BEAM ME UP!

As the saying goes, a rose by any other name would smell as sweet, but when it comes to DDR designs, the kooky, quirky names are half the fun!

“I try to be sure and shout out our amazing design team every chance I get,” said Cheryl. “But I’m not sure I’ve ever really publicly praised them for one of the most fun – but surprisingly challenging – parts of this whole gig, which is naming things.”

Of course, like all aspects of the design process (and truly, everything we do), it’s a collaborative effort. Sometimes Cheryl has an idea of what she’d like to name a garment before it’s even fully fleshed out. Sometimes it’s named after whatever is printed or embroidered on it. Sometimes seeing it sketched out just triggers a lightbulb moment of what it should be called.

“Sometimes the naming is obvious, right?” explained Cheryl. “Like, the To the West and Beyond Jacket, it’s right there on the back. Or The Cow Jumped Over the Moon Vest, not a lot of guessing as to why it’s named that – it’s a vest with embroidery of a cow jumping over the moon.”

But the connection isn’t always quite so clear.

“Sometimes it’s as random as pulling a piece of paper from a hat!” Cheryl laughed. “No, seriously. Once we have concepted a collection and we have a firm vision of the theme and motif, then we spaghetti-board* all of the terms, phrases, words, names, places, et cetera that we can think come up with that correlate to it and evoke imagery that falls under that umbrella. I research name concepts: songs, quotes, movie titles, etc. I keep a list and mark it off as names are used. But it’s effective, like a randomizer of your own brain, and it keeps us from overthinking it and spending too much time on a name when it’s the garment that matters. Plus, it lends a kind of personality to a piece, I think, it’s fun.”

*If you’re wondering what in the world she’s talking about, it’s like a massive brainstorm/brain dump of any and everything that comes to mind, whether it ends up getting used or not; i.e. throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks.

And sometimes, it’s a cosmic (pun intended) coming-together of all those creative juices!

“The Beam Me Up Jacket was a little bit of both,” Cheryl said. “It was a ‘far out’ phrase we’d jotted down, but then when those rhinestone light beams came into play on the yoke, it practically claimed the name itself. And Quasar – that was one of the more esoteric words, but it was fun to say, so we kept it – and then we were able to execute these all-over silver sequin pieces and it was a perfect fit. It’s amazing what shakes out when you have a melting pot of magnificent minds!”