A bit of fear and a lot of excitement

As you may have seen, I’ve been dropping lots of hints, but shying away from making anything official. As a bad future planner (most of my plans are either right this minute or never) and also through fear, I have been umming and ahhing about when to share this and when to LAUNCH THE FIRST MANNERS BRICK AND MORTAR STORE! But then I had a word with myself and remembered that my biggest fear is no one showing up and the longer I put off sharing the less likely people will be to come. So, here it is. Manners Studio will be opening it’s doors on the 24th of February and I would love to see you there! (I know most of you aren't in Barcelona but well, maybe one day you’ll come and visit and I’ll make you a cup of tea and we can hang out). 

I always said I never wanted a shop. Then a few months ago I had a rare weekend totally disconnected and as I lay on the beach I just couldn't get the idea of a shop out of my head.Over and over, I imagined people coming in to see me, feeling creative and connected again. Building community and laying roots.  And not being someone to overthink things, (all my plans go, Step 1: reach a point of no return) it was on!

As a serial runner and mover,  the idea of a shop is equally grounding and terrifying. But as these things seem to go , once I have planted a seed, everything just clicked into place. Days (maybe even THE day)  after finally finishing making my apartment my own, and finally getting all my residency documents in order I walked down my favourite street, an orange tree lined pedestrian street, which is a stones throw (i.e my favourite distance) from my house. I saw a woman coming out of a shop with a for rent sign over the door. I asked if I could peep in and that was it! If I could have drawn out the exact layout of my dream shop then this would be it. 

And so begins another revolution, from leaving my market stall and the excitement of being able to work from home and the freedom in that, to the loneliness of working from home and the longing for connection and people again, and kinda back to the beginning (just without having to drag all the stuff on and off the central line, and thank god without needing to wear 3 pairs of trousers and minus the hungry toddler)!

As with all my great leaps of faith, I have no idea about any of the small print, like how to do a shop and all the paperwork and logistics and legalities, but, I’ve never been too worried about that stuff. All I know is what works for me, is trusting how it feels and what I can see in my mind. And I can see and feel the warmth and joy of people popping in, old friends and new, and seeing again first hand people lighting up when  they try on things that I designed for them, that they thought they wouldn’t/couldn’t/shouldn’t wear and for that I am deeply f-ing excited! 

I hope to see you there someday 

Love 

Always

Sal xx