of, Hey, this is
not just because this is the wayyou do something doesn't make it
the way it should be done. Youknow what I mean? And we should
all be able to address how welike, oh, forever. Has anybody
ever approached you in personwith a dress that you have and
said something of that nature toyou? Like something negative?
Yeah. Um, you know, I know. AndI'll say it's probably because I
(15:22):
have one of those restingbitchface is
like, seriously, when I'm justsitting around and I don't
smile.
I look really pissed off always.
Yeah, but people I have everheard people saying things to
other people. I've seen it, ithappens more on like, on social
media than it does in person.
(15:44):
Because you know, people aresuper scared to say things to
your face, because they don'twant to get their butts beat,
you know, but on social media,that's gone, because you don't
know who they are, you know, andI see a lot of people grow a
pair on there, they hide behindtheir phones. And I have no
problem calling people outonline or otherwise. Even like
(16:04):
I've had, I've heard, I'm thetype of person that if you hear
if I hear somebody or somebodycomes up to me and tells me,
Hey, I'm just gonna use fakenames. But hey, Jessica told me
this about you. I'll be like,Okay, tell me what she said. But
whatever you told me, I'm gonnaconfront her, because I need to
get this straight. And thenthere's their story will change.
They'll be like, Well, you knowwhat, I'm not gonna tell you
that. If you're gonna tell melike, then I don't need to
(16:25):
listen to it. Why would you evensay it to me. And that's the
type of mentality I think we allneed to have is, you know, if
you can't say it in front of theperson's face, like if they're
in the same room, you just lie,even talk this negative talk,
and that goes with racism aswell. Like, you know, just
putting the hate online orsupporting the negative side of
(16:47):
the negative, like, like theflags, for example, like
supporting that the Confederateflag, it just leads to like,
not a good, like progression tomodern times. And that's, that's
why I call my my podcasts, yourmodern topics with a vintage
flair, because topics now is notgoing to be anything from the
50s. I'm not a housewife, eventhough right, thank goodness.
(17:11):
And I'm not shaming housewives,either. Because there's people
that live at home and, andthat's still different from the
1950s to now because they're notbeing well, I can't assume but a
lot of abuse at home in the 50s.
And now it's like more open andpeople could talk and hopefully
get help easier. And there'smore resources. That's true. And
there's stuff in different areasthat you could romanticize. Like
(17:34):
in the 70s, you had, like themusic disco. Yeah, I love this
go. But then you also had, youknow, all the race wars and all
these different thingshappening. So it's about not
romanticizing it in a hole, butjust,
you know, using that style foryour own, right, there's a word
(17:57):
that I thought of before.
But youYeah, I think people tend to
say, Oh, well, there's thiswhole thing. And I like these
pieces. So you can't ever sayanything bad about this thing
that I like. And I think thatthe vintage community is just
like that. It's like, No, youknow, two things can be true at
the same time. You know, vintagestyle could be amazing, because
it is, but also people from thatera tended to be more racist,
(18:20):
because they were like, youknow, like, and people still
sometimes have that mentality towhere it's like, you can't say
anything bad about anything Ilike, because I like it. Well,
you know, there are good and badto everything. And two truths.
You know, I mean, there couldalways be more than one truth at
a time. Have you had any othercontroversial things happen in
(18:43):
your business? I want to saywith my business not so much,
because I tend to nip that shitin the bud real quick.
Like, if anybody even mounts offto me, I'm just like, No, you
can go.
But so and but like I said,People generally don't mouth off
(19:03):
to me. But it's more of like,for me, it's more of things that
I've seen other people do, orbehave. For example, within the
vintage community, there is aperson who has, well I'm sure
there's more than one but I havepersonally seen a person dress
in blackface, which was notcute. And yes, I did call this
person out. I see people dothings like wear slave jewelry,
(19:28):
which is not cute. And yes, Iwill call that person out. I've
also seen, you know, people notor people sort of shy away from
allowing more women of color ormen of color to enter their
spaces, because they thinksomething's going to change in a
way that they don't like. SoI'll also call that out. Or when
(19:50):
things are biased or skewed, youknow, in the favor of not
everyone, you know what I mean?
Like, everyone should be able toparticipate in a thing that's
meant for everyone.
It doesn't make any sense to meto be exclusionary. Because
really, the more people you canbring to the table, and the more
diverse people you can bring tothe table, really the better you
(20:12):
have it, because then you haveall these ideas coming together
from different cultures,different backgrounds, different
socio economic, you know,spaces, and just the more you
because you don't always justwant to think in your own little
bubble, you know, because youcan only come up with so much.
You know, what I, I knowexactly, we made a in south in
South Florida, I run a meetupgroup called pin South Florida,
(20:34):
very creative.
And the first year I did thecalendar that I was talking
about earlier, um, I picked thegirls that were involved the
most to make it like, you know,like a thank you, like always
supporting me. And for January,I had an African American Girl
in January. So I would go to carshows and sell the calendar. And
(20:58):
anytime a guy, well, not all theguys, of course, but anytime
they open up the calendar, thefirst thing they see is January,
and there'll be like, oh, eithershe's fat, or because she's
black, they're not gonna buy thecalendar. Like, I'm the one
selling it. I'm fat to and she'sbeautiful. That's why I picked
her to kick off the calendaryear.
(21:19):
And I'm like, I don't wantpeople like you buying the
calendar. Yeah, that's gross.
They can keep their money. I'mlike, I rather not support and I
also something you said earlierabout?
That it's a reflection of youbecause it's your business. I
see that also when peoplesupport products, but the brand
is terrible. Mm hmm. And yes.
And then people are like, oh,but it's different. Because the
(21:42):
product is this and but thisperson is this? And I'm like,
no, it's the same thing. Becausethey're part of it. They benefit
from it. Why would you want toput money in the pocket of
somebody who's bigoted? I don'tunderstand that. I agree with
you. Like, I don't I tried mybest because you don't always
know right away which brandshave a background or history. So
(22:02):
it is good to research things.
But you don't always know. Butif I do find out 100% I'm not
going to support people wholooked down on me, why would I
do that to myself? Or people whoYeah, people who spend their
dollars keeping others down, youknow what I mean? Keeping
outsiders down people of colorwomen, I'm not, I'm not
(22:26):
interested in that. Like, if youcan't be a normal human being
and believe in everybody else'shumanity, then we're not going
to be we're not going to be onthe same wavelength. Exactly. I
never understood that whenpeople would say always
different, I'm like, no is thesame.
You're just supporting them, Iunderstand if you already have
the product. I mean, you alreadybought it, but don't support
(22:48):
them anymore. Now that you haveknowledge of, yeah, and I'm okay
too with like, if there'ssomething that you like, try to
change it, if it's not doingwhat you want it to do, for
example, with like, you know,the vintage community. And like
I said, I'm very vocal, I'm veryactive with trying to change the
things that I don't like. Sothere's nothing wrong with being
vocal and pushing until you getthe desired results, you know,
(23:10):
and that's the same thing forproducts and companies, write
them letters, tell them what youdon't like, get a petition
going, if you really want to usethat product, do something to
make that company better. Butthen after a while, if they
don't change, you might, youknow, it might be more
beneficial to find a bettercompany, because
there's so many companies outthere that do every kind of
product, you can find somethingelse if you really need to, and
(23:34):
you hurt them in their pockets.
There you go, you know, and it'spart of that canceled culture
that everybody's talking about,which I don't. I mean, I don't
believe in that canceled cultureis an actual thing. It's just,
I'm just going to hold youaccountable. I'm just not going
to give you my money. If I don'tlike you. I think that's fair.
