The Devil Wears Cicada

How to become a fashion designer:

1. Make a bag. It doesn't matter if the bag is huge and non-functional. It just matters that you follow a cute pattern and use a slightly expensive interior decorating fabric.

2. Bring the bag to work. It doesn't matter if you're just an editor, as long as you work for a company that also produces bags and leather fashion. Oh, and it also helps if you happen to go to work early and arrive at the same time as the woman who is in charge of the bags team.

3. Let said woman admire your bag. Said woman will ask the resident Italian bag designer to talk to you about your bag.

4. The resident Italian bag designer will come to talk to you about your bag. Then he'll start looking around your office. At this point, it helps if you've decorated your office and included samples of graphic design work that you've done. Blush when the resident Italian bag designer asks if you do interior decorating, and come up with some humble answer about how you decorate your own spaces, yadda yadda yadda. When the resident Italian bag designer asks if you know how to use Illustrator, show him a few samples of stuff you've done on your blog. As long as you've got your blog up, show him a few of the interior design things that you've done. You know, like your bedroom.

5. When the resident Italian bag designer says that he would like your help in designing bags---specifically designing fabric patterns for linings---tell him you would be interested in doing that.

6. Meet with the woman mentioned in steps 2 and 3 to talk more about your new responsibility of designing fabrics and bags.

7. Kick back for an hour every day in the middle of the day. Browse clothing sites that you like. Look at bags, shirts, anything fabric. Open up Illustrator and draw. Try not to feel guilty for how much you are absolutely loving your job.

8. Have a really great brother and sister-in-law who happen to have friends who have another bag company. Make sure brother and sister-in-law brag to their friends about all the things you can do, including your new work in fabric design. The friends will ask if you're interested in doing freelance work for them. And you are interested. And life is good.



Seriously, though, my life is so cool right now. I'd love to put up samples of what I've done for you all to see, but I don't feel right about that, since the samples are basically the property of the company I work for. But hey---when a bag is produced using my fabric, I assure you that I'll post a picture of it for you all to see.

And here's a picture of the bag that started it all. No, I'm not talking about Ho-Bag Switchback. I'm talking about that enormous bag slung over my shoulder. (There's also a not-so-enormous bag that Switchback is holding---I bought that pattern and will be making that bag in the near future.) But a quick story about my enormous bag: I had it with me shopping the other day, and I bought something at Office Depot. As I was paying, the cashier guy commented on how large my bag was. I told him that it's so huge, sometimes I lose things in it. Then I went to Sur la Table and tried to buy a gift for El Senor but couldn't find my wallet. I awkwardly spent a lot of time searching and searching through my enormous bag to find the wallet. There was no one behind me, thank goodness. I told the cashier that I probably forgot my wallet over at OD. So I went back to OD and asked if they had my wallet. They didn't. I spent about five more minutes searching through my cavernous labyrinth bag and found my wallet. When I went back to Sur la Table, I told the cashier that it was, after all, at Office Depot.