A few weeks ago I was walking down the end of East Main Street when I realized that I had yet to interview Ms. Gwenno James or even step into her Beacon clothing boutique for a quick hello. This would have to be remedied I thought to myself.
The first thing I noticed when I entered Ms. James store was the vibrancy of the colors of her clothes. Playful woodland greens and deep floral blues seemed to inhabit every usable inch of space within the studio creating, giving the impression of being lost outside, perhaps in a Welsh meadow which Ms. James used to delight in as a child. The entire space just exudes a wonderfully inviting and enticing aura; and the clothes ain't half bad either. But I digress.
Keenan Boyd: First of all I wanted to congratulate you on your store’s two year anniversary! Tell our readers a little bit about yourself. Are you a native Beaconite? How did you come to Beacon originally?
Gwenno James: Thank you! I was delighted to celebrate the store’s 2 year anniversary in July.
I am happy to consider myself a Beaconite, having now lived here for about seven years. I am originally from Wales. I studied fashion design in London and later traveled from London to New York, where I worked as a textile designer for American brands such as Calvin Klein, Victoria Secret and West Elm.
My husband and I met in NYC and after a few years we were looking to buy our own place. During our home search we came across a Beacon house listing within the Brooklyn real estate section online. We drove to Beacon that weekend, and during our visit we both felt that Beacon would be a good fit for us.
KB: How did you first become interested in fashion and creating clothing?
GJ: During high school, I had a passionate and thorough sewing teacher who voluntarily held a sewing club during lunch break. She taught me how to sew and encouraged me as I explored making and designing my own clothes. I am very grateful for her instruction and mentorship. I was also sponsored by the Laura Ashley company during my college fashion degree and during that time I learned a lot about textiles and manufacturing, which was very inspirational.
KB: All of your clothes are made from your own designs and then hand dyed and hand printed; this seems to be a wonderfully antiquated way to create clothing but one that seems to be sorely needed in the fashion landscape today. Do you ever feel that you could produce clothing in the industrial sense or is that completely out of the question?
GJ: I have often explored this question myself and in the past I have used more industrial methods to produce my designs. However, what I have discovered over time is that I enjoy working with traditional and historic textile techniques such as silk screening, hand dyeing and marbling and my customers are responding well to this unique, one of a kind quality in the designs. Vibrant colors can be produced by mixing dyes and printing /painting fabric by hand and this method allows for spontaneity and artistic flow. With this approach, I can offer custom fabrics and colors at the store to complement the individual, as well as custom fitting and garment design.
KB: During your July 12th event Uniquely You, you touched on how nature continues to be a recurring source of inspiration for your artwork and your clothing. I love the vibrancy and life that your clothes bring and their imagery conjures pictures of radiant fields of flowers and lush vegetation. Have your clothes always retained this aesthetic quality or have you transitioned into this current style over time?
GJ: Thank you – it’s great to hear your feedback! Nature continues to inspire me, especially since I moved to the Hudson Valley. As I walk my dog along the river path I notice the beauty and changes in nature season after season and I often pick up leaves and feathers as I go, which later become silk screen images for my fabric patterns. The artistic community in Beacon also inspires me. I started painting canvases when I moved to Beacon and I now translate some of these painting techniques onto fabric. So I am continually learning and exploring...
KB: So what’s next and your store Ms.James?
GJ: I am working on Fall designs and colors….orange, plum, chocolate, royal blue and turquoise…on fabrics such as velvet – for scarves as well as clothing. I created many custom garments for weddings over the summer, for mother of the bride, bride and wedding guests so I will continue to offer custom designs for special occasions such as these. I recently joined a group of professionals in the Hudson Valley who offer boutique, artisanal services for events and weddings called the Hive Event Collective.
Thanks so much for coming by Keenan!
Gwenno James is the founder, owner, and operator of Gwenno James Fashion and Fabric Designs here in our own Beacon, NY. Everyone at Beaconstreets.com wishes her the best in her endeavors and her dreams.