Like I was thinking thatyesterday, I was like, canceled
culture after that, becauseanother name for just people
getting together and saying,Yeah, and it is. And people have
(23:57):
been doing that since beforethis canceled culture was
invented, you know, but it'sjust like, if you don't like
something that somebody isdoing, don't support them with
your money. It's that simple.
So what businesses would you sayinfluenced your business in the
beginning? Um, so in thebeginning, I want to say that,
(24:20):
let's see. So I'm sorry, Ididn't mention these were a
couple of questions that I goton online. Oh, sure. Sure,
Graham. So one of the one of thebusinesses that I really looked
up to when I first got started,honestly was pug. But since
then, I have stopped followingpug because pug has had some
veryproblematic issues. Most people
(24:42):
in the vintage community knowbut there's been a lot of
racism, a lot of bullyingtactics. It's just really gross.
And you can find all that stuffonline. If you just want to
google it like you'll you'llfind it is not hard to find. So
I just I don't mess with themanymore.
But, but I do like the modelthat they had.
(25:04):
They were great. What I alsoliked were certain certain
people kind of brought me intothe fold. Like, I like I love to
be Dita Von Teese. I thought shewas really cool.
I really liked Angelica Noir,you know, and it was man, it was
something when I got her tomodel for me, as I thought I was
like, I made it.
(25:27):
You know, cuz I really looked upto her. It was like, I was at
Viva Las Vegas one year, and shewas in the fashion show. And I
just remember going, like,when I saw her come out, I'm
like, one day, I want her to dothat for me, you know, so
I was able to do that.
But just gorgeous. I know. Butpeople like that really.
(25:50):
Sort of, I guess lit a fireunder my butt that I didn't know
that I had before. You know, andjust really the general like,
when you do get into anenvironment with a lot of
vintage loving people, and tosee the time and the care, they
put into everything from theirmakeup to their hair, to their
shoes to their clothes that theythey most of the time very
(26:10):
thoughtfully source forthemselves. You know, it's just,
I mean, I've seen some peoplemaking chromis I love that about
the community. So resourceful.
So like, very,I don't know, everybody's like,
so aesthetically, like, justgifted.
And I love it. It gives me Yeah,I just love it. It's like
(26:31):
everyone tells a story. Yes.
Yes, I love it. The nextquestion I have is, well that
was given is what what doesinspire your knitting, like your
designs. So well, my knitting.
First of all, I grew upcrocheting. So my grandmother
actually taught me how tocrochet when I was a very young
(26:51):
little girl, I used to crochetAfghans with her on the couch.
And so let's see, when did Ilearn how to knit I learned how
to knit when I was in my early20s. After a bad breakup, I was
like, I need something to dowith myself. So I taught myself
how to knit.
We tried to learn that Icouldn't I don't know.
(27:12):
It takes a lot of patience withyourself.
So I learned how to do that. Andthen I started seeing those old
vintage sweater patterns. Likethe first one I ever saw was
that lovebirds pattern, which Inow sell that sweater in my
shop. And that's the first one Iactually tried to knit myself.
And it took a while.
(27:34):
But I figured it out. And then Ijust started going from there.
And then demand for my sweatersgot so high that I had to get a
knitting machine, not one thatyou press a button, it still has
to be manually manipulated.
Because a lot of people thinklike, Oh, what is that? You
know, you still have to manuallymanipulate it. And it it, it
takes time still to make thesweaters but significantly less
(27:54):
than hand knitting the sweater.
Plus, my hands are starting toget I guess I'm sorry to get
arthritis or something.
Yeah. So I had to do somethingbesides handling them all the
time.
trying to come up with them. Sosome of them I have taken some
vintage vintage patterns. Andthen others I just come up with
(28:17):
I'm like, man, I really want todo something with you know, this
on it. Okay, let's figure thatout. And then I kind of sketch
it out. And then I kind of, youknow, create a little it's
almost like a cross stitch, justhow I like to think about it in
my head. And then I have to dolike a demo to make sure it you
know, knits up correctly.
Because sometimes the thedimensions are off and you have
to add a few stitches here. Takeaway a few stitches there. Are
(28:38):
those are just they come in onesize, like in small, medium
large, or do you have clay, do asmall, medium, large, extra
large if you just want to likepurchase it on my website. But I
also I always, always, alwayswill take custom orders always
period. Because I know they'reall different kinds of bodies.
All my other clothing goes fromextra small to six x. Like I
(28:59):
said, that doesn't mean it's theend of the line. I will always
always always take custom ordersfor anything in my shop. You
just got to send me a message.
What is your favorite fandom?
Harry Potter?
I felt like I knew you weregonna get Harry Potter.
(29:22):
Because you've had at least theHarry Potter themed dinner in
every design like style. Yes,because I love it.
Do you have a favorite characterfor a movie? What do you do to
Harry Potter? So Harry, I justlike magic.
Like magic. I'm like a childlike Oh, they did a thing? No, I
(29:43):
really liked the magic. I likethe the ambiance. I've read the
books first. First of all, foranybody that's listening, like I
didn't just go see the movies. Idid read the books first. All of
them and then I saw the movies.
I like the ambience in themovies. I like everything's
always low lit and a littledingy candlelight.
thing you know, Harmony's littlecat is always around. I just
(30:05):
like the nerdy stuff. And yes, Ihave a wand. Yes, I've been to
UniversalButterbeer is my favorite. I was
gonna say, I don't know anythingabout Harry Potter.
Yeah, I've only seen the firstmovie. It's not that I wasn't
intrigued. I just never got tosee it. But I have been to
Universal and I love the butterbeer. And I love the parks. I
(30:26):
love the little store. The onein Orlando. I've been to it. I
like the store that you pick thewand and like it's all Yes.
So I might not know it. But Ilove the little part. It's fun.
It's rods. Yeah, it's joy. So Ilike it.
So that's why now I know whyit's, it's all over your. Yeah,
(30:46):
collectibles?
How do you come up with theprints on your dresses. Um, so a
lot of times, I don't do a tonof original prints. And that's
just because, like, if I have anidea, I'm just like, ooh, I had
to do that idea. And then I tryand perfect it as best as best I
can.
(31:06):
So I did like a potion bottleprint a couple years ago, and
that one kind of just came tome. I'm like Harry Potter, duh.
And then the next one who wasaware that one of the Viva East
fashion show.
And then my next print was the,the kidney clutter. I don't know
if you remember that. One islike the cats on the turquoise
background. It was just, it wassuper fun. It made me happy. I
(31:27):
still think that make me happy,I think is what it is I have a
bunch of ideas written down andbut it just takes so long to
sketch out and, you know, do allthe graphics graphic work on the
computer. And I do all thatmyself. So I don't do like a
bunch of prints all the time.
It's usually like one print peryear kind of thing.
What is your favorite part ofdesigning an outfit? That's
(31:54):
my favorite thing would be lovedesigning.
Probably when I start doing thestitching, and then I have to
fit it. I use a mannequin to fitthings initially.
Just Just like seeing an idea gofrom like a paper sketch to an
actual human form, in some sortof way is like, I think the most
(32:18):
pleasing part of designing forme. And then the next best part
would be to see it on a humanbody. And it's actually fit, you
know, like something's actuallywearing it as an item and you're
just like, Oh my gosh, I did athing. You know, I think dresser
it's like with your wand. Yeah,exactly.
You're like the godmother,fairy god, or whatever. Is it
(32:39):
equivalent of Harry Potter?
