It's been awhile, hasn't it bros? And so much in the world has changed since then. Everyone has come to face harder times than we ever expected in the year 2020, a year that keeps giving us another punch in the nuts each month that passes. I never thought the disaster movie we'd all be living through would be a super virus, or that it would be so... boring. Yet somehow, so stressful.
Here at BroJamas, we had grand designs for our 2020 too - our new line was to launch this month, we had great ideas for some interesting photo shoots, plans to attend artist markets, some updates to our Etsy shop and great ideas for what to start doing for our next two lines as well. We were on track towards our goal of getting a fabric printer to start making our own fabrics as early as (optimistically) 2021, when the whole world was told to stay inside. And now we're sitting here, like so many other small businesses, wondering what's coming next?
At least we're truly a small operation. It's just the two of us and our unpaid intern, sewing from our own homes. Social distancing is difficult even with that. We know we're more motivated and do our best work when we work together, but without being able to do that we're still able to do what we can. Which, unfortunately, isn't as much as we would hope. Supplies are becoming difficult to source, fabric stores are not considered essential, cotton fabrics are in high demand and prices are going up. Craft sections at department stores are decimated. We'd order supplies online, but with so much demand for delivery and online ordering of essentials, shipping is likely to take weeks if not months, rather than days. Which also is impacting our ability to ship finished BJ's out.
The inspiration to work on the line isn't coming, knowing that once we're done there will be no photo shoot and no models coming to wear and critique our designs. Sitting in front of a sewing machine feels unnaturally daunting, not the normal cathartic process of wrestling with fabric until it becomes something more than when you started. Times are hard, and the difficulty takes it's toll on our artistic efforts. Epic vacations planned for this year have been cancelled. Plots to do things we've not done in years have been postponed. World domination itself is on hold. It doesn't help that both of us have day jobs that are essential, and so much of our emotional effort has been fed into just going to work each day. The stress of being on the front lines is mentally taxing. Neither of us are in healthcare, but we're still feeling the stress and emotional disturbance of a world flipped sideways, building anxiety and depression that neither of us have ever experienced from our working lives.
Through all this, we're still trying our best to do what we can. Making fabric masks per CDC guidelines to support our front line essential workers has been something we've been able to do to give back to our community here in the great Canadian Desert. Taking the time to distantly embrace family and reaching out to maintain our social lives, and when we can coming up with ideas and art to push the limits of the pajama wearing world. Finding stability in what so many have dubbed, almost depressingly, "the new normal" and hoping that parks across this country will open again soon so we can get some much needed time in the great outdoors to recharge our creative juices.
BroJamas will weather this storm, we're still here, and we're still lounging in style. Please stay safe and stay healthy out there, bros. And we will too.
~ Emperor Of Evil
Here at BroJamas, we had grand designs for our 2020 too - our new line was to launch this month, we had great ideas for some interesting photo shoots, plans to attend artist markets, some updates to our Etsy shop and great ideas for what to start doing for our next two lines as well. We were on track towards our goal of getting a fabric printer to start making our own fabrics as early as (optimistically) 2021, when the whole world was told to stay inside. And now we're sitting here, like so many other small businesses, wondering what's coming next?
At least we're truly a small operation. It's just the two of us and our unpaid intern, sewing from our own homes. Social distancing is difficult even with that. We know we're more motivated and do our best work when we work together, but without being able to do that we're still able to do what we can. Which, unfortunately, isn't as much as we would hope. Supplies are becoming difficult to source, fabric stores are not considered essential, cotton fabrics are in high demand and prices are going up. Craft sections at department stores are decimated. We'd order supplies online, but with so much demand for delivery and online ordering of essentials, shipping is likely to take weeks if not months, rather than days. Which also is impacting our ability to ship finished BJ's out.
The inspiration to work on the line isn't coming, knowing that once we're done there will be no photo shoot and no models coming to wear and critique our designs. Sitting in front of a sewing machine feels unnaturally daunting, not the normal cathartic process of wrestling with fabric until it becomes something more than when you started. Times are hard, and the difficulty takes it's toll on our artistic efforts. Epic vacations planned for this year have been cancelled. Plots to do things we've not done in years have been postponed. World domination itself is on hold. It doesn't help that both of us have day jobs that are essential, and so much of our emotional effort has been fed into just going to work each day. The stress of being on the front lines is mentally taxing. Neither of us are in healthcare, but we're still feeling the stress and emotional disturbance of a world flipped sideways, building anxiety and depression that neither of us have ever experienced from our working lives.
Through all this, we're still trying our best to do what we can. Making fabric masks per CDC guidelines to support our front line essential workers has been something we've been able to do to give back to our community here in the great Canadian Desert. Taking the time to distantly embrace family and reaching out to maintain our social lives, and when we can coming up with ideas and art to push the limits of the pajama wearing world. Finding stability in what so many have dubbed, almost depressingly, "the new normal" and hoping that parks across this country will open again soon so we can get some much needed time in the great outdoors to recharge our creative juices.
BroJamas will weather this storm, we're still here, and we're still lounging in style. Please stay safe and stay healthy out there, bros. And we will too.
~ Emperor Of Evil
