Monday, December 13, 2010

Q&A with Noiseless Clothing

Don’t want to support Hot Topic but love band shirts? Look no further! Noiseless Clothing fits the bill and you can bet that you won’t show up to the next concert wearing the same shirt as half the audience if you shop with Steph.  She also makes movie shirts and other one-of-a-kind creations!

CZ: Tell us a little about yourself!
NC: My name is Steph and I am the only person behind my Etsy shop, Noiseless Clothing. I’ve been sewing for a little over two years; my mom taught me the basics of how to use a sewing machine and patterns, etc, and the rest is completely self taught by trial and error and a heck of a lot of practice! Noiseless isn’t my full time job (boo hiss!) I work a minimum wage retail job full time to fund my obsession of band t-shirts and fabric. In my spare time (when I’m not sewing!) I love going to gigs, baking cupcakes and reading. I’m a simple girl at heart!

CZ: What type of items do you sell?
NC: I mostly make music inspired, one of a kind, women’s clothing with a few accessories here and there. As my line is music inspired, I make a lot of clothes out of band t-shirts but I also like to make anything that would fall under the ‘alternative’ stereotype whether that be emo, goth, punk, scene, etc. In the future I’d like to expand into jewelry and would also like to try my hand at screen-printing my own designs.

CZ: What is the inspiration behind your shop and what keeps you motivated?
NC: I take inspiration from so many things but my biggest inspiration is by far music. I go to a lot of gigs in my spare time, and I always used to get so fed up of boys always getting the best band t-shirts. So, I started cutting them up and turning them into something unique and sexy! If I’m making a top from a band t-shirt, I like to listen to the bands’ music while I sew. I find it gives me inspiration for the overall style of the piece I’m working on. As for what keeps me motivated, it’s simply a love of sewing. It’s all I think about and I honestly don’t think there is anything else I would rather do with my life.

CZ: What is the greatest compliment you have received about your work?
NC: Every compliment I receive is the greatest! The compliments that I treasure the most are from people that I’ve never met. Family and friends are great at complimenting my work but they’re kinda obliged to! I think it’s lovely that complete strangers take time out from their busy lives to drop me an email just to say that they love my clothes. The fact that people like something that I dreamt up and created from scratch is amazing. And as silly as it may sound, it kind of restores my faith in humanity and reassures me that there are genuinely nice people in the world!

CZ: When did you first realize that you weren’t “like the other kids”?
NC: It wasn’t a sudden realization, more of a conscious effort to NOT be like other kids. I gradually got more and more tired of following trends and trying to fit in with everyone else and it stopped making sense to me. I couldn’t understand why everyone wanted to be the same when we were all so naturally different. Around this time I discovered rock music and that greatly influenced my style and I just drifted apart from the crowd. This of course came with its downsides as I was a target for bullies but I point blank refused to conform. As difficult as it was being a victim of bullying, I think it really benefitted me in the long run as I’m now more certain of who I am and what I believe in compared to other people.

CZ: What’s a typical day in the life of this Dark Sider like?
NC: On the five days a week when I’m at work, I go to work (well duh!) come home around 6, grab some food and sew until 10/11 at night. I have a Blackberry so all my emails and convo’s from Etsy get forwarded to my phone so when I’m on my lunch break at work, I’m still focusing on Noiseless. On my days off, I do all the promoting and internet stuff, picture taking and pattern cutting. I try really hard to stick to this routine so I can have new items added to my shop on a regular basis. Oh and I occasionally manage to fit in a social life!

CZ: Do you prefer zombies or vampires?
NC: My obsession for vampires is slowly beginning to take over my life haha! I’m a huge fan of trashy vampire novels and movies and I even have a t-shirt saying ‘I love vampires’ so I think it’s safe to say I much prefer vampires. But not the sparkly ones. Don’t get me started on sparkly vampires!

CZ: Which horror character do you identify with most and why?
NC: I know it’s not generally a horror film but I’m going to say Wednesday Addams from the Addams’ Family. I looked her up on Wikipedia and is said “Wednesday is originally a pale, dark-haired, grim-looking little girl with a fascination with death and the macabre”. Anyone who knows me will tell you that I have an unhealthy obsession with the macabre and I just so happen to be dark haired and super pale!

CZ: Which elusive creature do you believe is more likely to be real: El Chupacabra or Sasquatch?
NC: I don’t really know much about either as they are both American ‘monsters’ but I think the UK version would be the Loch Ness Monster which I don’t believe to be real as most sightings have been proved to be fake. So on that theory alone, I’ll say neither.

CZ: Who is more likely to enslave the human race - aliens or robots?
NC: In my mind, a brief rain shower will instantly rust all the robots and I’m assuming they also have an off switch? So I’m going to say aliens.

CZ: What scares you?
NC: I’m TERRIFIED of spiders! No matter how small and pathetic they are, I will still scream and run out the room like a total girl haha! There was a spider in my car once while I was driving and it’s a miracle I didn’t crash. I don’t know what it is about them that creeps me out so much. Possibly the fact that they have too many legs or possibly the way they scuttle around so unnaturally. Just thinking of them is giving me shivers! Next question…..

CZ: When my undead masses take over will you be with us or against us?
NC: I’m gonna say with you. If you can’t beat them, join them right?

CZ: Any links you’d like included?
NC: My etsy shop - http://www.noiselessclothing.etsy.com/
My myspace page - www.myspace.com/noiselessclothing

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