Right?
What is a fun fact about you?
Ooh, fun fact. I think maybe alot of people don't know, I was
in the Navy for six years.
Maybe that's not fun. I enjoyedit. It was fine. I got to travel
(33:01):
a lot, which was great. I'vebeen to Japan, which I love.
Yeah, well, I have a question.
Since you since you're in theNavy. Um,
how was it being a woman in theNavy lately? I've heard a lot on
like, social media of women inthe Navy that have gone through
a abuse. But yeah, I think it'swrong. Like the
(33:23):
whoever that's a man of usingthem doesn't get in trouble. Is
this true? Or? So? I would saylargely Yes. I'm not always but
but you know, you have your badcases. And it is a it is a
problem. And honestly, I when Ijoined I meant to retire after
20 years. And I just, that waspart of the reason I left myself
(33:44):
after six because I just, I justcouldn't take it anymore. You
know, being a woman working inlike, I worked on aircraft, I
was an electrician. And so Iworked with a lot of other
aircraft, electricians as wellas mechanics. And so the mental,
you know, like, out of thebrainwaves of the mechanic
field, it just is always isn'tthe best. And it's always the
(34:07):
locker room talk. It's always,you know, people just, I don't
know, just calling you names andtrying to hook up with you and
then getting very upset whenyou'd say no, even if it's
politely you know, so you say noto the wrong person, and it kind
of ruins your career. Oh,that's that goes back to why,
you know, we're trying toprogress in times. And some
(34:30):
people just take it back. Iknow. Right, like, stop.
Yeah. It's one of those thingsthat go through my mind.
Sometimes when I see things inthe news or on social media. I'm
like, why are they even doingthis? Right? Like, where do you
even get this from? I don'tknow. It's hard for me because
I'm just like, I don'tunderstand it. It's just so easy
to be like, just be better. likenobody's perfect, but you can
(34:55):
sure try to be a decent person.
Everybody's gonna mess up andthat's okay. But you
have to be able to say, Oh,crap, I messed up. I'm really
sorry. How can I fix it? Youknow what I mean? And then just
move on. But so many people youknow, when you point stuff out,
they just get upset and I don'tknow it's just it's a mess. Just
Just do better, be better. Whatit what a sewing machine do you
(35:18):
recommend to beginners? So Iwould recommend a brother sewing
machine. They're superreasonably priced. You can get
one from Walmart, you can getone from let's see Joanne's you
can get one, I probablyshouldn't say Amazon, but you
can get it from Amazon.
You can get it really cheap. Andthey have all the basic
(35:38):
functions that you need, youknow, the buttonhole attachment,
all the different stitch types.
So that's that's probably what Irecommend. And then
I think servicing is cheaper forfor those as well. What is the
hardest thing you've ever sewn?
The hardest thing I've everOkay, so I'm gonna say the
(35:59):
hardest guy. I gotta say thehardest thing and then the most
irritating thing. Okay, that'sthe hardest thing is for me,
it's like chiffon. I hate sewingon chiffon. I don't do it unless
I absolutely have to.
It's just a pain in the butt forme. Because it slips ladies
(36:20):
everywhere. And I don't likethat. The thing that I don't
like to sew, and I try to talkpeople out with it is bofur. I
hate hate hate sewing for her.
Because it gets in yournostrils. It gets in your hair,
it gets in your eyebrows. Andthat stuff just like you find it
months later. It's popped awayeverywhere. Same thing with
(36:42):
glitter, anything with glitter,glitter everywhere, forever. You
never get to get all of it offthe floor. Yeah, when you saw it
when you stole any fabrics withany shimmer, it goes, yes, Jean.
Yes. stays there for a while.
How does your brand promote bodyinclusivity? So I try to be
(37:03):
conscious of the models I use. Itry to always include different
body shapes from i don't ireally don't care what kind of
body you have. You know what Imean? I would just like for you
to wear my stuff. You know whatI mean? I think everybody is
beautiful. I think everybodydeserves to look and feel good
(37:24):
about themselves. I think, youknow, and I think people need to
see that.
In companies before they buy,you know what I mean? Like, I
know, there's a lot of companiesthat I personally like, and I'm
just like, wow, why is nobodylike my size on there, you know
what I mean? You people want tosee themselves reflected in the
businesses they're pouring theirmoney into. So I do my best to,
(37:47):
you know, find a wide array ofbody types. tall, small, you
know, super skinny, whatever,you know, I don't, I don't care
skin tones. So people can seehow different skin tones look in
different colors and stuff. Youknow, because some people don't
know and makes people feel goodabout themselves makes me feel
(38:07):
good for having different modelsin a in an industry that I know
doesn't generally do that. Youknow, your clothes is looking
great on all body shapes. Yeah,that's fine. If it's not them,
what are you doing it before?
That's true. You know? NobodyI've seen companies like you
said that I see the dress, butthen you go on Instagram or
wherever you're searching to seeother dresses because you can't
(38:27):
find somebody that's like in afour x or something and then
right and you just want to seehow it fits on a body before.
Yeah, and it looks bad. And I'mlike, Well, I don't have it on
the website. Right.
So that's why I really likedthat you put all that on there
because that way you don't haveto guess and you could be like
well, it looks good on thatshape. That shape. Okay, it's
(38:49):
gonna work for me. Yeah. Yeah.
So last question is from me. Doyou have any upcoming projects,
any launches, anything you wantto share?
So I'll be releasing a new dressnext month.
Well, Valentine's just passed.
Right. Like, you know,the funny thing like I was
(39:14):
saying earlier is like sometimesyou get something after the
holidays though. I hadn't thatheart cardigan that I launched
is supposed to be beforeValentine's Day. Well, it ended
up not being before Valentine'sDay and I just went like this. I
forgot whereno, but next next month, month,
March, I'll be releasing a new anew dress, which I'll actually
(39:35):
be shooting this weekend, whichwill be nice. And then after
that, I'll probably be focusingmore on my summer items. So be
on the lookout for shorts, andsome cute little tops and maybe
even I was thinking about doingmaybe a calf 10 or two. I love
(39:56):
cats.
captains especially in the timesof COVID.
You can choose you can eat in awon't look right under there.
There you go.
Oh, and I have one more. Onemore thing for you is, I know
that this episode is prerecorded and everyone's
(40:17):
listening but I wanted to wishyou a happy birthday.
Today is your birthday and I'mgonna send you happy birthday.
Yes. I'm excited. Happy birthdayto you. Happy birthday to you.
Happy birthday dear Alexis.
(40:38):
Hey to you.
Thank you. I don't make nada.
What do you haveanything for your birthday that
you're looking forward to? Or?
Um, sofor me, I've got some lunch
today. I had a margarita. Sothat was that was good for me. I
(40:58):
was two bottles of wine. Oh,that was extra good for me.
Other than that, I don't haveany no big plans.
Well, you get to be on thepodcast. Yeah, this is a nice
birthday treat so theyappreciate it so much that
you're on the podcast if youmake sure everyone that's
listening follow her onInstagram at Ames and elk style
(41:22):
house. Well you don't have toand they're ainz elk style house
and her website. Ancient elkstyle house comm Make sure to
shop Check it out. Check all thephotos comment. Go supporter.
She is great at making sureeverything is size inclusive.
