"Fabric Horse Moves" in City Paper

In case many of you are wondering about our move, why we are moving and where we are moving to.... read this article written by Felicia D'Ambrosio in this week's City Paper.

Carrie Collins, owner and designer of bicycle-centric accessories line Fabric Horse, will move her retail and production space out of NoLibs' Piazza at Schmidts at the end of the month. The move, executed just as the retail climate warms with the weather, was not her idea. "I signed a license agreement [with property developers Tower Investments] for two years," says Collins. "By the terms of the licensing agreement, either party could cancel it at any time with 30 days' notice. They said they had found an upscale boutique willing to pay three times my current rent."

Tower Investments — who did not return requests for comment — is exercising its right to relocate Fabric Horse to a retail space on the outside of the Piazza facing Germantown Avenue. "My rent would remain the same," says Collins, "but the space they want to relocate me to is half the size [600 square feet vs. 300]." Collins, who constructs her utility belts, spats and backpacks with one employee in the store, is opting instead to move in with her former employer R.E.Load (310 N. 11th St.), who handmake bicycle messenger bags. Customers may ring the outside bell to be buzzed up into the second floor of the R.E.Load/Fabric Horse showroom, or make an appointment if they wish.

"When the Piazza opened, Tower dropped the rents really low to bring in artists and small businesses," says Collins. "They wanted to create young energy. A year goes by, and they're shopping for somebody who can bring in more money. They are looking for different kinds of businesses."

(felicia.dambrosio@citypaper.net)

FH on uwishunuc.om

uwishunu gave us a nice little write up this week.

Video spot from Planphilly.com

This is a small brief from the opening day at The Piazza at Schmidts where the new FH digs is located. There's a small tid bit from yours truly. . .

Purchase a Basket Bag and Support The Johns Town Women's Sewing and Craft Cooperative in Jamaica

Introducing the Basket Bag, for a Limited Time Only!



For $85 (plus tax and shipping) you will not only be supporting a good cause but you will receive a one of a kind Fabric Horse Basket Bag. All proceeds from the Basket Bag will support The Johns Town Women's Sewing and Craft Cooperative located at The Source Farm in St. Thomas, Jamaica.

The Basket Bag came to life in November of 2006 when I visited my friend, Yune Lee who was doing Peace Corps in Cameroon, Africa. I stayed with Yune in her house out in the bush, but we also did quite a bit of traveling. The trip was an eye opening experience as we traveled the country meeting people and absorbing the country’s beauty. I met several people who worked very hard to maintain a sustainable life in hopes to provide more for their children. There was one single mother I met who ran her own bar working diligently so her daughter might have the chance one day to study here in the states. It is quite humbling when you get a chance to visit such an impoverished country. I have enormous amounts of respect for those who can fight their oppression by using their skills and natural talent to live sustainable and fulfilling lives.

While there I purchased a plastic woven tote bag with a hand made wooden bottom and plastic rope for handles. Yune had an identical bag and used it every time she walked to the market. She claimed it was the best thing for carrying produce and was excited about not smashing her tomatoes. What I did not realize at the time was that the bag fit flawlessly into the basket on my single speed road bike and I began using it daily. Not only is it great for commuting around town on the bicycle, it is also handy for packing picnics for those summer trips to the beach. I found so much use for this little guy that I knew other people needed it in their lives as well.



The Fabric Horse Basket Bag is made from 90% recycled materials, vinyl donated by the Design Trust for Public Space, and seat belts from junked cars.



The wooden bottom and sturdy vinyl structure is finished with seat belt webbing and rivets.



Last fall I received an email from Brian Hawkins who worked for a fabrication company located in Brooklyn. He had been working on a project with the Design Trust for Public Space, a not-for-profit organization committed to improving New York City's parks, plazas, streets, and public buildings. The design project held an open, international ideas competition specifically for reinventing the Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn. The top 30 visionary plans were on view in a free, outdoor, public exhibit throughout the center of the Plaza. These top proposals were digitally printed on large sheets of heavy weight vinyl.



Knowing that Fabric Horse recycles and reuses materials, Brian contacted us in hopes that we would want these sheets of vinyl after the exhibit came down. Upon receiving these sheets I realized the digital printing was quite spectacular and instantly saw the possibilities of creating beautiful bags from it.



While working out the production plans for the basket bag I thought these amazing materials would be perfect for the project.

For the past year I have been in contact with Nicola Shirley-Phillips, the former owner of Philadelphia's Jamaican Jerk Hut. I met Nicola a few years back at a fabric swap held by the Philadelphia Sewing Collective. She spotted me from across the room and saw the utility belt I was wearing, she soon thereafter contacted me to customize one for herself. Nicola was selling her business and moving back to Jamaica with her husband where they were planning on doing contract work on land they had recently purchased. Little did I know at the time that she was working towards building an Ecovillage on her land with a group of other talented folks. On top of harvesting sustainable agriculture, and working on inventing the Earthbag House, she has also spearheaded The Johns Town Women's Sewing and Craft Cooperative (JTWSCC). All this is located at The Source Farm, a multi-cultural, intergenerational eco-village, located in Johns Town, in the parish of St. Thomas, Jamaica. Their "...ecological mission and vision is to respect Natural life, its systems and processes - preserving wildlife and botanical habitat, and creating a life-style that regenerates, rather than diminishes the integrity of The Source Farm environment."



