WHY WILL EVERYTHING BE THIS WAY?<\/p>\n
During one of our photoshoots, when photographer Erika Maja stopped by our atelier and walked down the stairs into the basement of our sample workshop, she gasped:<\/p>\n
\u201cOh my, how beautiful!\u201d she called out to me\u2026<\/p>\n
For a moment, I paused. What on earth could she have seen there \u2014 among the heavy rolls of fabric, towers of folded boxes, and stored photoshoot props?<\/p>\n
I rushed down the stairs and saw her standing by the long racks where our patterns gently sway.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow beautiful! What a story! There are so many of them!\u201d said the photographer who so obediently lays our collections into photographs, as she touched the rustling brown paper \u201cfragments.\u201d<\/p>\n
I tucked that little gasp into a corner of my heart and promised myself that at the first opportunity, I would bring it into the light of day.<\/p>\n
And when you carry something in your heart, thoughts begin to flutter like windmills \u2014 how to dress an idea in the most fitting \u201cgarment\u201d and send it out on a date with your eyes.<\/p>\n
So after a few half-asleep stages, a few mornings when sleep ran away earlier than usual\u2026 the thoughts crowding my head were lined up.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe main prop of this collection will be our STORY,\u201d I clapped my hands.<\/p>\n
And the \u201cfluffing\u201d of V&V\u2019s story sheets began.<\/p>\n
I felt so many good emotions. I remembered so much.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s the collection when freshly \u201cbaked\u201d Patricija was left on photoshoot day with her dad, sweating buckets.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s the collection when we photographed in a studio for the first time \u2014 and when I looked away from the pictures, I remember that insanely sweet feeling: wow\u2026 look how much we\u2019ve already achieved.
\nNow it seems unbelievably funny.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s the collection when we were caught in winds the likes of which we had never seen before.<\/p>\n
And that one \u2014 the collection that sold out overnight.<\/p>\n
And another \u2014 whose launch day coincided with our newly built showroom crashing.<\/p>\n
Preparing this collection, I scooped up memories by the handful.<\/p>\n
Some were joyful, cozy, family-filled.
\nOthers came with, \u201cOh wow, what a confident beauty is smiling from these photos.\u201d
\nOthers were sprinkled with sentiment: \u201cHow tiny big brother Do was,\u201d \u201chow funny Pa looked,\u201d \u201chow barely visible little My was.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some were salted with failures, God knows where those little \u201coops\u201d came from:
\n\u201cWe\u2019re sorry, but we won\u2019t finish sewing in time.\u201d
\n\u201cThe fabric is stuck at the factory.\u201d
\n\u201cThe zippers are delayed.\u201d
\n\u201cWhen we unrolled the fabric, we saw it was defective. The wrong shade. The wrong stretch\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
Others were tangled in challenges:
\n\u201cHow will we photograph Summer at +9\u00b0C?\u201d
\n\u201cHow will we stand in a wool coat and thick scarf at +32\u00b0C?\u201d
\n\u201cHow will we organize a photoshoot when lockdown suddenly happens in the countryside?\u201d<\/p>\n
There were photoshoots after which I drove home wiping tears. Not from happiness.<\/p>\n
There were ordinary days when I wanted to kick life where it hurts.<\/p>\n
There were minutes when I intensely used my learned technique of counting to ten. When ten didn\u2019t work, I counted to twenty.<\/p>\n
Never once have I regretted that it was better to hold back what I wanted to scream in the first second, than to say what I might have said in the twentieth.<\/p>\n
More than once my phone has rung with the words:
\n\u201cSit down, V\u2026\u201d
\nAnd that 101% guaranteed nothing good.<\/p>\n
There were emails I wished I could close and pretend I had dreamed.<\/p>\n
There were situations when, after switching my mind into turbo mode\u2026 I admitted, \u201cI don\u2019t know what to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
There were days redeemed by the golden rule: \u201cThis too shall pass.\u201d<\/p>\n
But\u2026<\/p>\n
With such a baggage of \u201coops,\u201d \u201csit down,\u201d \u201csorry, but\u2026,\u201d \u201cwe failed,\u201d \u201cit didn\u2019t work out\u201d\u2026<\/p>\n
I would never trade it for a story where everything ONLY BLOOMS. ONLY SMELLS SWEET. ONLY DRAWS ADMIRING GASPS.<\/p>\n
I love my twelve years of intense everyday life.<\/p>\n
With all the failures. The defects. The nerve battles.<\/p>\n
With the lessons learned, the experience gained, the patience grown, the feelings and relationships built.<\/p>\n
And if one day someone appeared, waved a magic wand, and returned me to 2009 \u2014 offering me a choice: a V&V story sprinkled with petals, or the one I am holding in my arms in 2022\u2026<\/p>\n
I wouldn\u2019t hesitate for a second.<\/p>\n
I would choose the more difficult version.<\/p>\n
Knowing firmly that it is exactly that which raised my \u201cbaby\u201d into an honest business.<\/p>\n
Where everything \u2014 down to the very last thread \u2014<\/p>\n
is explained not by business textbooks,<\/p>\n
but by humanity and heart.<\/p>\n
The day before the photoshoot, I packed rulers, measuring tapes, sketches, fabrics, patterns, catalogs, threads, buttons, labels into boxes \u2014 and kept pausing, wandering through the meadows of \u201cDear God, how precious and close all of this is to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
I invite you there too.<\/p>\n
Roll up your trousers.
\nKick off your shoes.
\nLet your hair down.<\/p>\n
And\u2026 give me your hand.<\/p>\n
Together, we will run into our 12th SPRING.<\/p>\n
Mua,
\nV.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"template":"","class_list":["post-15191","kolekcija","type-kolekcija","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/viktorijos.devbrothers.lt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/kolekcija\/15191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/viktorijos.devbrothers.lt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/kolekcija"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/viktorijos.devbrothers.lt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/kolekcija"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/viktorijos.devbrothers.lt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}