Have you ever stopped to think that it’s someone’s job to design the fabric in everything from clothes to comforters to couches? For Harmony Susalla, founder of
Harmony Art Organic Design , it only truly sank in as she browsed her closet’s contents after her first class at the California School of Professional Fabric Design [http://www.fabricschool.com]. “It felt like coming home,” she says. Eleven years later, Harmony now runs her own organic fabric design business. Sustainable textiles production is a fast-growing field, and Harmony is at the forefront with her gorgeous graphics. Last November, she was kind enough to answer some our questions about what life is like in the organic fabric design world. Read below for our interview with her.
New Moon: I loved reading the history of your company on your website. What was it like to first discover your passion for fabric design?
Harmony Susalla: It felt like coming home. I had just been going through life doing what came to me, and when I discovered textile design, it was just like, “Oh yeah, this is what I’m supposed to be doing.” There was that knowledge and confidence that I had found what I was meant to do. What’s amazing about it is how everything has unfolded along the way, reinforcing that. I have in my [online] history that I graduated on a Wednesday, and on a Thursday I got a call. And without them knowing that I had [just graduated]. It’s been like that. It’s been like magic.
Are you a sewer? [i.e. someone who sews, not a waste control system]I am not. I am totally not. I used a sewing machine the first time two years ago, when our first fabrics came out, and it was Christmastime and we had a lot of fabric and not a lot of money. So we made pillowcases. So no, I don’t, and I’m learning how to sew, and it’s kind of funny.
It gives you a different eye.I think a lot of times when you don’t know something, you don’t know that you’re breaking the rules, and I think that can be really exciting. Like website design. People tend to love my website design, and I’m not a website designer, so I designed it without knowing how the coding behind it would work. So it’s designed very unconventionally, at least that’s what the tech person who actually makes it happen told me.
Another thing your readers might be interested in, I don’t think this is in my history, is, you know, I didn’t have an art background. I had always loved to do arts and crafts-type stuff as a kid growing up. I had an unfortunate experience in junior high, where I took chorus, and I had always loved to sing, and I got the worst grade I have ever gotten in my life in chorus. It was so crushing, because it meant to me that I couldn’t sing. I know now that that’s not true—that was one person’s opinion at that point in time, but that didn’t mean I didn’t enjoy singing for the next twenty years. So I had this thing about art. It was so important to me that I didn’t want the opportunity for someone to crush that spirit. I did art classes that were non-graded or through a community center or that sort of thing, but when it came to actual study in college, I avoided art classes, because I did not want someone to tell me I wasn’t good at it.
When I found the school, the California School of Professional Fabric Design, and was talking to my second cousin about it, she said, “It’s totally supportive,” “There are no grades,” I was like, “That’s for me.”
The teacher of the school did pride herself in being able to make textile designers out of non-textile designers. So all of that was like, “Yes, yes, yes! I can do this!” And I’d never thought about it. There’s so much pattern in the world, but I’d never thought about, “Oh there must be people who get paid to do that.” It’s really obvious once you think about it, but until that point in time, I’d never considered that an occupation.
Where do your greatest inspirations for designs come from?Nature. Almost exclusively. [In other design jobs] we’d end up being told to go trend shopping and see what’s out there on the market, and I always found that not my favorite part of the job. I don’t really like to shop. I’m kind of the anti-shopper. And I always felt like I should be enjoying it—I mean, how many women would love to be paid to go shopping? I always [disliked] those days. But now I go hiking instead, and I love it absolutely. Like I just did a design last night, or I’m working on one right now, that’s based on a houseplant I have. I definitely find an unlimited source of inspiration [in nature]. It’s so grounding to be outside and realize there’s more to life than the computer screen and the telephone. Look there’s the ocean and the tree that’s been around for, you know 800 years.
I am so amazed at your courage from having these job opportunities come up and having them lead you toward deciding to take your own path. Was it empowering to just decide to start a movement and start your own company and realize that you could do that as it went along?It’s been an incredible roller coaster of emotions. It has been everything. It has been exciting, it has been terrifying, it has been a spiritual journey as well as a financial one.
There’s a Mark Twain quote that says, “All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence, then success is sure,” and I think that I had plenty of both. Heading into the business, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. It’s been so much more work than I ever would have dreamed. I have so much respect for people who run businesses. It’s just so much work. There are just so many details that nobody thinks about. It’s been really hard. But for as hard as it is, I’ve never been happier in my life. I’ve never felt more rewarded in what I’m doing, even though financially, I’m not rewarded yet.
So I don’t know, it’s definitely a journey. That’s the best way to describe it. You never know what turn you’re going to take or where you’re going to end up, you just sort of have this vision of what it should look like and you sort of head in that direction.
That’s a gem what you said about how you’re the happiest you’ve been in your life.I coined a term, you maybe read it on my
blog. “Weasure,” which is a combination of “work” and “pleasure.” It’s a question of the line between where my life ends and work begins—there is none. It’s like everything has to do with business now, so there is not work and pleasure, there’s “weasure.” Everything has some relationship to work, and everything is pleasure at the same time. I feel like someday I’ll write the book In Pursuit of Weasure.