The Johns Town Women's Sewing and Craft Cooperative (JTWCC) was founded in 2007 by a group of talented community women who joined together in their mission to increase their sewing skills in order to generate income for themselves and their families. Nicola contacted me hoping that I could visit their cooperative and help them build their skills as strong stitchers and creative designers. Knowing that money needed to be raised in order to fund a trip to Jamaica I decided the Basket Bag was the perfect new product launch to do so. All proceeds from the Basket Bag will go towards the trip including travel, food and expenses while in Jamaica working with JTWCC.

If you are unable to purchase a Basket Bag but still would like to support this venture you can donate anywhere from $5 and up, just scroll to the top of the blog to find the Donate button. Each $5 increment of your donation will buy you a raffle ticket to win a Basket Bag, a customized Utility Belt or Seatbelt Bag from Fabric Horse. This is your chance to help a great cause and possibly win one of your very own one-of-a-kind Fabric Horse bags.

If you have clothing, fabric, buttons, zippers, thread, etc. lying around that you would like to donate to the cooperative you can send it to our studio:
Fabric Horse
319A N. 11th St.
3rd Floor
Philadelphia, PA 19107

For more information please email us at info@fabrichorse.com or call 215.694.9034.
Thank you for all your support!
Sincerely,
Carrie Collins
Owner
Fabric Horse
www.fabrichorse.com

Seriously, Stupidity

I will be showing some work in a big group show opening this Wednesday at a new gallery space above Kung Fu Necktie in Old Kensington. Stop by, check it out. Also, Jamie Dillon will be playing the Jamaican tunes on the first floor so bring some dancing shoes.

Shadow's Space
1248 N Front Street (above KFN)
Philadelphia, PA 19122

+++ Opening Wedensday March 18, 2009, 6-10 PM

Kung Fu Necktie, a new nightlife entertainment venue opened in Fishtown for the local arts community announces the grand opening of a new gallery for the Philadelphia art scene- Shadow’s Space. Operating in tandem with Kung Fu Necktie’s ongoing program of live music, performance and DJ events, Shadow’s Space will be an alternative venue for regional, national and contemporary art.

The premier exhibition at Shadow’s Space, Seriously Stupididity, curated by two of Philly’s most beloved aesthetic savants Adam Wallacavage and Damian Weinkrantz, features a veritable lexicon of emerging and established artists who have come to define this town as one of the great bastions of cultural production in America today.

A counterpoint of the divergent tendencies that make contemporary art simultaneously brilliant and brutal, Seriously Stupid brings together a broad range of visual provocateurs from the multivarious fields of comics, conceptualism, painting, sculpture and skate culture. By contrasting and collapsing the problematic boundaries by which we separate the intellectual and intentionally moronic tendencies inherent in picture-making today, we understand that both are legitimate responses to the complexities of our modern world, and each offers some quotient of sympathy and understanding for the dysfunction of our collapsing empire. For the super-smart and inebriate alike, this is art to get in a brawl over for no other reason than the make-up sex after will be the best you ever had.

Participating Artists Include:
Shelley Spector
Charles Burns
Drew Leshko
David Dunn
Danny Perez
Spencer Wunder
Mary Deevy
Manuel Dominguez, Jr.
Jessica Roberts
Gloria Joan Haag
Brieann Robyn Tracey
Carrie Collins
Jason Goldberg
Issac Lin
Kelly Turso
Adam Crawford
Aryon Hoselton
Andrew Jefferey Wright
Ken Sigafoos
Ben Woodward
Judith Schaechter
Amber Lynn Thompson
Crystal Stokowski
Matt Leines
Jim Houser
Jayson Musson
Andrew Clark
Plankton art co.
Erich Weiss
Dan Tag
Dave Fox
Nick Paparone

Business Trip

We were in meetings all weekend, folks. HARD AT WORK, I assure you.

Cincinnati Rocks

We wanted to say thanks to the new eco-boutique Park + Vine in Cincinnati for their sweet post about us a couple weeks back. The shop, nestled in the metropolis of Carrie's college days, calls itself a green general store intended to bring innovative and mostly local wares to the good people of Cincinnati. They contacted us about wholesale in the early summer and it was great fun to design some belts for their shop. Something about their website made me think of camping in the sixties...it was summer, I was really into tan as an accent color and in that vein, the colors and textures I chose for their group of belts would be equally at home around a mod campfire as in the heat of the city. I was particularly excited to be making them after just glancing at their website:



Now, I've never been. But by the simple fact that they include a history of their space on their About Page I know these guys are on the right track. With a current list of pertinent events and a list of Cincinnati-specific destinations for the conscientious consumer, the shop proves more than just a destination for shopping. It's great to see resources and information alongside product placement; why, its why we were so psyched to send them our stuff in the first place!