She showcases all types ofpeople. She just loves everyone
(41:43):
all ladies, so give her somelove. And next week I'm going to
have Liz desilva She is the VicePresident of creative of
loungefly which includes stitchshop. She does. I'm sure a lot
of people know lounge clublounge. Like backpacks for
Disney and dapper day. I see allthe girls wear it. And they came
(42:04):
up with stitch shop which ismostly Disney and like fun comic
prints. You've heard you'veheard of them. I've heard of
them. Yeah, that's really cool.
Yeah, so she's gonna come onhere and talk about her history
and fashion and about her brandand just fun stuff and I guess
Disney so I'm gonna bring out myDisney ears.
(42:27):
So that'll be fun and a lot ofpeople because I live in Florida
they think that I'm like intothe Disney scene I go to Disney
but not as much as some peoplethat are like Disney fanatics
and, and I love the the HarryPotter people because they go
all out and they have amazinglooks. And it's like time
period, time period, but dapperand like the right.
(42:50):
There's this thing called spiffySaturdays once a month in
Universal Studios. Oh my gosh, Iwould love that so much. It's
amazing. But thank you again,Alexis. Thank you for having me.
Thank you and I hope to comejoin in next week. Bye bye.
Hello, and welcome back to the pitch
podcast where we talk aboutmodern topics with a vintage
flair. I'm your host of PinupMiami. And if it's your first
time listening, I want to giveyou a big welcome. I hope you
stick around. And if you're areturning listener, welcome
back. I love you guys. Thank youso much for the support the
comment. If you're not followingus on Instagram, make sure to
(00:24):
follow us on Instagram at thepin podcast official. I also
have a hotline that you can senda text with any questions or
comments or topics you want tolisten to at 183348 pinup.
Before we get started withtoday's episode, I want to talk
about our sponsor, which is mypins calendar that I do every
year it is my pet project, Ilike to select 12 girls that
(00:47):
apply give them a total makeoverand do a calendar. You only have
one week to apply. It's at thepen calendar.com you could check
out more info there. Also forthe calendar, I will be
designing all the dresses forthe calendar, which leads me to
today's guest we have Alexisfrom ainz and elk style house.
(01:08):
She is a designer herself andseamstress. How are you today?
I'm doing well. Thank you. Howare you? I'm doing well. Tell us
a little bit about yourself. Oh,and in case you're watching on
YouTube, I am wearing one of herdresses,
Alixis (01:23):
the dress gown all the way to the floor. So I basically
got into sewing about I want tosay I started sewing maybe eight
or nine years ago.
It was funny because my husbandand I, before we were married,
we actually went to a big banddance. And that was kind of my
introduction into the vintagelifestyle. And it was so cool.
(01:47):
It was held in an aircrafthangar. And they had you know,
the brass band. And it wasreally neat. So I actually made
myself a two piece skirt set forthe first thing I sewed. And it
was out of satin. So needless tosay there were a lot of tears
involved.
(02:07):
Yeah, this horrible, don't dothat ever. Nope. And after that,
it was caught sort of just ahobby for me. And then we ended
up getting, we ended up movingto California from Texas. And
out there I had to find a job.
And so what I did was I justsort of started sewing things.
And I made an Etsy shop and Ikind of wanted to see if I could
sell some things online. And Isold my first dress and I use
(02:30):
the money from that to buy morefabric, more patterns. And I
just kept doing that for for acouple of years, until I finally
reached the point where I wasactually making money. And I was
like, oh, maybe this is my jobnow. ripple just went from
fabric. Do you design all ofyour styles? Yeah, so most of
them I design myself. A lot ofthem. I do take a lot of
(02:52):
inspiration, of course from thevintage, like vintage era, you
know, the 30s through the 60smostly, is what I specialize in
just from old patterns, oldphotos, old movies, anything
vintage that I see that I'mlike, Oh, I like that. You know,
that was the first dress thatyou sold. I'm curious to know,
like the silhouette. I know. Ithink it was a 40s it was a
(03:15):
1940s style. It was a yellowfabric with grey polka dots. And
it wasit was a button down dress it
button straight down the front.
And it had like a yoke here andlike some gathered, Miss here
and then really pretty pointedcollar short sleeves. It was
really cute. And the girl whobought it ended up messaging me
(03:35):
and saying that she wore it toher like a dress up day at work
and she won some sort ofcontest. Oh, it was like, Okay,
were you nervous? I was sonervous. Because like, I don't
like confrontation. Generally,or at least I didn't at that
time. And I was like, Oh, pleasedon't hate me, you know. So when
I got that message from her, Iwas like, Oh, crap. She hates
it.
(03:57):
I would be nervous. So I'venever made anything for any i
will i did make something forsomeone once and it was so nerve
wracking. Because when it's foryourself, you like, don't care
about the scene. Yeah, exactly.
The first outfit I made wasgoing to California and I was
like, Ah, it's not gonna fither.
But it ended up fitting her likea glove.
Unknown (04:17):
I don't know when I'll do that again, though. That was
just, yeah, it's definitelynerve wracking, especially the,
you know, the first couple timesyou do it because you just don't
know, you know,along the way, and then it all
ironed itself out over time. Andthen how has COVID affected you?
I know that I said, I'm wearingyour dress on this. But COVID
has affected me by not lettingme zip it all the way.
(04:41):
Well, I'm definitely gained afew pounds also.
So basically, the biggest issueright now for us is shipping. So
since COVID happened last year,and then the Postal Service kind
of got gutted. So things aremoving much slower now some
people get thingsYou know, and just a few days,
some people will get things inweeks
(05:04):
when you go to the post office,because that's who I generally
ship through, is when you youknow, you can you have the
choice to either by first classmail, Priority Mail, or like
expedited, the priority isusually like two to three days.
But they now they've completelytaken out their guarantee. So
you won't just because it saystwo to three days, just because
(05:24):
you pay for it doesn't mean it'sgonna happen.
I had a calendar that I sent outin November, and the girl got it
in January. Oh, my word. And Iwas thinking like I sold out. I
don't have any more. I hope youfind.
That's awful. It's nerveracking. But yeah. And then your
other. Yes. And your well.
(05:46):
So I'm in Texas.
So last week, we had thathorrible winter storm roll
through here. And so I literallyjust had to shut down for the
whole week, because I there wasthe post office completely shut
down. So there was no shipping,first of all, and then
everything's covered in snow.
And we get a lot of black icehere in Texas. So under the
snow, you're slipping and whatis black guys, because I don't
(06:07):
know much. So basically, when weget when it's really cold here
and it rains we get like thattar slash ice mixture, and it
makes your tires like extraslippy slidey. And we don't have
nobody here invests in any snowequipment for your car, like,
what are they called tirechains, like the North has
because we don't get snow. Ithink the last time we had snow
(06:29):
I think I was in high school. Sothat was probably 15 years ago.
Wow. Yeah. And I've never seensnow like it was last week. Last
week was the most snow I haveever seen here. And it was
Wyoming. Yes, it was falling andjust freezing and people's pipes
froze. So we didn't have waterfor a week. Oh, yeah. So we had
(06:53):
to melt the snow to flush thetoilets, you know. And then the
city, the city's pipes evenbroke. So they basically shut
off water to a lot of a lot ofthe city. And then they started
to tell you if you do havewater, make sure you boil it
before you use it before youbrush your teeth before you
drink it. So it was it was not agood time.
