South Street Linen

French work tunic, sleeveless night dress…and more

I just took a look at my summer wardrobe (?) So pathetic that I keep thinking there surely must be a bag-o-clothes somewhere that I put away last fall. No, nada, nothing..and I’m beginning to remember that by late last summer I was desperate to shift gears and throw  it all away..and I did. It’s all coming back to me now. Not good.

I own our sleeveless night dress and it’s great. My go-to girl at night. Now I need to raid our stash of French work tunics and that will begin to fill in some what-sees-daylight requirements.

We are talking about designing a pair of the lightest weight ever linen cigarette pants. Sure could use them now! 

Mom, pinnies, scarves and deals plus a great review

 ”Your momma says she loves you, but ya know, she could be jivin’ too.” Keb Mo 

We are ready for Mother’s Day. We’ve got it covered and you’re going to look all the better for it. Having said that, why wait for the children? 

NEW: Pinnies  are selling strongly and to great reviews. We added a black pinnie to our line up. If an apron dress can be elegant this beauty hits the mark.  Our favorite pinnie quote of the week comes from Australia: “The design is really something – so simple but clever, and every bit as gorgeous as it looked online..”

HOT: Remember you favorite plaid “full” skirt? plaid lunchbox? plaid pencil case? We took nostalgic plaid linen, collaged it into a scarf and had our way with it in the studio.

Cute, right? And there are lots where that came from.

IN THE WORKS: A sleeveless nightgown is about a week away, tea towels and  heavy linen bag will follow. We are dying to design our version of the PERFECT BAG.

DEALS: We’ve added a new “sale” page to the website. Available are some of last season’s (but really very much in season) napkins, runners and mats. For $129 you can get a runner or mats and napkins for four. For $49.50 you can get a set of four napkins. Mom?

You can see it all on our sparkling new website: www.southstreetlinen.com

and.. last and maybe most important:

BEST BLOG OF THE WEEK: Anna of Instant Portland wrote so eloquently about us it made us proud, understood and happy to go work. Read it at: http://www.instantportland.com/archives/1134

Thanks and Peace,

Jane, Lynn and Mary Ruth

I’ve been wanting to write for months…

Mary Ruth, on left, curating Roberta’s new pinnie.

I have been wanting to write for months, but it’s like not exercising. I know I’d  feel better if I’d just do it but  can’t quite justify the time taken from other important, REALLY?, things. I hate the idea of balance. It sounds so boring but when being so far gone finally strikes a visceral cord I have to respond or at least address the most obvious boo boos. (I can’t think of a better word; that’s part of the problem).

We have been working crazy hard the past two months.  We are introducing a few new items: a pinnie ( that very hip jumper in the pic) in three different fabrics and a  burlap linen throw/picnic blanket…and we are introducing them on our gorgeous, sleeker, edgier, cleaner new website! The good news is we are moving slow enough to keep up with ourselves, the bad news is now we have to be very patient once they are introduced to find out how they will be received (purchased). It’s been two weeks. So far, not bad.  

We have  a store now, another new change, at 5 South Street, Portland, just around the corner from Barbara Corey’s Corey & Co. We moved in in Nov. MOstly it’s a blast to see and hear customers’ reactions to our designs. So far two customers have worn their new pinnies out the door! Remember wearing your new summer Keds out the store and carrying your pathetic old junkers in the box? It’s kind of like that because there’s a special freaking excitement to REALLY LOVING something you just bought. There is something about these pinnies that’s makes you feel young and dare I say “cute?” again.

The other  cool thing about the new place is that we can all be together when we want, which is often but not always. One of my kids told me that we south  street three have graduated from friends to family. The relationships are so real. I suspect we wouldn’t have been able to sustain this level of intensity even ten years ago. That crappy economy made adults out of us! 

ok, write back if you want. I’m ready to start talking..when I can. It may take a few minutes to figure out how to set this up…do I need to read directions? Next to “balance” one of my least favorite words.

Cheers,

JR

Islesboro

The three of us just got back from a three day retreat on Islesboro with 11 other visual artists. Mary Ruth, Lynn and I worked in a semi-renovated over-the-wood-shed studio that had been the perch of an early turn of the century artist. We had never worked in one place together so this was a great opportunity. We talk a lot about whether being under one roof would be a good thing and it was good to be able to try it out. I actually like that we meet a couple times a week and then go home to our own studios. We all love our home studio spaces; for me it’s great to work in the quiet… 

I’ll clean  my studio some day, right?? The last time I did, I actually raked it out.Worked slick.

A few cool things happened while we were on Islesboro. One is that we met a writer/photgrapher team form Maine Home and Design there to do a spread on the house and retreat. They loved our designs and suggested we do some work together..Yahoo! and we were picked up by the blog Tasting Table which boosted our website hits, sales and inquiries for our table linens.

But really the coolest thing  happened on the way home when we visited the studio of Hanako Nakazato in Union. She’s a potter who spends half the year in Maine and the other half in Japan making beautiful clean, minimalist tableware designs. She says she focuses on functionality but but man, you could have fooled us. We chose several pieces to put with our table linens  for display and then realized they liked our table linens so much they wanted to trade! We are thrilled.

Today is catch up day…

OK, back to work.jr

where are we going?

This was a big week. Remodelista picked us up on their very cool blog which generated sales and inquiries from retail venues in US and Mexico. We even got an ask for 500 napkins! At first all I could envision was Lucy and Ethel working the candy conveyor belt but then we all talked and checked in with our fabric sources, sewers and printers and we decided to make a bid. It was a great exercise in possibility. Stay tuned!

Tomorrow we are heading to a artists’ retreat on Islesboro, an island off the Maine coast. It’s so beautiful there that I could barely ever decide what to paint in my first five visits, but this year will be different.  Now we are packing sewing machines, fabric, scissors, and Japanese brushes. We’re dying to design, and catch up with each other in conversations you can only get to with time. Should be lots of fun. Meanwhile, our techie, aka my husband Ren, is just about finished with the revision of our website. It’s so cool!

As all this happens it’s that kind of September day in Maine that could make you cry.

where have we been??

We’ve been in our own heads, designing like crazy and working out the kinks of so many things that we never knew about.

What we’ve come up with is a new line of table linens that make us all moan..they are on the website..www.southstreetlinen.com…and a new line of scarves where we tweaked some oldies, designed some new ones and added  bunch of-a-kinds, all of which are thrillers.

It’s still the designing that keeps us happiest, although we love the people we’re meeting in this process. 

The feedback and sales this summer have been substantial giving us the green light to crank the whole thing up a notch. It’s terrfyingly fun.

Best feedback: an NYC client was stopped on Madison Ave by a woman who loved her scarf and thought she must have bought it in Europe. Nope. It was one of ours.

Finally

Our new website is up: www.southstreetlinen.com

and we have an ad in this week’s style edition of the New Yorker. Take a look and talk to us.