What Really Matters
Weird isn’t it that one of the owners of Threads by Nomad is actually a minister? Yes, a woman and ordained! At our launch party in September 2016 one of the attendees discovered I am a minister and said, “Really? Dressed like that and in this business? What is your church? I will go there!” Well, nice! But that is not the point. This is the point: It does not matter where you fall on the political spectrum. It does not matter your religious preferences. What does matter is human beauty, human dignity and human worth. We have said as a company and I believe personally we are ready as a nation to admit that beauty comes to us many forms. When it comes to fashion, that beauty is expressed in design, in fabric, in accessories, in colors, in bodies, in culture. That is what Threads by Nomad is about! We are in the business of celebrating diversity through design. For example, this skirt worn by a friend and customer at the inaugural ball was made by an Iraqi refugee.
The mud cloth we use to make many of our pieces is from Mali. Speaking of Mali, I have dear friends who live there now. In fact our daughter called the wife “Mimi”--a title for a grandmother--as a child. Our pillows using the mud cloth from Mali is made by an Afghan refugee. I have many Afghani friends and acquaintances. The wax-imprinted fabric we use is of West African Motif and made in Indonesia. Maybe someday I will post pictures of the fabulous outfits I had made in West Africa using this type of fabric. My cohort, companion, and sister in these fashion endeavors was my dearest friend, Alyce Saperau Lyles. Here is a picture of us together in my very first African dress.
And here is a picture of our families back then and then again reunited at the wedding of my “niece," Mame Coumba.
Our silk scarves are designed and painted by an Azerbajani artist and the fabric is sourced from China. So much beauty from so many people and places!
I have lived my entire adult life engulfed in diversity. My daughter and partner, Christen, through no choice of her own, grew up in this environment. It was and it is beautiful. I would not change raising her in these surroundings. It matters not where you stand politically or in terms of faith. As a minister let me say this….God gave us so much beauty. Let us celebrate it! Let us explore it! We all should learn to celebrate diversity in our own way; we just happen to be doing it through design!
