State of the Brand Address

Looking back at April, I had plans of releasing my usual S/S collection in the form of several vintage inspired accessories. As most of you know the collection was delayed and ultimately canceled due to my grandmother's declining health and subsequent death. In the following few months I've hoped to get myself together enough to launch the collection sometime in the summer. However, the more time that passed the less confident I felt with the idea of a late release. I scrapped, I redesigned, and I altered my patterns until I had a completely different line of accessories. By then we were mid-way through June and as I took a step back to soak in my new creations I came to a realization:

All of my sales this year have come from custom orders and specialty designs. I haven't made a single sale from my available collections since the end of December.

From there I was forced to ask myself, how sustainable can my brand really be if it's not even paying for itself anymore? Though I stand by my brand's pledge to remain sustainable to the ecosystem everyway I can, the brand is no longer sustaining me. I've been careful to avoid creative burnout, but I'm discovering I can burn myself out in other ways too, financially, socially and even spiritually from devoting all of my time to the brand and feeling like I've gone nowhere.

Since this realization, I've made a pivot in my goals regarding the brand and in my own creative practice. I've started prioritizing my blog, my social media, and trying to build sales. Until my sales are up again I will be putting collection releases on hold. Hopefully this will be something that builds up quickly, as it is important to me to continue to create new clothes and bring new designs to the public.

If I haven't been creating new designs what have I been up to? I've been using this newfound free time to write, paint, check out some of my local coffee shops and do a lot of reading and studying to improve my designs in the future. Though to an outsider's perspective it may look like the brand has been set aside for different interests and ideas the reality is I'm using new mediums to further inspire and develop the brand in the future.

So what can be expected of TBB in the future? New releases are still on the horizon, just on hold. You will likely see increasingly creative content on The Belated Beatnik Instagram page, as well as regular monthly updates on the blog. I will continue to share new ideas, hobbies and opinions about fashion and vintage lifestyles. Looking forward to sharing this new chapter with each of you!

-Coco Elouise Marie