I’m not one for fan-girling but…
Oh. Lawd.
ON THE DAY:
So, it’s 6.45am and I’m slowly coming back into the world because I need to get up for work soon.
My phone is pinging off the hook, like I mean it’s having a rave! I ignore it and turn over but something tells me to just wake the eff up now and throw it out of the window. I’ve been feeling really anti-technology so that’s why there’s mild aggression involved 🙂 Backstory: my phone is connected to the GirlDreamer website – each time someone visits the site, I get a PING!
I open my eyes and see all these notifications from my website telling me that there are hella visitors on at the moment. There’s a message from my nephew telling me: LOOK.
So… I wait on Whatsapp… you know, waiting to look and errrrrm… 5 minutes later I’m still waiting 😐 Come on boy, write already!
Just as I’m about to type to him there’s a picture coming through and all I saw was:
“SUPERWOMAN IS WEARING YOUR SHIRT”
THE PREP IT TOOK:
When Lilly announced her tour dates for the Bawse book tour we were in the middle of designing a range of power suits as part of our new collection. We thought this would be the right time to make her a bespoke suit as it would keep within her theme of being a bawse and that she would be in the vicinity. We worked around the clock to get this ready, sourcing and buying the right materials, sketching the ideas and many more things but the suit just didn’t make it to her. We were really disheartened about this however, we didn’t give up. Instead, we got together a few of our sickest garments and sent them to her tour stop here in Birmingham with our friends who were going to visit. Them being the coolest cats they were, went to her concert, had a great time, made it to Lilly’s Instagram story and even left our bag of goodies with Lilly’s team. Shout-out to Uman and Anvir! After this, we literally had to let it go out in the Universe and be done with it, we had no expectation attached and just got back to work.
2 months later, BOOM! you’re seeing the result of our decision to not give up.
WHY LILLY:
At GirlDreamer, we’ve had many discussions of how many garments we keep aside for giveaways or people who stand out to us, people who speak the same message as us or share the same vibe with empowering girls and this is why we decided not only would Lilly look mega amazing in it, but that she has these same values and ethos in what she does and who she is.
We keep up to date with Lilly’s adventures and journey and it’s really inspiring to see someone of brown complexion on mainstream screens, billboards, adverts and everything else! We are super proud of all her hard work and dedication. We work 100 hour weeks and know exactly how hard it is to maintain a work-life balance so we can only imagine the mental strength it takes to live a life like Lilly’s.
We respect her grind and see her missions and we believe she is a definite #GirlDreamer.
OVERALL THOUGHTS:
I don’t believe in celebrity status or celebrity culture. As mentioned above, I’m not the fan-girling type. However, from a brand perspective, it’s quite overwhelming when someone who is current, influential and internationally recognised standing in the greenery of Trinidad and Tobago wearing something you created in your bedroom whilst feeling depressed. Some people may have the “so what if she’s wearing your top, she’s just a person and it’s just a top!” mentality. Come on, yes I know you know some of those people! We all do.
However, those people don’t understand the grind or what it means when moments like this happen because they weren’t there when you were depressed and sketching or when you were ready to give up on your dream. This one picture symbolises so much for us and we appreciate Lilly shipping it back to LA from Birmingham and then choosing to wear it.