The New Wave of Bike Gadgetry: Necessary and Long Awaited
So early last month Meghan Petersen of the New York Times published an article in the Well section of their online editorial blog called Gadgets to Boost Bike Safety.
She wisely commented that one of the main challenges facing bicyclists and advocates for the continued improvement and funding for bike lanes and bike programs in major urban centers was that many people feel that riding a bike in the city is still a very dangerous activity. Sadly, in many respects they are not wrong in their thinking. The data regarding hit and runs and pedestrian accidents in major US Cities over the past few year has been alarming.
According to the NYPD data reports compiled by Streetsblog over 15,000 pedestrians and cyclists were injured in New York City traffic accidents in 2012, and 155 were killed. The number of reported cyclists injured was 3,844, which is a ridiculously high figure.
In a city like New York with a population of several million a number like 3,800 cyclists can seem miniscule. However, these are just the numbers reported to the NYPD, many cyclists know that often when they are hit no report is filed and they are left on the side of the road with nothing but a mangled bike and hopefully no broken limbs or major injuries.
Anything that could allow these numbers to drop, policy or innovation or a combination of the two is something that needs to be a priority for the city government of New York and other major towns across the U.S. and the World.
Then the inevitable happens. The innovators and dreamers and engineers of tomorrow, those delightful harbingers of passionate change come into the picture. It is always their lot and our species collective indifference to drastic change that brings their genius. Those people who rightfully see the need for something that has yet to come into existence, and thankfully facilitate it's manifestation into the tangible, instead of the unrealistic.
As I write this article these people are creating new technologies and devices that will drastically improve the safety of the modern bicycle. One such invention is the See.Sense.
Created by Philip McAleese of Newtownards, Northern Ireland, his See.Sense product once attached to a bike has sensors that respond to the light levels and movement of objects around the bicycle. This allows the cyclist to become far more visible to other bicycles which use traditional reflector pads or no reflecting surfaces whatsoever.
Another interesting addition to the world of bike gadgets is the Xfire Bike Lane Light. It comes with two-highly visible red lasers that project two separate three foot lines on the road which create a visible bike lane when no other lane is present. According to Ms. Petersen's article this laser guided bike lane is visible up to a mile away. Next time some car comes a little too close for comfort you show them your own laser guided line in the sand, or in this case asphalt.
I also really liked Meghan Peterson's mention of Mr. Jonathan Lansey's Kickstarter funded-invention, the Loud Bicycle Horn. Mr. Lansey, like most people who have at one time commuted by bicycle became increasingly tired of dodging cars that didn't see him during his daily commute in downtown Boston. In response to the poor attention spans of Bostonian motorists he developed a two-toned horn that produces a 112 decibel honk, which seems like it would be impossible to ignore.
The need for these devices may seem trivial to motorists, but their implementation and use represents a fundamental step forward in creating a level playing field between motorists, cyclists, and even pedestrians. If motorists are unable to avoid or ignore the lasers or honking horns of the new wave of cyclists then they will invariably have to change their driving habits, driving slower and more alertly, which will hopefully, in the future anyway, lead to more walkable and bicycle friendly urban areas.
On top of my brief editorial tirade I wanted to delve into the thoughts of one of the local cyclists experts here in Beacon, Kyle Helland of People's Bicycle. I wondered what he had to say about these gadgets and how he felt about their implementation into the modern cyclists arsenal.
Keenan Boyd: So now that you've had a chance to review some of the gadgets from the article what do you think? I think that lane marking laser is kind of cool. What do you think about all this stuff?
Kyle Helland: I think the idea mostly for those at least the lane marking thing is just to gets people to think about what our streets should be used for, instead of just using them for cars, and there's a lot of room on these streets. The amount space on our streets, and these are public streets, is amazing and they are here for everybody, and the fact that we're using them just for one type of vehicle, and to mostly just store cars is ridiculous. It's a total waste. THese people that are using these bike lights to show that you can use more space in these roads for multiple modes of transportation is great. I think that it's a way to show that there's more space out there then were recognizing, and to really utilize all of it is a benefit to everybody.