(07:19):
Oh my and then I'm sureresourcing your fabrics was
taking forever. Yeah, that's abig part of it, too. Right now,
a lot of people like I said, Iget my I get my stuff from all
over the place. So you know,California, Pennsylvania
everywhere. And it just it'sit's kind of a crapshoot right
now as to when you'll get it,you know, they could ship it the
next day. But who's to say whenyou're actually going to receive
(07:41):
stuff, I've had things made andshipped to me. And it's arrived
way past the date that it wassupposed to arrive so that it
kind of messes with your, likeprojected launch dates. So you
want to launch like yourFebruary stuff right before
Valentine's Day. But if yourValentine's Day stuff doesn't
get in until the day afterValentine's Day, what are you
(08:02):
gonna do?
You have it ready for next?
There you go. And I'm sure youcome up with better ideas next
year. And that's how exactly iwhere I do social media for
manufacturing warehouses here inMiami.
There's one that does foam andall their phone companies and
(08:23):
like the plants are inCalifornia and in Texas. Oh,
mine get anything. And theyactually today they announced
that they're like laying offpeople not yet for like, a weeks
because they can't get any foamanywhere. Right. That's, that's
sad that the whole businesscloses down because that's their
main. Yeah. Yeah, unfortunately,that's just, that's that's the
(08:44):
nature of things right now. Andthen you've got COVID on top of
that, you know, whether COVIDall kinds of things. And how do
you balance? Because Do you youdo everything yourself? No. Yes,
I do. So I so I, you know, I doall the knitting myself. My
designs are amazing. Those aremy favorite. Thank you. Oh,
thank you. Um, so yeah, I do allthis stuff myself. I do have
(09:05):
somebody who runs my website.
And I have a wholesale team oftwo gals. The gals that run my
wholesale team, they're calledthe Fox and the vamp and you can
find them on Instagram. Butthey're fantastic. If you need
some sort of PR for anything,they they can do that for you.
And they take a lot of stuff offmy shoulders. They helped me out
a lot. But yeah, I generally doeverything myself. And it's
(09:25):
getting to the point where I'mgonna have to start hiring out.
That's a good thing. Yeah, itisn't doing COVID Darn it. No.
You can't have meetings, andthen the zoom meetings always
get like all like staticky.
Yeah.
And I feel like zoom meetingsare not like the real thing. I
(09:48):
feel like you don't get a lot ofdone because you're just
chilling in your house with yourdog or something. Right, right.
So along with COVID and being athome and being able to go out, a
lot of people have gone online.
I've beenTalking about different topics
about in about everything underthe sun. And one of the topics
that have come up a lot is aboutrace. And along with the events
(10:08):
that have happened last year, doyou find how has that affected
you in your business? So yeah,so basically, I know, they say
that you should separatepolitics from your business, but
I am my business. So therereally is no separating for me.
And I don't, I don't deal wellwith people dehumanizing others.
(10:30):
And since I run my business, mybusiness also won't stand for
that. So I have expressed thatin the past on my business page,
and I lose tons of followerswhenever I do, which is really
sad. Yeah. Which is really sad.
And also another thing is, Itend to use a lot of models of
color on my page. And I do findthat when I post models of
(10:55):
color, I tend to lose fans aswell, which is not going to stop
me from doing it. You know whatI mean? Like, it's just that
goes for everybody.
You know, but it's a huge dealright now, do you feel like in
being your style is mostlyvintage? So most people, I'm
sure you've heard him say like,you're probably born in the
(11:17):
wrong era, if that's how youwant to dress, you know, black
people weren't dressing that waythey weren't allowed to show off
or walk on the streets. Is, haveyou ever gotten any comments
like that? On your? I have, Ihave been asked why I'm involved
with a community that idealizesvintage ideals. Yeah. And while
(11:39):
that may be true for some peoplein our community, which is sad,
I would say that there are a lotof people in our community who
do not think that way. And like,I saw a hash tag going around a
few times. It's vintage, whatdoes it vintage style, not
vintage values. And I think thatthat's pretty much me, like I
love you can love the clothesfrom anybody. But it doesn't
(12:02):
mean that you have to take ontheir outlook on life or other
people. Yeah, that's why whensomebody says, Oh, you must have
been born in the wrong era. I'mlike, No, I actually love it
right now. I just write. I lovethe silhouette. I know I'm not
historic. And then you get thepeople that are like, you're not
historically accurate. You haveyellow hair too many. I'm like,
Well, I'm not trying to writetime period.
(12:24):
Right? You're just comfortablein your skin and doing what you
do. Yeah, like your silhouetteson your dresses. They're
reminiscent of the 50s 40s 30s.
But they are not, like justleading a narrative of like the
lifestyle from back then. Right?
Like, look at this print, forexample, like this has snakes
(12:45):
and black hearts. I don't thinkthat they would be wearing this
at that time. No, but you couldwear it now. Right? Exactly. And
it's what you said, I feel likenowadays, even on tik tok, and
on social media, you see a lotof people romanticizing, you
know, the 1950s, or when yousee, like, old photos and be
like, Oh, those were the daysthose are just laid back. And
(13:07):
that's just making it seem likeit was okay, when it's like, not
really, we need to focus on the,you know, not that narrative,
but that we're all equal. Andit's not the time, you know,
just because that picture looksgood. You don't know if that
person's been suffering, orgoing through a rough time.
Right. And you're right, we allneed to treat each other better,
(13:29):
and make space for everyone,which is a thing that I do a lot
of very vocal within thecommunity. And I've been behind
some of like, the little pushesto like, for example, for Viva
Las Vegas that one year wherethe Confederate flag was
removed. There were a group ofus who push for that, you know,
because things like that don'tjust happen until people raise
stink about it. You know, andI'm sorry, but, you know, places
(13:53):
like Viva Las Vegas and otherthings, you know, there's more
people of color coming to thosethings. And we shouldn't have to
look at stuff like that. That'sjust ridiculous. Even on a
smaller scale, when you go to alocal car shows not in South
Florida, but when I travel upnorth, there seems to be more.
A, what's the word I'm lookingfor? Well, I'm just gonna put it
(14:15):
bluntly, like racism, like,girls, I'm Cuban. But Cubans
come in all different types ofcostume. I'll be hanging out and
they'll be like, Oh, why are youwith? You know, this person?
Like, why she dressed like that?
Wasn't she like a slave in the50s? You know, not, you know,
they're not even knowledgeable.
But you right? Just that I'mcoming across. Yeah. And most
(14:35):
people aren't knowledgeableabout a lot of stuff like that.
So I tried to give people thebenefit of the doubt. And even
though it's not necessarily myjob to educate everyone, I
didn't I thought it was yourjob, right?
Like nobody's paying me to dothat.
But I do when I have when I feellike I have the energy and the
time. I do try to take take outtake the time out of my day to
(14:58):
help people get to a betterUnderstanding of, Hey, this is
not just because this is the wayyou do something doesn't make it
the way it should be done. Youknow what I mean? And we should
all be able to address how welike, oh, forever. Has anybody
ever approached you in personwith a dress that you have and
said something of that nature toyou? Like something negative?
Yeah. Um, you know, I know. AndI'll say it's probably because I
(15:22):
have one of those restingbitchface is
like, seriously, when I'm justsitting around and I don't
smile.
I look really pissed off always.
Yeah, but people I have everheard people saying things to
other people. I've seen it, ithappens more on like, on social
media than it does in person.
(15:44):
Because you know, people aresuper scared to say things to
your face, because they don'twant to get their butts beat,
you know, but on social media,that's gone, because you don't
know who they are, you know, andI see a lot of people grow a
pair on there, they hide behindtheir phones. And I have no
problem calling people outonline or otherwise. Even like
(16:04):
I've had, I've heard, I'm thetype of person that if you hear
if I hear somebody or somebodycomes up to me and tells me,
Hey, I'm just gonna use fakenames. But hey, Jessica told me
this about you. I'll be like,Okay, tell me what she said. But
whatever you told me, I'm gonnaconfront her, because I need to
get this straight. And thenthere's their story will change.
