Tagging onto last week’s blog, “Making Something Old New Again,” today I want to share with you the story of the Dee Dee Style tees.
I have discovered as I age that there are seasons in life. These seasons become stepping stones. Sometimes you have a great desire to be somewhere else doing something great, but there are steps that have to transpire before you can get to that season. Ten years ago I was working in corporate America for a fashion accessory company. I had the honor to get in on a ground floor opportunity working in a brand new start up division. They were launching their own apparel line. I have loved fashion as long as I can remember. At the time, I hoped and wanted to work on fashion design in this new launch. I would come up with new tee shirt ideas, etc. But my ideas were rejected. I felt so frustrated and rejected personally. Little did I know, that time was simply a season and a stepping stone to help me launch Dee Dee Style.
In May of 2010, I was shopping in an antique store in Wichita, KS. I came across this super cute vintage dish towel with a gold fish in a fish bowl. I knew I had to have it and I could make something out of it. My first thought was to put it on a tee. Again it is just like the core thought behind Dee Dee Style- I saw a button and knew that the world needed to cherish and enjoy it again. In addition to that dish towel, my mother, Glenda Faye, cleaned out her farmhouse that summer and gave me tons of my grandmother’s linens- pillow cases, dish towels, aprons, etc.
The fall of 2010, I started appliquéing those vintage linens on tees. They are one of the top sellers in Dee Dee Style. It has come along way in a short period of time and is continually evolving. I love what I do everyday. I love the freedom to create. I appreciate my corporate America experience and the wisdom that I gained. I am thankful that they did not appreciate my ideas and rejected me. If they had not, I would never have stepped out on my own and discovered who Christ has made me to be. I would simply be a corporate drone- building their brand, their image and their style.
I see now that Isaiah 61:3 is so true….”Beauty from ashes.” It rings true for me as a person, and for the vintage items I repurpose. Most of these linens would be sitting in a box, on a shelf dry rotting, turning to dust. Now they are worn daily, appreciated, and admired.
Simply Free To Be Me,
Deidra “Dee Dee” Roe