My business started in a painting studio - playing around with some block-printing for a painting I was working on. One thing led to another and I had a product that people responded to, so I dove head first into creating more products.
A year ago, I realized my painting practice had basically vanished. There was a moment when I had to remind myself why CZH exists, what we believe in and what makes the brand special. And during a mediation I was taken back to my original studio. It was in dumbo - before dumbo became dumbo - and I remembered how tenuous and unsure I felt, how much I wanted to have a focus, but didn't know how, didn't know what. And It sounds strange but I craved that feeling. I wanted to feel like a gypsy. I wanted to feel like I didn't have the rest of my calendar year planned for the business.
And so last April after a meditation I decided I needed a place like my dumbo studio, a place just for me to make things, to leave a mess, to mix ugly colors if I needed to, to make things not for an end use. So I looked online, clicked the first listing I saw, contacted the owner, went the next day to see the space and signed the lease that day. It all happened so quickly with zero effort. when things come easily I always know I am on the right track.
So once again, I am back in a studio. playing with shapes and color, organizing and categorizing all of the fabrics I've collected over the past 15 years. It all made sense a month later when Schumacher contacted CZH about a collaboration and then the following month a gallery about a show. I thought, oh thats why I needed this studio after-all.