They'll be like, Well, you knowwhat, I'm not gonna tell you
that. If you're gonna tell melike, then I don't need to
(16:25):
listen to it. Why would you evensay it to me. And that's the
type of mentality I think we allneed to have is, you know, if
you can't say it in front of theperson's face, like if they're
in the same room, you just lie,even talk this negative talk,
and that goes with racism aswell. Like, you know, just
putting the hate online orsupporting the negative side of
(16:47):
the negative, like, like theflags, for example, like
supporting that the Confederateflag, it just leads to like,
not a good, like progression tomodern times. And that's, that's
why I call my my podcasts, yourmodern topics with a vintage
flair, because topics now is notgoing to be anything from the
50s. I'm not a housewife, eventhough right, thank goodness.
(17:11):
And I'm not shaming housewives,either. Because there's people
that live at home and, andthat's still different from the
1950s to now because they're notbeing well, I can't assume but a
lot of abuse at home in the 50s.
And now it's like more open andpeople could talk and hopefully
get help easier. And there'smore resources. That's true. And
there's stuff in different areasthat you could romanticize. Like
(17:34):
in the 70s, you had, like themusic disco. Yeah, I love this
go. But then you also had, youknow, all the race wars and all
these different thingshappening. So it's about not
romanticizing it in a hole, butjust,
you know, using that style foryour own, right, there's a word
(17:57):
that I thought of before.
But youYeah, I think people tend to
say, Oh, well, there's thiswhole thing. And I like these
pieces. So you can't ever sayanything bad about this thing
that I like. And I think thatthe vintage community is just
like that. It's like, No, youknow, two things can be true at
the same time. You know, vintagestyle could be amazing, because
it is, but also people from thatera tended to be more racist,
(18:20):
because they were like, youknow, like, and people still
sometimes have that mentality towhere it's like, you can't say
anything bad about anything Ilike, because I like it. Well,
you know, there are good and badto everything. And two truths.
You know, I mean, there couldalways be more than one truth at
a time. Have you had any othercontroversial things happen in
(18:43):
your business? I want to saywith my business not so much,
because I tend to nip that shitin the bud real quick.
Like, if anybody even mounts offto me, I'm just like, No, you
can go.
But so and but like I said,People generally don't mouth off
(19:03):
to me. But it's more of like,for me, it's more of things that
I've seen other people do, orbehave. For example, within the
vintage community, there is aperson who has, well I'm sure
there's more than one but I havepersonally seen a person dress
in blackface, which was notcute. And yes, I did call this
person out. I see people dothings like wear slave jewelry,
(19:28):
which is not cute. And yes, Iwill call that person out. I've
also seen, you know, people notor people sort of shy away from
allowing more women of color ormen of color to enter their
spaces, because they thinksomething's going to change in a
way that they don't like. SoI'll also call that out. Or when
(19:50):
things are biased or skewed, youknow, in the favor of not
everyone, you know what I mean?
Like, everyone should be able toparticipate in a thing that's
meant for everyone.
It doesn't make any sense to meto be exclusionary. Because
really, the more people you canbring to the table, and the more
diverse people you can bring tothe table, really the better you
(20:12):
have it, because then you haveall these ideas coming together
from different cultures,different backgrounds, different
socio economic, you know,spaces, and just the more you
because you don't always justwant to think in your own little
bubble, you know, because youcan only come up with so much.
You know, what I, I knowexactly, we made a in south in
South Florida, I run a meetupgroup called pin South Florida,
(20:34):
very creative.
And the first year I did thecalendar that I was talking
about earlier, um, I picked thegirls that were involved the
most to make it like, you know,like a thank you, like always
supporting me. And for January,I had an African American Girl
in January. So I would go to carshows and sell the calendar. And
(20:58):
anytime a guy, well, not all theguys, of course, but anytime
they open up the calendar, thefirst thing they see is January,
and there'll be like, oh, eithershe's fat, or because she's
black, they're not gonna buy thecalendar. Like, I'm the one
selling it. I'm fat to and she'sbeautiful. That's why I picked
her to kick off the calendaryear.
(21:19):
And I'm like, I don't wantpeople like you buying the
calendar. Yeah, that's gross.
They can keep their money. I'mlike, I rather not support and I
also something you said earlierabout?
That it's a reflection of youbecause it's your business. I
see that also when peoplesupport products, but the brand
is terrible. Mm hmm. And yes.
And then people are like, oh,but it's different. Because the
(21:42):
product is this and but thisperson is this? And I'm like,
no, it's the same thing. Becausethey're part of it. They benefit
from it. Why would you want toput money in the pocket of
somebody who's bigoted? I don'tunderstand that. I agree with
you. Like, I don't I tried mybest because you don't always
know right away which brandshave a background or history. So
(22:02):
it is good to research things.
But you don't always know. Butif I do find out 100% I'm not
going to support people wholooked down on me, why would I
do that to myself? Or people whoYeah, people who spend their
dollars keeping others down, youknow what I mean? Keeping
outsiders down people of colorwomen, I'm not, I'm not
(22:26):
interested in that. Like, if youcan't be a normal human being
and believe in everybody else'shumanity, then we're not going
to be we're not going to be onthe same wavelength. Exactly. I
never understood that whenpeople would say always
different, I'm like, no is thesame.
You're just supporting them, Iunderstand if you already have
the product. I mean, you alreadybought it, but don't support
(22:48):
them anymore. Now that you haveknowledge of, yeah, and I'm okay
too with like, if there'ssomething that you like, try to
change it, if it's not doingwhat you want it to do, for
example, with like, you know,the vintage community. And like
I said, I'm very vocal, I'm veryactive with trying to change the
things that I don't like. Sothere's nothing wrong with being
vocal and pushing until you getthe desired results, you know,
(23:10):
and that's the same thing forproducts and companies, write
them letters, tell them what youdon't like, get a petition
going, if you really want to usethat product, do something to
make that company better. Butthen after a while, if they
don't change, you might, youknow, it might be more
beneficial to find a bettercompany, because
there's so many companies outthere that do every kind of
product, you can find somethingelse if you really need to, and
(23:34):
you hurt them in their pockets.
There you go, you know, and it'spart of that canceled culture
that everybody's talking about,which I don't. I mean, I don't
believe in that canceled cultureis an actual thing. It's just,
I'm just going to hold youaccountable. I'm just not going
to give you my money. If I don'tlike you. I think that's fair.
Like I was thinking thatyesterday, I was like, canceled
culture after that, becauseanother name for just people
getting together and saying,Yeah, and it is. And people have
(23:57):
been doing that since beforethis canceled culture was
invented, you know, but it'sjust like, if you don't like
something that somebody isdoing, don't support them with
your money. It's that simple.
So what businesses would you sayinfluenced your business in the
beginning? Um, so in thebeginning, I want to say that,
(24:20):
let's see. So I'm sorry, Ididn't mention these were a
couple of questions that I goton online. Oh, sure. Sure,
Graham. So one of the one of thebusinesses that I really looked
up to when I first got started,honestly was pug. But since
then, I have stopped followingpug because pug has had some
veryproblematic issues. Most people
(24:42):
in the vintage community knowbut there's been a lot of
racism, a lot of bullyingtactics. It's just really gross.
