WHY “THE HIVE”?
| “Beehives serve several purposes: production of honey, pollination of nearby crops, housing supply bees, and to try to mitigate the effects of colony collapse disorder.” |
WHAT’S IN A NAME? TURNS OUT: A WHOLE LOT.
I have wanted to create and run my own brand (at least) since I was 20 years old. Art was my first love, fashion was my second and they were the obvious, but not necessarily secure, career choices. So when it came time to decide what I wanted to do with the rest of my life, at the ripe old age of 18, I chose to follow my heart. I studied fashion design in college, not with the hopes of landing a job with a notorious fashion house, but to be able to create my own vision and work for myself. They were certainly grandiose plans - a bit “head in the clouds” if you will - that I was incredibly naive about. I’m sure it comes as no surprise, but things didn’t really work out and I needed to make money, so my entrepreneurial dreams had to be put on hold. And on hold they’ve sat . . . until now.
New life was breathed into a project idea when I met my friend and co-founder, Kaelin. We became fast friends when we realized we shared the same passion for doing great work and doing the right thing and it felt like a natural partnership. When we started discussing our new creative venture, we realized that we had a lot of interests and even more things we wanted to do. We couldn’t really hone in on one area to focus on or one area that we were most passionate about. So, we decided to just “do it all” - that being apparel, interiors, events, you name it. That was partially how the name Beehive Creative House was born.
We played around with a lot of different name combinations and unique words, trying to find our glass slipper. We landed on Beehive because of the description you read at the beginning of this post. Comparing all the purposes that beehives serve to what we were envisioning for our brand and business was absolutely poetic: “production of honey” - we wanted to produce our own work; “pollination of nearby crops” - we were passionate about supporting small and local businesses and artists; “housing supply bees” - we dreamt of a studio to quite literally house ourselves someday; “to try and mitigate colony collapse disorder” - we were committed to studying sustainable practices to run our operation as green as possible, to avoid the collapse of the world. Call me Cinderella, because the shoe fit.
| Queens of the Hive. |
| Logo designed by Kaelin Reed. 2018. |
While it was only two years ago that Beehive Creative House came to be, it has already evolved more than once. I dabbled in some side projects to get my feet wet and realized trying to promote three different departments of a brand new business as one person was not the move. Oh, I should also mention that life was really managing to get in the way as well, for Kaelin and for me. We both took a step back and some necessary time off to try and find some solid ground, which allowed me to also step back and really consider what I wanted this brand to be, and I with it.
So what the hell is it that I do? I realize that we’re nearing the end and it still hasn’t been clearly announced, but the answer to that remains in motion. In this moment, Beehive Creative House is serving as an outlet for style and design creativity. I am still in the process of coordinating photoshoots to showcase my styling technique and (once we are all allowed back into the world) will be available for personal and commercial style consulting services. Kaelin still serves as an outside creative consultant, on a project by project basis, and is my living, breathing muse. This blog, The Hive Vibe, is intended to genuinely connect with all of you, to present my aesthetic and goals, and to share everything that I love so much about this industry. I’m not a professional writer, so I can’t promise that my writing won’t be choppy or full of run-on sentences (although I’m going to do my best) but I can promise that I will be authentic. I anticipate there being some more evolution on this journey, and I hope you’ll stay along for the ride.