Community
When I first started this fabric thrift business, I had no idea how important community was, nor how many times I’d be using the word in sentences and conversations. I was simply looking for a way to earn income because I had just quit a job that was asking me to do unethical things that were technically illegal but normal-place for the industry it was in. (But I’m not having any part of being the “norm”. I never had and I never will.) So from Nov 2023 - January 2024 I spent most of each day applying for jobs. I’m not kidding you when I say I could apply for over 10 jobs/day, to no avail.
I started scrambling for ways to earn money that didn’t involve applying for jobs and thought of the example set by 2 of my favorite fabric thrift stores I had purchased from in the height of the pandemic, Lucky Deluxe Fabrics and Swanson’s Fabrics. Both had done so well selling online that they developed into in-person stores. How could I not at least try?
So all of January 2024 I built up “the brand”. I’m not huge on marketing and capitalism but you can’t help but understand how it works since we are fed it constantly. Nacho Ann’s was a name I had planned when I first started buying thrifted fabric 2 years prior. With a name like that, it made marketing very easy. So off I went to create a website, business license, a DBA, etc. And after deciding to spend $300 boosting a single reel from the app that won’t be mentioned or tagged because, fuck things that rhyme with feta, my following began. People loved the name so much they really didn’t care what I was slinging. When the excitement settled and I finally figured out how to meet the demand of people visiting our website to buy fabric, literally not from Joann, I found my people.
My desire to make sewing affordable and my obvious disdain for capitalism, came through crystal clear. Like-minded people were my new online besties. They became the bigger reason for running the business the way I was. I thoroughly enjoyed each day seeing the feedback I would receive from things I would post and it meant a lot to me. I had no choice but to develop a presence in person. That’s when the workshops began.
At first I started with the tag line “Sew with the Flow” because I wanted to convey a message of our meet-ups. If you didn’t want to sew but wanted to do something else while others sewed, than please come join us. This wasn’t going to be about sewing lessons, this was about hanging out with creative people with a focus on sewing. Eventually the wording needed to be changed because I don’t think it spoke to the demographic we were trying to develop. I wanted to make a name that spoke to the gritty side of using thrifted fabric and the elitist mentality that anything thrifted is “dirty”. Additionally, I wanted to connect with the radical personalities of the slow-fashion world. After a bazillion hours of using an online thesaurus, Dirty Art Brigade was born. I eventually found 2 locations that have been great at letting me use the space to do the workshops and for approximately 3-4 months we’ve been building artful friendships with the most caring and compassionate people that are INCREDIBLY talented.
Last night we celebrated the 1yr anniversary of this business at one of the locations where we’ve been holding the workshops, Birdcage Comics Cafe in San Bernardino. I was in awe that anyone at all came to celebrate my sweet lil business baby. But there were a few people there and that warmed my heart. I even met a very giving woman at one of our workshops that brought me this adorable tufted rug version of Ann. I cried. My husband cried. It was so touching. The night continued on with people joining in on the gathering that I didn’t even know. It was a night full of love with what some might consider strangers.
The community that this business has created is a life source for me. The diversity of people that are attending makes me so proud that I started this business. It’s the kind of feeling I can’t even put into words. In the horrible state our country is in, feeling like I have a few hours each week to drown out that evil noise, is such a gift.
Community is what will get us through this end-stage capitalistic, zombie apocalypse, dystopian nightmare we are living in. I PROMISE YOU. If you’ve got a passion for anything creative, make art. If you want to do that art with others, find a community. If you don’t know where to find the community, build it.
