Shari's Notes From The Design Desk

July is a month to make the most of your current wardrobe—perfect for showing off the wonderful dresses in your summer wardrobe. Also, there’s still plenty of time to enjoy more great summer styles. Arriving in our shop for End of July—first, a fabulous, not-to-be-missed, semi-annual clearance sale! We are selling off many discontinued styles at great prices starting the last Saturday in July. Did I say great prices—they will be really great! 60-70% off! Mark your calendars, and enjoy the savings—still plenty of time to wear all our fun summer prints round the lake or out and about.

First of Fall: Our Lady of Perpetual Anticipation has the word that first of fall is soon to see! Time to look ahead for our Mehera Shaw fall-preview, arriving in our shop July 25th! We will be sending out early-bird specials, so keep watching or write to us and ask to be included in our customer list. First of fall includes lots of ¾ sleeve cotton voile tops and tunics in a more muted color palate--warm grey-blues, lavender, naturals, olives and a Chinese floral print on deep maroon which I quite like-- a range of crop pants and some lovely wrap dresses.

For later in the fall, when Jack Frost starts appearing, we have many lovely, cozy quilted jackets arriving, quilted skirts, leggings, and new collections in cotton jersey, twill, corduroy, velvet, silk. Of course, as I mentioned in my Notes from Jaipur, I was actually imagining Yasminka, Mongolian princess (and current fashion muse), somewhere between Lake Baikul and Tashkent when the cold arrived—a very practical princess who knows how to dress when she happens to be in urban Minneapolis. She and I were quite pleased with many new finds on my recent trip to Jaipur--particularly the new fabric we sourced including silks, cotton silks, handloom wool, and some exceptional trouser fabric. As always, I had many new samples made and am now in the process of deciding which of those will actually make it into production for the final garment. I have really been taken recently with a number of East Asian influenced design elements: frog buttons, Mandarin collars, wrap tops and kimonos. Of course I always hope to have everything I love made, but usually I have to edit the collection based on practical limitations, or juggle the timing of the collections, especially for winter collections as the quilting alone takes an incredible amount of time. Stay tuned for Yasminka’s arrival in the Twin Cities later this fall.

New developments: I have also begun adding several new products to Mehera Shaw. We have a fuller children’s line due in our shop end of July—same type of Asian influenced designs in easy-to-wear styles with colorful prints for girls age 2-10. My 6 year old loves the clothes, combines prints with amazing style, and can climb trees quite well in our skirts, thus demonstrating the easy-to-wear aspect!

We are adding block printed cotton quilts to our collection beginning this fall—in children’s, single and queen sizes. They are unbelievably soft and cozy--great for those chilly evenings around the corner!

Down the line, hopefully by spring, we will have a new nightwear collection of both demur, vintage styles and muted colors in the softest of cotton voile as well as a more trendy line of nighties in jazzy prints. Long, quilted robes to be coming as well—just about perfect for any season.

For next summer we hope to have a limited collection of plus sizes from 1X-3X in women’s tunic tops and skirts. I’ve had many requests for this line over the years and hope to fit it into our production schedule soon.