The Pink Studio, a Happy Place
“Once upon a time, in a sleepy town in the Lincolnshire countryside,
a girl sat in her tiny pink studio designing cutting and sewing clothes.
Her head was full of garments yet to be drawn, fabric yet to be cut, clothing yet to be stitched and the wonderful people she hoped would be part of her journey.
She sat on her own, often into the small hours and the work was lonely.
Sometimes she wondered if people would even take notice of her work, had the decisions she'd made been foolish?
Would she be able to build all the ideas in her head into a reality?
But she knew she was working to grow something special and she had faith that she'd not be alone in her pink studio for too much longer.
Sure enough, within a few months she was no longer working by herself.
Beside her in her little space, someone else was busy cutting the fabric.
A little while longer and three women sat sewing, cutting and making the clothing.
Slowly, one girl became many.”
…
Sometimes I come to the Pink Studio early before anyone else is here.
It feels like the calm before the storm. I soak up the silence before the machines start humming, the speaker starts pounding, the iron starts steaming and the feet start tapping on sewing machine pedals.
I breathe in the quiet.
I look around at the empty workstations and run my fingers along clean cutting tables, free from fabric scraps and the pastel dust that will be sprinkled across them by close of play.
I pick up dropped pins, one, two, three from the cracked pink floor and carefully line up reels of thread on the shelf.
The rolls of linen stand to attention along one wall, rainbow comrades waiting to begin. Scissors are stacked in a plastic tub. Orders are printed and wait to be held by hands who’ll craft them into shape. My screen is serenely black. Scattered fabric samples lay exactly where I left them the day before when I poured my thoughts out into physical.
This is a happy place. In my head I imagine it as a glass all the way full. Filled to the brim with love and care. Here it spills out the roller shutter when I open it up and soaks the garments as they’re wrapped and posted off.
I stop to stand still in the space, I feel the weight of this place. It feels heavy with the anticipation of the day to come. Its volume is softly fizzing with potential yet to be realised.
For now, I’ll just stand here a little longer. This happy place holds me a little tighter whilst I breathe a little deeper and inhale the sweet scent of a new day and all the promise it will bring.
Paris Hodson
Owner & Creative Director