Monday, October 27, 2025

EK Shelton Studio: A venture in the retail world-

As the film/TV/streaming costume business has been slow, I've kept up on social media and on Zoom meetings with my unions both east and west coast and am now making an experimental foray into the world of retail. 

This may lead nowhere, but having made a number of cheery, high contrast custom striped tops for myself and hearing from friends online that they wanted similar ones for themselves, I went ahead and had a number of them professionally made at a great sample shop by a neighbor down the hall from my studio. They are far costlier than the generic t shirts we are all used to buying. The fabrics alone are about $50 a pop, shipping from places as far flung as from China (I am now waiting on a delivery that is 3 weeks in the offing), cost of labor and shipping out (not to mention additional insurance costs), these are not your Old Navy sale items.

Having scoured fabric stores in NYC and all over the internet, I honestly only liked about 6 stripes in fabric contents I thought suitable. Having bought fabrics years ago for two seasons of the Metropolitan Opera and one season of the New York Shakespeare Festival and various stage and film productions, I am far pickier than most, but we'll see how it goes.

The merch:




The careful cutting and stitching to join the "V"s from front to back. Costume people will understand the attention to detail and work involved!



We shall see how this goes as the impact of tariffs will most likely up the price of the best imports I could find and purchase, but here's a case where you will not see versions of yourself coming and going!

Cheers and wishing all a great Halloween, Thanksgiving and fall into winter time-

xoxo Liz.

https://www.sheltondesigns.com/ek-shelton-studio


Having neglected this blog for ages, I've been otherwise occupied with an adorable, now nearly two year old Pomeranian, the Bunny Bear. She is one of the friendliest pups one might hope to meet, but a real sidewalk snacker and faster than anything, loves to pick up and chew anything of interest (including zippers, blankets, she can destroy the working end of a pen in less than 10 seconds.)

Something everyone should know about and that I learned the hard way is that there is a thing called "Marijuana Toxicosis". This affects dogs, cats and can also affect children. In the case of my pup who got it in July of 2024, the vet at the Veterinary hospital said that all that would be necessary to set it off was just sticking her nose into a thrown out gummy or the roach of a spent joint. My then far younger puppy went from being happy, running around on leash outside to minutes later having body wide tremors and being unable to walk. She had to have an overnight at the veterinary hospital. Here is something I posted all over the place at the time:


I spread this info because since the legalization of Weed shops, people toss their roaches on the sidewalk and street in much the same way as they do cigarette butts. I'd love to get this issue more widely known as although there have been articles written about it, most people are not aware of the situation.

This is my public service announcement for the love of pets and kids...