Polychrome Pants
To be entirely honest, I can't remember a time in my adult life when I didn't feel like these pants were something I desperately needed. I think the idea for wacky ancient Persian-style leggings popped into my head when I was looking at pottery in my intro to Greek history course in college. I can't recall exactly when I first saw the polychrome Archer, but I remember that when I saw him, I immediately fell in love with his totally fab leggings and Phrygian cap. What a snappy dresser, I thought—he shall be my new fashion icon! All throughout college, post-bacc, and grad school, I searched for a pair of pants that approximated his. Alas, no luck. I would have to take charge of my own stretchy pants destiny.
A few months ago, I was playing around in Illustrator, trying to learn how to make repeating textile patterns, when it occurred to me that I could finally combine my years of Classics training with my new career as an artist—and create the leggings of my dreams. I pulled a photo of the archer into Illustrator, traced out the basic pattern, adjusted to make it repeatable and aesthetically pleasing, eye dropper-ed the colors, and then proceeded to spend the next several hours swearing at the program because I had no idea what I was doing. Eventually I got there, though, and I had the pattern printed on some leggings. I'm also planning to have it made into fabric yardage so that I can use it to line the pockets of my new Classics-themed "Pockets Against the Patriarchy" scarves.
The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive amongst the Classics crowd and overwhelmingly confused amongst non-Classicists, which is pretty much exactly what I hoped for.
These leggings and my "Pockets Against the Patriarchy" scarves will all be available in my online shop at www.mollybeestudio.com as they are finished, or I can take orders directly via social media (@mollybeestudio) or email (mollybeestudio@gmail.com).