We are always interested to see shops that are not bike shops want to retail our goods, discover what the faces of those places look like and learn where they fit into the urban landscape. So check out what they're saying about us and if you happen to be in Ohio...it might be worth a special trip.

Carrie's Latest & Greatest

Somehow, amidst everything else happening at FH this summer, Carrie Collins has managed to put together a show. In collaboration with local lady Beth Brandon and curated by Annette Monnier, the event entitled "10% Tiger Fire" opens tomorrow, Friday evening at Copy Gallery 7-11 pm. Annette has provided lovely and insightful interviews with both artists on her lovely and insightful blog. See August 17, 2008 and August 23, 2008 for Beth and Carrie, respectively.



While I cannot very well give hints as to the offerings of this opening--sadly,I am as spacially removed as you are these days from the inner workings of Carrie's brain--I can provide you with the artists' statement. And trust me, it will whet your palate. They write:

10% Tiger Fire is the work of two artists; Beth Brandon and Carrie Collins.

Beth Brandon is an accomplished young artist who is or has been involved with several local artist spaces (Space 1026, Padlock, The Fabric Workshop and Museum) , and exhibits regularly in Philadelphia and beyond. Carrie Collins is an accomplished industrial designer (with her own company, Fabric Horse) who also creates what we can call 'fine art" (she was a founding member of Black Floor Gallery). The exhibition's curator, Annette Monnier, has brought them together because she believes the work of each artist will compliment the other's, allowing the viewer to pick up nuances in the artists' oeuvres that might otherwise be missed.

The remaining 90% of the exhibition is as follows: 40% function as it applies to "non-functional" objects, 10% home-coming party, 20% interior decor, 10% fantasy, 10% whiskey. For a more detailed description we (Annette, Beth and Carrie in alphabetical order) invite you to see everything for yourself at Copy Gallery. The opening of the exhibition will be held on Friday, September 5th from roughly 7-11. Refreshments will be an integral part of the celebration, please join us.

Bring your friends.
Copy Gallery, 319A N. 11th St., 3rd Floor

In Good Company

The PW has been running a slew of locals in their Style Profile column lately, latest of which is our own Carrie Collins. It's short and sweet and the stunning photo of C-Dazzle is shot in front of the trestle that neighbors our studio.



I'm a fan of the column's format, which consists of one high quality flattering photo and then a quoted paragraph from the week's style maven, usually an insight into their creative process, self-concept or general philosophy. Pretty straight forward and therefore, classy. Other recent profiling showcased our old faves, Philadelphia Sewing Collective and Lara Long of Plaid Pony Vintage, as well as our new fave MadebyHank. And speaking of which, thanks to MadebyHank for the recent shoutout on her blog!

Rolling Canvas Art Collective

So about a month ago in San Francisco, Cinelli hosted an art show in collaboration with RVCA, a clothing maker. The title of this collaboration was "Pressure," for which a group of notable artists (including Barry McGee, Clare Rojas, Dan Murphy & others) used Cinelli SuperCorsa Pista frames and components as their canvases. This resulted in a number of finished pieces, pairing the bicycle with various medium, which used the bicycle as powerhouse, as recreation and even, as loom. The Barry McGee bike, cream and chrome and adorned with his illustrations in red, will actually go into production.



The landmark show attracted droves of patrons on opening night, perhaps attracted by the curators' promise to "[bring] together visual urban artists working in the modalities of track bike and messenger culture."

This Friday in Philadelphia, something along those lines is happening. Fuji, in collaboration with Jinxed Philadelphia and R.E.Load, presents The Rolling Canvas Collective. Again, a party of locally revered artists will receive Fuji Track Bikes to do with them what they wish. And to bolster the challenge, several artists will also be making gallery quality messenger bags in the tradition of past Seamrippers shows. Together the event will be an auction, with a portion of proceeds to benefit the Neighborhood Bike Works. Like the Cinelli event, they advertise "created to celebrate the union of the art and urban bicycle cultures, the Rolling Canvas Art Collective will highlight and encourage the use of bicycles as a means of artistic expression. These twenty-plus artists will recreate basic, fixed gear bicycles into one-of-a-kind representations of their creative methods ranging from sculpture and metal work, to street art and paint."



Carrie is one of the featured artists, she's contributing a bike and a bag to this show. I've heard rumors of other contributions, but I don't plan on spoiling it for you here. Show opens this Friday, Aug. 1 at 7pm at the Media Bureau Gallery, 4th & Brown Street in Philadelphia.

**Also, a sweet show opens friday at Copy Gallery, the neighbor space to our studio, featuring the work of our friends Damian & Isaac & Becky. Photos and drawings and paintings. I don't have more info than that, you'll just have to trust me on this one.