Anonymous asked: Hey Nakimuli, my name is Jontea'. I am also a fashion designer and I admire your work as well as your journey. I was you to know that I am inspired and also encouraged just by reading your post of your day-to-day living as a designer and the challenges that comes along with it. As a designer, in Mississippi moving from Los Angeles, I have several challenges, especially when it comes to fabric vendors. Of course because I live in MS and not LA anymore. Question, do you know of any great fabric

Hello Jontea, 

Thank you for your lovely email. My hope is to inspire people to shine their light as I have been inspired to. 

In terms of fabric…that is a hard one. You have a few options you can try…

• Hunt down every fabric store in Mississippi, leave no stone unturned! You will be surprised at the gems you will find. And you will also know where to avoid.
• Contact all the LA stores you frequented.  Most people are getting hipped to having a website so contact them and get your fabric shipped to MS. Or make phone calls, contact friends to see if they could give you the info on LA stores.
• Visit the fabric stores in neighboring states. When I go to Florida to visit family, I always check out fabrics stores just in case I see something I like.
• There are online stores you can shop at like www.fabrics.com. Just put in a Google search and online stores should pop up. I would advise that you get swatches before you buy any yardage.
• Move back to LA. Or move to NYC. I don’t know you situation, it might not be in the cards right now. But it may be something you might want to consider in the future, especially if you are passionate & don’t want to spend money on shipping fabrics…just saying.

Well, hope that helps. Good luck my dear. And much success to you!

-Best,

Tennille