Feminist/Womanist T-Shirts: Every Day is Women's History Month at Nelesc Designs

Angela Davis, Frida Kahlo, Julia de Burgos, Billie Holiday...every day is Women's History Month at Nelesc Designs! These are still available in my shop in various sizes. 

Check them out here! 

Everyday is Black History Month at Nelesc Designs: BILLIE HOLIDAY

Available at Nelesc Designs for $22.00

Here's another installment of "Everyday is Black History Month at Nelesc Designs." Today I give you Billie Holiday.

Jazz vocalist Billie Holiday was born April 7, 1915, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She was a true artist of her day and rose as a social phenomenon in the 1950s. Her soulful, unique singing voice and her ability to boldly turn any material that she confronted into her own music made her a superstar of her time. Today, Holiday is remembered for her masterpieces, creativity and vivacity, as many of Holiday's songs are as well known today as they were decades ago. Holiday's poignant voice is still considered to be one of the greatest jazz voices of all time. (Biography.com and Wikipedia.com)

Ms. Holiday is such an inspiration to me and I love this image of her inspired by Jazz photographer William P. Gottlieb's 1947 image. 

Here, she is just belting it out, like's she's singing for her life. Her expression is an emotional mixture of strength and pain. This is quite understandable as she died an untimely death at the age of 44, losing her battle with substance abuse. Her humanity is captivating and I imagine that singing, for her, was cathartic, healing, an expressive mixture of both pain and pleasure. 

I love to sing, and for me, as well as for many others, singing has become both joyous and a battle cry. I sing with my kids and it's joyous and fun and sometimes I sing out of frustration, a tuneful scream, if you will.

Another view of Billie Holiday t-shirt at Nelesc Designs

Life is a mixture of both joy and pain and we all need a "go to" playlist to reflect on those times. I know I have one. Going to download some Billie Holiday songs now. 

Happy Black History Month!

Ode to the Puff Sleeve Jacket

Oh, puff sleeve jacket, how I love you...

I have been making puff sleeve jackets for the past two years and I have been loving it!  It all began with this very sloppy Pedro Albizu Campos jacket I made back in 2008. The neck edge was raw and made with only one layer of fabric. It also had no waistband but people really liked it. I, however, did not feel lead to reproduce it. There are certain items I do just for fun, for me.

The original puff sleeve jacket, 2008

But  when people on my facebook fan page started to ask me if I could make them one, I thought, "why should I have all the fun?"  So, I decide to custom make them in 2010.   Using the purple one as a base, I decided to create this one. A cropped version with puffier sleeves, a waistband and a nice two layer neck collar.

Angela Davis Puff Sleeve Jacket

I made a total of 6 in various color combinatins and icons. Here are some pictures I took before I sent them out and pictures I received from happy customers.  

Nina Simone and Frida Kahlo Puff Sleeve Jackets



Billie Holiday Puff Sleeve Jacket 



The Brothers Johnson Puff Sleeve Jacket

These are so much fun to make! But I do have to take a break from them to start on my Spring/Summer line, so you will see them again in my shop in September. My next post will showcase the new improved puff sleeve jacket that I unveiled in 2011.  What do you think of these?

Happy New Year! I'm Back! and with a Nelesc Designs Sale!

Hi ya'll! I've missed blogging so much but decided that I needed to focus on my shop if I was going to make it work which is what I have been doing since July and am happy with the results.

But I really missed blogging and decided that if I was going to do both (the shop and this blog), I had to have a clear blogging direction. So this coming year, I want to concentrate on sewing tutorials and shop news. Everything after that is gravy.

So to start off the new year, I am once again offering my BUY TWO GET ONE FREE sale. I am also offering free shipping with the sale. Here are a couple of new tops up in the shop now. I am going to continue adding new t shirts/tops here and there until I unveil my Spring/Summer collection.

So have fun looking and let me know what you think!

Fan Love Interviews - Cherisse Rivera

If you are a "liker" of my fan page on Facebook then you know that I have a section called Fan Love where I post pictures of people wearing their Nelesc Designs duds. Well, I decided to take it a step further on my blog and not only post a picture but also give my clients a chance to tell the world who they are and promote their business and/or other endeavors. I also share my blog posts with my personal and fan page friends so more people, besides my blog followers, will be in on how great my fans are. 

Cherisse Rivera was the first person to take me up on my offer and here she is rockin' the Billie Holiday puff sleeve jacket I made for her. She was a pleasure to work with and I am so proud to be featuring her today.

1) How did you find out about Nelesc Designs? 

Heard about it by looking for women's t-shirts on etsy.com


2) Why did you choose this top/icon? I love Billie Holiday pictures, I have a few products with her face on them, plus I am more of a moderate politically, so I chose it because I think its more "me" than some other icons.

3) Tell me about yourself.

By day, I work in the legal/consulting field. Other than that, I am working with a website called http://fusicology.com/. Fusicology is a website that has a presence in a number of cities. It promotes progressive music culture through event listings and relevant content. We love all music, but this website tends to give a greater voice to indie artists, especially neosoul artists.

4)What would you like to see more of at Nelesc Designs?

New icon "faces", especially for the cuffs. Perhaps some handbags as well.

5) What are you reading or listening to nowadays?

Reading: "John Henry Days", and listening- Authenticity by Foreign Exchange

Note to self: new icon faces! Thanks Cherisse, I need to get started on that. From our e-mail chats I could tell how cool Cherisse was and I was right! When you get a chance, check out Fusicology, I did and it's a really great sight for music lovers!