Shedding the exoskeleton

Hello there wonderful humans, you voted for an extra blog post explaining the logo change, and I thought I’d add a bit more of an insight into the business name, so here it is! 

My business started as C M Kitsch back in 2019, I was customising denim jackets with bleaching & hand embroidery as well as making crochet items. When I started off originally, it was all very different! I was still working full time in my day job, I did a lot of work for free, and wasn’t sure if I’d ever be able to make it into something I could do full time.  

Then in 2020, Eric came along, and my wonderful husband bought me an overlocker for Christmas. I tried my hand at more reusable items; makeup remover pads, breast pads, reusable wipes & unpaper towels. This was a particular time in 2021 when there seemed to be a saturation in the market of these products, and subsequently it wasn’t really taking off. 

So I took the chance on making childrens clothing, which has turned out to be really quite successful! I set up an Etsy store, and eventually at the end of 2021 my own website with the help of E.B Writing services for those fiddly bits. I then tried my hand at adult clothing, (which is what I’ve always wanted to do) which has started to become more popular than my childrens items! Something I couldn’t have imagined in my wildest dreams. 

There was a consistent problem however, my business name! Quite a lot of people struggled with tagging & finding kitsch AND didn’t know what it meant. Even now, when I see my items pop up on preloved sites pre name change, I often see them listed as C M Stitch - so the rebrand was definitely the right choice. 

But why Alice Acid? 

I have sewn since I can remember, my grandmas sewing kit and button tin where magical to me. She taught me how to hand sew, and even bought me my first cross stitch kit - 2 dolphins leaping through the air. I can remember excitedly sitting at her dining room table with my cousins (who also had a kit) and being mesmerised, hooked!

When I was completing my GCSE’s I did a project on the dark side of Alice in wonderland for my art GCSE, and my finished piece that was used for the exams was my version of the white rabbit.
I had the idea pop into my head went to my room and shut myself away for hours whilst I cut up one of my favourite T-shirts at the time. It was an acid green & neon pink striped tshirt from blue banana! I cut it up making my own pattern and made the most trippy little rabbit with big button eyes that I could muster!

I knew I wanted to follow in the footsteps of the great Alexander McQueen and go to St Martins school of fashion! However my textiles teacher in school wasn’t all that interested in me. I was never popular in school, and was outright bullied my entire way through, she only seemed to want to help the popular girls in my class. This might have been down to that, or that my concept was a rave version of Alice’s famous little blue dress. 

Then, what can only be described as a series of unfortunate events unfolded, and I left education part way through my A levels. I was going to study a fashion & textiles course in college, but this also wasn’t meant to be. I kept my dream alive however, and would regularly go to haberdasheries get material and complete hand sewn projects. 

In 2013-2014 I’d say that cross stitch was a massive part of my life, and quite frankly probably had a hand in saving it. I was very depressed, but began cross stitching again & making my own patterns with the help of my then partner, until I became confident enough to do my own patterns. All of this was 100% just a hobby.
 
Then, in 2016, I toyed with the idea of starting to sell my cross stitch work, with a friend who crocheted but again, this never came to be.

Finally, in 2019, I set up C M Kitsch, after being really unwell with pneumonia, I was only selling knitted baby hats at first, then I started selling my completed cross stitches, then offering hand embroidered custom denim jackets after completing my own.

Even though, I may not have gotten here the conventional way - I’ve still arrived where I wanted to. When I was dreaming of my own brand back as a 16 year old, I’d picked the name Alice Acid, and labeled  my sketchbook accordingly in true me fashion haha! Inspired by Lewis Carroll’s glorified acid trip classic Alice in Wonderland, which is still an all time favourite of mine. 

When I rebranded back in the beginning of 2022, I had my logo designed by someone whom it has since come to light actually traced and copied 99% of their work. This all came out in December, and it shook the handmade community - the depth of deceit was just shocking. Unfortunately, or now I suppose fortunately, my logo was also a victim and had been traced from another artists work. 

The news completely mortified me, I removed my logo immediately, but this also delayed my reopening from January until May 2023. I’ve been trying to think of what to have as a logo since, I had a wonderful and patient designer work with me but nothing was quite clicking. We reworked the original, we tried something new, but ultimately it just wasn’t quite right. I was rushing a process that I wasn’t ready to begin. I needed to think of something completely new, but, between the shock of all this coming out, a newborn & some extra health issues thrown in for good measure… I was just drawing a blank! 

Finally, something kept popping into my head, a spider & the legend of Arachni 🕷🕸 I just kept thinking of spiders silk being threaded onto a needle! I also knew that I wanted a change in terms of the font for my name. When I approached Gemma with my idea, it’s as if she’s literally pulled out the image from my brain - she’s nailed it, and I cannot thank her enough for this. 

Its as if, I’ve shed another layer, out grew the former exoskeleton - and moved into a new chapter, a more grown up chapter, but keeping the dream and vision of 16 year old me at the centre of it all. 

Whilst we’re on the subject of being more grown up… we have a brand new range coming, I’m not quite ready to release more information yet, but just know, it’s going to be a reveal of grand proportions  

If you don’t already, you should be following Gemma on Instagram; @gemmaanndesigns

I can also highly recommend Amy, from Sugar Plumb designs for all your logo needs. Her Instagram handles are: @sugarplumbfabricdesigns @sugarplumbcreations

For your copywriting & website/social media needs I can highly recommend Emily Brayley of E.B Writing services.