New name, who this?

Hello friends! Welcome to my new and hopefully improved blog.

In this inaugural post I’d like to explain why the rebrand was necessary for me at this point, and hope you’ll want to follow along as before. After several years of being emilia_to_nuno everywhere, I have been feeling I had outgrown it for a while now, so I took advantage of the imminent renewal of my domain to change it, as one does I guess.

But why, you ask? First of all, I feel there’s a generalized lack of resources on not just what we could call “classic style”, but also and especially the making aspect of tailoring for diverse bodies. While my focus is the queer crowd, I welcome anybody who doesn’t feel catered by other more traditional “m*nswear” blogs. Secondly, sewing is definitely not my only crafty hobby, and I would like to share other facets of my very DIY life, as well as other random-yet-interesting-but-not-strictly-crafting bibs and bobs which tickle my fancy, such as bespoke shoes and my current obsession, Art Deco cufflinks.

It is also my intention to eventually transition away from Patreon to managing subscriptions on WordPress entirely, mostly due to the integration between the two being not very intuitive for some, as well as why own woes with that platform. Speaking of Patreon, some patrons have mentioned they stopped subscribing because “the focus was no longer on tailoring” and I want to make sure you all understand my focus was never on tailoring per se, it was on inclusivity and gender expansive design, the tutorials were just a bonus to help folks like me demystify the obscure world of tailoring and learn to make clothing which fits our bodies and gender expression. I just happen to like suits! For sure you can expect more tailoring posts, not just on the sewing side but also “style guides” and historical posts, keeping in mind a radically inclusive approach. Basically, I aim to be the non-binary, politically inclined, crafty version of the Gentleman’s Gazette (which despite the name totally advocates for anybody wearing suits, #TheMoreYouKnow).

Of course this doesn’t mean every Instagram post will be a 2200 characters treatise and the blog will have the flavor of an academic journal updated daily. I am human after all and even I cannot be serious 100% of the time, not to mention my ASD brain has limited bandwidth and more projects than there are hours in the day.

Now coming to my new name and handle, in case it wasn’t clear, I am terrible at workshopping names, and tend to end up with handles which are “x and y”(for example, Emilia to Nuno means Emilia and fabric in Japanese). Years ago I was told having my name in the handle of my IG account would help people find me, an advice I am not sure is really sound at this point. In any case, the direction I’m headed is less about Emilia and more about he bigger picture, so I removed my name from the equation. However, I wanted the new name to reflect the identity of my “brand”:

Making, because this is and will remain a blog about various crafts, branching out from sewing to other creative endeavors, as well as other less obvious ways of making, such as making change, and

Candor, which according to the dictionary mean “the quality of being open and honest; frankness”. I am very much known as the kind of person who calls a spade a spade and is brutally honest, so it definitely fits (it’s also a reference to Star Trek, thanks to Nayila for bringing it up). I also want this space to foster honest and at times uncomfortable discussions.

So there you have it. I hope you’ll keep reading in the future.

Cheers

E

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