And you can find all that stuffonline. If you just want to
google it like you'll you'llfind it is not hard to find. So
I just I don't mess with themanymore.
But, but I do like the modelthat they had.
(25:04):
They were great. What I alsoliked were certain certain
people kind of brought me intothe fold. Like, I like I love to
be Dita Von Teese. I thought shewas really cool.
I really liked Angelica Noir,you know, and it was man, it was
something when I got her tomodel for me, as I thought I was
like, I made it.
(25:27):
You know, cuz I really looked upto her. It was like, I was at
Viva Las Vegas one year, and shewas in the fashion show. And I
just remember going, like,when I saw her come out, I'm
like, one day, I want her to dothat for me, you know, so
I was able to do that.
But just gorgeous. I know. Butpeople like that really.
(25:50):
Sort of, I guess lit a fireunder my butt that I didn't know
that I had before. You know, andjust really the general like,
when you do get into anenvironment with a lot of
vintage loving people, and tosee the time and the care, they
put into everything from theirmakeup to their hair, to their
shoes to their clothes that theythey most of the time very
(26:10):
thoughtfully source forthemselves. You know, it's just,
I mean, I've seen some peoplemaking chromis I love that about
the community. So resourceful.
So like, very,I don't know, everybody's like,
so aesthetically, like, justgifted.
And I love it. It gives me Yeah,I just love it. It's like
(26:31):
everyone tells a story. Yes.
Yes, I love it. The nextquestion I have is, well that
was given is what what doesinspire your knitting, like your
designs. So well, my knitting.
First of all, I grew upcrocheting. So my grandmother
actually taught me how tocrochet when I was a very young
(26:51):
little girl, I used to crochetAfghans with her on the couch.
And so let's see, when did Ilearn how to knit I learned how
to knit when I was in my early20s. After a bad breakup, I was
like, I need something to dowith myself. So I taught myself
how to knit.
We tried to learn that Icouldn't I don't know.
(27:12):
It takes a lot of patience withyourself.
So I learned how to do that. Andthen I started seeing those old
vintage sweater patterns. Likethe first one I ever saw was
that lovebirds pattern, which Inow sell that sweater in my
shop. And that's the first one Iactually tried to knit myself.
And it took a while.
(27:34):
But I figured it out. And then Ijust started going from there.
And then demand for my sweatersgot so high that I had to get a
knitting machine, not one thatyou press a button, it still has
to be manually manipulated.
Because a lot of people thinklike, Oh, what is that? You
know, you still have to manuallymanipulate it. And it it, it
takes time still to make thesweaters but significantly less
(27:54):
than hand knitting the sweater.
Plus, my hands are starting toget I guess I'm sorry to get
arthritis or something.
Yeah. So I had to do somethingbesides handling them all the
time.
trying to come up with them. Sosome of them I have taken some
vintage vintage patterns. Andthen others I just come up with
(28:17):
I'm like, man, I really want todo something with you know, this
on it. Okay, let's figure thatout. And then I kind of sketch
it out. And then I kind of, youknow, create a little it's
almost like a cross stitch, justhow I like to think about it in
my head. And then I have to dolike a demo to make sure it you
know, knits up correctly.
Because sometimes the thedimensions are off and you have
to add a few stitches here. Takeaway a few stitches there. Are
(28:38):
those are just they come in onesize, like in small, medium
large, or do you have clay, do asmall, medium, large, extra
large if you just want to likepurchase it on my website. But I
also I always, always, alwayswill take custom orders always
period. Because I know they'reall different kinds of bodies.
All my other clothing goes fromextra small to six x. Like I
(28:59):
said, that doesn't mean it's theend of the line. I will always
always always take custom ordersfor anything in my shop. You
just got to send me a message.
What is your favorite fandom?
Harry Potter?
I felt like I knew you weregonna get Harry Potter.
(29:22):
Because you've had at least theHarry Potter themed dinner in
every design like style. Yes,because I love it.
Do you have a favorite characterfor a movie? What do you do to
Harry Potter? So Harry, I justlike magic.
Like magic. I'm like a childlike Oh, they did a thing? No, I
(29:43):
really liked the magic. I likethe the ambiance. I've read the
books first. First of all, foranybody that's listening, like I
didn't just go see the movies. Idid read the books first. All of
them and then I saw the movies.
I like the ambience in themovies. I like everything's
always low lit and a littledingy candlelight.
thing you know, Harmony's littlecat is always around. I just
(30:05):
like the nerdy stuff. And yes, Ihave a wand. Yes, I've been to
UniversalButterbeer is my favorite. I was
gonna say, I don't know anythingabout Harry Potter.
Yeah, I've only seen the firstmovie. It's not that I wasn't
intrigued. I just never got tosee it. But I have been to
Universal and I love the butterbeer. And I love the parks. I
(30:26):
love the little store. The onein Orlando. I've been to it. I
like the store that you pick thewand and like it's all Yes.
So I might not know it. But Ilove the little part. It's fun.
It's rods. Yeah, it's joy. So Ilike it.
So that's why now I know whyit's, it's all over your. Yeah,
(30:46):
collectibles?
How do you come up with theprints on your dresses. Um, so a
lot of times, I don't do a tonof original prints. And that's
just because, like, if I have anidea, I'm just like, ooh, I had
to do that idea. And then I tryand perfect it as best as best I
can.
(31:06):
So I did like a potion bottleprint a couple years ago, and
that one kind of just came tome. I'm like Harry Potter, duh.
And then the next one who wasaware that one of the Viva East
fashion show.
And then my next print was the,the kidney clutter. I don't know
if you remember that. One islike the cats on the turquoise
background. It was just, it wassuper fun. It made me happy. I
(31:27):
still think that make me happy,I think is what it is I have a
bunch of ideas written down andbut it just takes so long to
sketch out and, you know, do allthe graphics graphic work on the
computer. And I do all thatmyself. So I don't do like a
bunch of prints all the time.
It's usually like one print peryear kind of thing.
What is your favorite part ofdesigning an outfit? That's
(31:54):
my favorite thing would be lovedesigning.
Probably when I start doing thestitching, and then I have to
fit it. I use a mannequin to fitthings initially.
Just Just like seeing an idea gofrom like a paper sketch to an
actual human form, in some sortof way is like, I think the most
(32:18):
pleasing part of designing forme. And then the next best part
would be to see it on a humanbody. And it's actually fit, you
know, like something's actuallywearing it as an item and you're
just like, Oh my gosh, I did athing. You know, I think dresser
it's like with your wand. Yeah,exactly.
You're like the godmother,fairy god, or whatever. Is it
(32:39):
equivalent of Harry Potter?
Right?
What is a fun fact about you?
Ooh, fun fact. I think maybe alot of people don't know, I was
in the Navy for six years.
Maybe that's not fun. I enjoyedit. It was fine. I got to travel
(33:01):
a lot, which was great. I'vebeen to Japan, which I love.
Yeah, well, I have a question.
Since you since you're in theNavy. Um,
how was it being a woman in theNavy lately? I've heard a lot on
like, social media of women inthe Navy that have gone through
a abuse. But yeah, I think it'swrong. Like the
(33:23):
whoever that's a man of usingthem doesn't get in trouble. Is
this true? Or? So? I would saylargely Yes. I'm not always but
but you know, you have your badcases. And it is a it is a
problem. And honestly, I when Ijoined I meant to retire after
20 years. And I just, that waspart of the reason I left myself
(33:44):
after six because I just, I justcouldn't take it anymore. You
know, being a woman working inlike, I worked on aircraft, I
was an electrician. And so Iworked with a lot of other
aircraft, electricians as wellas mechanics. And so the mental,
you know, like, out of thebrainwaves of the mechanic
field, it just is always isn'tthe best. And it's always the
(34:07):
locker room talk. It's always,you know, people just, I don't
know, just calling you names andtrying to hook up with you and
then getting very upset whenyou'd say no, even if it's
politely you know, so you say noto the wrong person, and it kind
of ruins your career. Oh,that's that goes back to why,
you know, we're trying toprogress in times. And some
(34:30):
people just take it back. Iknow. Right, like, stop.