KB: Right.
KH: So those little bike light things, I don't think that they're really like a safety tool. I mean I wouldn't count on it in a pinch. There are laws about passing at a certain distance, it's called a five foot law, which maybe helps a little bit at night, but that Danish Helmet thing, that came out at least three years ago, and I don't know. There is this assumption with bicycling that because people see cyclists wearing helmets they assume that cycling is a dangerous 'sport'. So maybe not having a visible helmet makes it look like less of a dangerous thing to do. For the most part biking isn't dangerous, and you don't need a helmet for everyday riding around town. There's very little chance that you're going to hurt yourself if you paying attention to what your doing and obeying the rules of the road. Making yourself visible on the street. So having this invisible helmet…
KB: It's a fashion thing, a little bit anyway.
KH: Right it's a fashion thing, and I wouldn't use it. The only time I wear a helmet on my bike is when I'm intentionally riding faster, like bombing down hills at forty miles an hour. I wouldn't want to not have a helmet if I crashed in those situations, but I also wouldn't want to have a big, inflatable, shawl around my neck at that point either.
KB: Well they say it's really effective and you don't really notice it around your neck at all.
KH: Well it's got to be somewhat noticeable, and it's probably gonna' make you sweat. I don't know. I'm not a big fan of wearing helmets because once again it sends this message to non-cyclists that riding a bicycle is this really dangerous thing to do, and you need all this safety equipment and your brain is in constant danger. But really the biggest thing to make yourself safe is to pay attention, ride with traffic, and make yourself visible to others. I will say this, having kids wear helmets is pretty smart because they aren't as aware of themselves, or their bodies.
KB: Right. They're not as coordinated.
KH: Exactly.
KB: So what did you think about the The Loud Bike Horn?
KH: I really liked that. I like most things that makes a bike more like a car. We have those bikes now that have integrated lights, locks, racks are apart of it. Anything that makes it easy to just jump on and not thing about anything…In the car you get into the car and you don't say where are my lights they're already built into the car. Do I have something that's integrated into the car to help me carry things, yes, it's called the trunk. So anything that can make it more like a motorized vehicle on the street is great. But I think that it would hurt the riders ears more than anybody else's. You'd have to ride around with ear plugs in so that might not be such a good design.
KB: Right? Sounds like it would hurt. (laughs.)
KH: (laughs.) I do like transportation bikes that really focus on integrating all the qualities that you look for into one. It just makes it that less of a thought when you jump on, do I have a map? Do my batteries still work? Do I have my light? Do I have a lock with me? Can I carry something with me? Do I have to wear some kind of special clothes? Do I have to roll up my pants?
Any of that stuff that you don't have to worry about; makes it that much simpler. It makes cycling a lot more like jumping in your car which is why people like cars. They're easy. There's nothing really to think about.
Another question you have to ask yourself is this, is there parking where I need to go?
People take for granted that there's car parking everywhere. When you think about bikes you don't consider that there may not be bike parking where you're going. It makes it that much easier to jump on a bike when you have all the conveniences of a car.
This post is sponsored by Peoples Bicycle, an old-school bike shop with new-school style. 845-765-2487, 72 Maple Street, Beacon N. Open Wed-Sun, 12-7pm.
The Beacon Pantry’s grand opening is going to occur all day on Saturday, the 22nd!
In addition to a wine tasting in the late afternoon, Beacon Pantry is offering raffle tickets to anyone with a purchase above $10 dollars. The raffle will conclude at some point in the evening and winners will be contacted to collect their prizes; anything from fig-spread to their excellent cheeses or a medley of everything in between!
They are also excited to announce the creation of their frequent cheese buyer’s club: a punch card system where every ten purchases of their fine cheeses yields a free cheese purchase!
So come on down to Beacon Pantry on Saturday, the 22nd and experience the meaty, nutty, dairy-filled bliss that Beacon Pantry is more than equipped to provide!