It’s crazy, I mean I can’t tell you there haven’t been days when I’ve been in tears. It’s frustrating. Just yesterday I was dealing with numbers issues. It puts me so far out of my comfort zone. That’s when frustration comes, when I get pushed. And that’s not the fun part, but it’s where you grow. And when I look back, I can think about all the times in the last three years where I’ve had to learn things I didn’t really want to learn, like Visa card processing. That’s just not interesting to me at all. There are so many details to it. There are so many different ways that you can arrange and pay and override and blah, blah, blah, and I hated it. Now I know how to do it, and it’s no big deal. So I know that I’ll get through…this week [laughs]. There will be another side to it, and I’ve been very fortunate that I have a lot of people in my life that are willing to step up and help when I need it.
Yes, that’s a treasure.Yeah, I couldn’t imagine doing it without a support group. I think that would be crazy. I’m sure I would have already given up by now. I have friends who will proofread my announcements for me. My husband is the numbers guy, so he’ll balance statements for me. My brother really helped when I had warehouse issues, and [all the support has] just been like that.
I do remember reading about the synchronicity about how that fell into place. It must have been blog post [of yours] some months ago.About my brother moving ten minutes away from the warehouse? Yeah, I mean, what’s up with that? Now he’s back in California again, but for that moment it was great. He took his truck and drove fabric across state lines for me, all consolidated, because we were having so many troubles with getting fabric shipped out on time and to the right places. It really helped.
It’s like those kind of details. Nobody thinks about that kind of random stuff, and it’s a never-ending stream of that. That’s been the really hard part for me, realizing that the to-do list is never done. I’m the kid that got the six-week term paper did it week two so that the next four weeks when everyone else was working on it, I was kicking back. So I was like the anti-procrastinator. My husband calls me “proactive girl.” I just don’t like to have a lot of things to do. And when you have your own business, forget that. There’s never a time when you’re done. There are always about a million things more you could be doing. And having to surrender to that reality has been a real lesson that I’m still learning. You know, I should be able to relax in the moment even with a million things left to do. That’s hard for me.
What’s it like to go to one of the conferences that you attend?The most recent one I went to was
The Organic Exchange [note interview is from late November], where they have people from all over the world, from different parts of the supply chain, and it’s just incredible. And it’s not so much the content of what you learn, a lot of it, having been in this for the last four or five years, isn’t totally new. It’s getting to see the people and the growth of the industry that’s really cool. And to sit down and find yourself at the table having lunch with a farmer from Brazil and a weaver from India. Textiles are really incredibly global. There’s a great book [The Travels of a T-Shirt in a Global Economy by Pietra Rivoli] that traces the cotton to the t-shirt to where the t-shirt ends up, and it really does connect a lot of people, and I don’t think we realize just how important it is. They say that one of seven people in the world is somehow involved in textiles. When you think about, “Okay, one-seventh of the world, what if it were all environmentally sound and fair trade and people were treated well?” The power of that, the potential, is amazing, and it really could change the world.
Absolutely. Where do you see the sustainable fabric movement going?It’s exploding, it really is. There are a lot of times when I laugh, because I am in the right place at the right time. Six years ago would have been too early. Six years from now would be getting in late. I’m really at the forefront, and obviously it’s not just me. There are a lot of pioneers who have been at it the last twenty years and sticking with it, and it’s finally beginning to catch on. And there’s some fear, people get concerned that it’s going to get watered down or that it will be somehow corrupted by the masses, but I personally think it’s going to take the masses to change it. I’m less hesitant. I think it’s a good thing that the Wal-Marts and the Williams-Sonomas and the Gaps and the Levis and all of them are hopping on board…
Oh no kidding, Williams-Sonoma? I just did a talk there a couple of weeks ago, a month ago maybe now, at their headquarters. Everybody’s interested, it feels like. Now I’m also a little bit in the middle of it, so I may have a little warped perspective, but it sure seems like the interest has accelerated exponentially this year, and I can only imagine what next year will be like. I don’t think it’s a trend; I think it’s here to stay. I mean, why would we want to pollute the planet and hurt people? I don’t know.
You can count me in on the movement; I’m passionate about sustainable fabrics.I don’t know if I told you this or not, but the tween market, I have a total softspot for that demographic. I think that they hold so much power that they don’t even know about yet. Because they have this—at least I remember when I was that age—this idealism and passion and willingness to even teach their parents and the people around them, like to say, “No, don’t take that plastic bag, take this fabric one.” It’s little things, but for a long time, we just haven’t paid attention. It’s going to be the youth that wakes us up. Because they get it, they just intuitively get it, that it doesn’t make sense, so they’re like willing to do something about it. Older people are like, “Yeah, that’s how it’s always been done.” Kids are like, “What? Why would you do that? That doesn’t make sense! Here’s a better way.”
On that note, do you have any advice for girls?I want to say something about enjoying life and that all the silly stuff that gets in the way is going to disappear. I remember that part of the teen years, too, you know, friends, drama, and it all seemed so important at the time, and in the long run it was so unimportant. So I guess sticking with the people that you have fun with and that fun is based on a place of genuineness. You know, it’s easy to get into judgment and that’s not fun, so I would avoid that like the plague. Just stick to fun and things that bring you joy. Genuine joy.
Part of the exciting thing in life is watching the different puzzle pieces, and you wonder, “Why did I do that?” and “How did I end up doing that?” and suddenly you get a vision of each individual puzzle piece together, and that’s really exciting. So your moment will come.