Yeah. It's one of those thingsthat go through my mind.
Sometimes when I see things inthe news or on social media. I'm
like, why are they even doingthis? Right? Like, where do you
even get this from? I don'tknow. It's hard for me because
I'm just like, I don'tunderstand it. It's just so easy
to be like, just be better. likenobody's perfect, but you can
(34:55):
sure try to be a decent person.
Everybody's gonna mess up andthat's okay. But you
have to be able to say, Oh,crap, I messed up. I'm really
sorry. How can I fix it? Youknow what I mean? And then just
move on. But so many people youknow, when you point stuff out,
they just get upset and I don'tknow it's just it's a mess. Just
Just do better, be better. Whatit what a sewing machine do you
(35:18):
recommend to beginners? So Iwould recommend a brother sewing
machine. They're superreasonably priced. You can get
one from Walmart, you can getone from let's see Joanne's you
can get one, I probablyshouldn't say Amazon, but you
can get it from Amazon.
You can get it really cheap. Andthey have all the basic
(35:38):
functions that you need, youknow, the buttonhole attachment,
all the different stitch types.
So that's that's probably what Irecommend. And then
I think servicing is cheaper forfor those as well. What is the
hardest thing you've ever sewn?
The hardest thing I've everOkay, so I'm gonna say the
(35:59):
hardest guy. I gotta say thehardest thing and then the most
irritating thing. Okay, that'sthe hardest thing is for me,
it's like chiffon. I hate sewingon chiffon. I don't do it unless
I absolutely have to.
It's just a pain in the butt forme. Because it slips ladies
(36:20):
everywhere. And I don't likethat. The thing that I don't
like to sew, and I try to talkpeople out with it is bofur. I
hate hate hate sewing for her.
Because it gets in yournostrils. It gets in your hair,
it gets in your eyebrows. Andthat stuff just like you find it
months later. It's popped awayeverywhere. Same thing with
(36:42):
glitter, anything with glitter,glitter everywhere, forever. You
never get to get all of it offthe floor. Yeah, when you saw it
when you stole any fabrics withany shimmer, it goes, yes, Jean.
Yes. stays there for a while.
How does your brand promote bodyinclusivity? So I try to be
(37:03):
conscious of the models I use. Itry to always include different
body shapes from i don't ireally don't care what kind of
body you have. You know what Imean? I would just like for you
to wear my stuff. You know whatI mean? I think everybody is
beautiful. I think everybodydeserves to look and feel good
(37:24):
about themselves. I think, youknow, and I think people need to
see that.
In companies before they buy,you know what I mean? Like, I
know, there's a lot of companiesthat I personally like, and I'm
just like, wow, why is nobodylike my size on there, you know
what I mean? You people want tosee themselves reflected in the
businesses they're pouring theirmoney into. So I do my best to,
(37:47):
you know, find a wide array ofbody types. tall, small, you
know, super skinny, whatever,you know, I don't, I don't care
skin tones. So people can seehow different skin tones look in
different colors and stuff. Youknow, because some people don't
know and makes people feel goodabout themselves makes me feel
(38:07):
good for having different modelsin a in an industry that I know
doesn't generally do that. Youknow, your clothes is looking
great on all body shapes. Yeah,that's fine. If it's not them,
what are you doing it before?
That's true. You know? NobodyI've seen companies like you
said that I see the dress, butthen you go on Instagram or
wherever you're searching to seeother dresses because you can't
(38:27):
find somebody that's like in afour x or something and then
right and you just want to seehow it fits on a body before.
Yeah, and it looks bad. And I'mlike, Well, I don't have it on
the website. Right.
So that's why I really likedthat you put all that on there
because that way you don't haveto guess and you could be like
well, it looks good on thatshape. That shape. Okay, it's
(38:49):
gonna work for me. Yeah. Yeah.
So last question is from me. Doyou have any upcoming projects,
any launches, anything you wantto share?
So I'll be releasing a new dressnext month.
Well, Valentine's just passed.
Right. Like, you know,the funny thing like I was
(39:14):
saying earlier is like sometimesyou get something after the
holidays though. I hadn't thatheart cardigan that I launched
is supposed to be beforeValentine's Day. Well, it ended
up not being before Valentine'sDay and I just went like this. I
forgot whereno, but next next month, month,
March, I'll be releasing a new anew dress, which I'll actually
(39:35):
be shooting this weekend, whichwill be nice. And then after
that, I'll probably be focusingmore on my summer items. So be
on the lookout for shorts, andsome cute little tops and maybe
even I was thinking about doingmaybe a calf 10 or two. I love
(39:56):
cats.
captains especially in the timesof COVID.
You can choose you can eat in awon't look right under there.
There you go.
Oh, and I have one more. Onemore thing for you is, I know
that this episode is prerecorded and everyone's
(40:17):
listening but I wanted to wishyou a happy birthday.
Today is your birthday and I'mgonna send you happy birthday.
Yes. I'm excited. Happy birthdayto you. Happy birthday to you.
Happy birthday dear Alexis.
(40:38):
Hey to you.
Thank you. I don't make nada.
What do you haveanything for your birthday that
you're looking forward to? Or?
Um, sofor me, I've got some lunch
today. I had a margarita. Sothat was that was good for me. I
(40:58):
was two bottles of wine. Oh,that was extra good for me.
Other than that, I don't haveany no big plans.
Well, you get to be on thepodcast. Yeah, this is a nice
birthday treat so theyappreciate it so much that
you're on the podcast if youmake sure everyone that's
listening follow her onInstagram at Ames and elk style
(41:22):
house. Well you don't have toand they're ainz elk style house
and her website. Ancient elkstyle house comm Make sure to
shop Check it out. Check all thephotos comment. Go supporter.
She is great at making sureeverything is size inclusive.
She showcases all types ofpeople. She just loves everyone
(41:43):
all ladies, so give her somelove. And next week I'm going to
have Liz desilva She is the VicePresident of creative of
loungefly which includes stitchshop. She does. I'm sure a lot
of people know lounge clublounge. Like backpacks for
Disney and dapper day. I see allthe girls wear it. And they came
(42:04):
up with stitch shop which ismostly Disney and like fun comic
prints. You've heard you'veheard of them. I've heard of
them. Yeah, that's really cool.
Yeah, so she's gonna come onhere and talk about her history
and fashion and about her brandand just fun stuff and I guess
Disney so I'm gonna bring out myDisney ears.
(42:27):
So that'll be fun and a lot ofpeople because I live in Florida
they think that I'm like intothe Disney scene I go to Disney
but not as much as some peoplethat are like Disney fanatics
and, and I love the the HarryPotter people because they go
all out and they have amazinglooks. And it's like time
period, time period, but dapperand like the right.
(42:50):
There's this thing called spiffySaturdays once a month in
Universal Studios. Oh my gosh, Iwould love that so much. It's
amazing. But thank you again,Alexis. Thank you for having me.
Thank you and I hope to comejoin in next week. Bye bye.
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