I laugh
at today’s topic and almost feel absurd writing about it under the title “work,”
because my employment is a paradox: it feels nothing like work, and my boss is
nothing like a boss. It feels inappropriate
to even address her as my boss as she’s a friend above anything else. She has regarded
me like a partner, rather than just her employee, and places a high value on my
creative input. (Can you tell that I adore her?)
Upon entering
the gold-leafed ceiling Accessories building on Fifth Avenue, the elevator
operator greets me with a smile and lifts me to the seventh floor with a little
stomach flip, and I’m off to steal the day.
(We’ve since turned to automatic elevators and it’s so sad, as our
building was one of the last in New York to maintain this feature).
As I approach
our floor-to-ceiling glass windowed showroom, I acknowledge the contrast of the
white showcases against the espresso floors, allowing the colors of our
merchandise to emerge. I take my seat in
the back office and casually sip my cappuccino, as endeavor to sift through
emails and handle the day’s tasks. In
our open-layout office space, there are no walls that divide us; we collaborate
and exchange ideas and personal dialogue for the entirety of the day. From inception to design, creativity is
crucial. Skimming through various
categories of color cards (pebble grain, smooth, crocodile, and snake, to name a
few) of varying supple non-leather materials, we seek the perfect emboss,
hand-feel, color and shade for the handbag style we are developing. We search runway trends, street style and multiple
magazines for new looks that are fashion-forward however that would reach and accommodate
the masses. We present our line to
buyers and while my hands tremble, clammy, my voice quakes when presenting in
our showroom, it is absolutely gratifying when a style is adopted and
considered for an order.
Even the
shipping process requires creativity and attention to detail. Choosing a timely
boat to sail in the merchandise, consolidating and routing it properly and
right on time is a job in and of itself… and I love every stinking minute of
it. Sure, we are met with frustrations
and issues, and yet the problem-solving often involves taking a bit of action
and also letting go and inviting the answers to materialize. I so admire the fast decision making of my “boss”
and her evasion of stress. She bypasses
any bit of needless affliction, and she consistently seeks ways to make our
jobs simpler and more efficient. It is just
one of the myriad of lessons she has instilled in me.
And from
that first concept, to the multiple samples that achieve the precise styling,
the ‘ding’ of the purchase order email coming through (I swear, an email has a
different sound when it is an order!), I still have trouble believing how
fortunate I am to be creating for my livelihood and to “work” with a
friend. When that train ride feels like six-hundred
minutes rather than sixty, and when I find myself yawing at the 5:45 am wake-up
(one day I’ll be a morning person), I remind myself just how lucky I am to be “working”
in this creative field beneath the wings of a woman of integrity who has shared
the particulars of this accessories business with me, who has become my good
friend.
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