FLESH

It boggles my mind to think of how blessed we are to live in America: to enjoy a walk in the park on a sunny afternoon, take a nice country drive, or eat ice cream while watching Seinfeld reruns. Even more so, it amazes me how we can be so cushioned by these nice things that we don’t realize that others have incredibly harder lives which are filled with atrocities.

Sure, we think someone “over there” in a foreign country is hungry or in the midst of war, which is horrible, but we don’t often think of the word “atrocities” being used for dealings in our neighborhood, on our own street, or maybe even right next door.

A personal friend of mine, Kristin Ross Lauterbach, has created a documentary called FLESH: Bought and Sold in the U.S. which looks at human trafficking and prostitution. Did you know the average age a young girl is forced into prostitution is twelve to fourteen? And that is in the U.S.! The time these young girls should be enjoying life, school dances, and spending time with friends.

FLESH calls into question our definitions of slavery, human trafficking, and prostitution in the United States. This is a story told by girls who have escaped and by those still enslaved, by former and current pimps, the abolitionists of today, including numerous directors of non-profit organizations, a former U.S. Ambassador, LAPD vice, and the L.A. City Task Force on Human Trafficking.

One of the non-profit organizations is Nightlight International which part of Sky Pie Apparel proceeds go to.

The film is showing at Awareness Film Festival on Saturday, May 7th, at 9PM. For more information and to buy tickets go to: Heal One World

Spring has Sprung!

It's that time of year when I start kicking off my down comforter in the middle of the night and give up my flannel pj's for underroos and a comfy tee. It's spring!

And to celebrate this wonderful time of year we are gearing up for the
1st Annual Spring Sky Pie and Tee Party!!

It'll be a wonderful time of eating pie, drinking tea, and seeing our new unisex shirts for men and women!

We are working out the details now and want your feedback and help. What would you like to see and do at this party? Let us know! Anything that comes to mind, smallest detail to the most outlandish idea!

Leave comments here or on our Facebook! www.facebook.com/SkyPieApparel

Hope In The City Fashion Show

Thank you to everyone who helped to make the Hope in the City fashion show a smashing success! Hundreds of people showed up to enjoy to live music, art, dance, and, of course, fashion! Not to mention we raised a woman’s hoop skirt full of money to support the wonderful Downtown Women’s Center charity!

Congrats to those people who won Sky Pie Apparel designer shirts! If you get the chance we’d love to hear from you!

For more pics go to our Facebook page! www.facebook.com/SkyPieApparel

Hope In The City

Sky Pie Apparel will be joining the “Hope In The City” fashion show and will be a proud sponsor on March 14th at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles!!!

Hope In The City is the premiere charity fashion event and community for the city of Los Angeles. Organized by Mosaic, Hope In The City creates a space for fashion designers, fashion enthusiasts, models, hair & make-up artists, photographers, and all to come together and use their unique gifts to serve the city and connect with one another to build a community of hope.

Proceeds from the event will be going to the Downtown Women’s Center.

The mission of the Downtown Women’s Center is to provide permanent supportive housing and a safe and healthy community fostering dignity, respect, and personal stability, and to advocate ending homelessness for women.

Sky Pie will be donating some of their limited shirts to help benefit this cause. Come on over and have a great time with us! For more info go to www.Hopeinthecity.info

Where are the men? Where are the men's shirts?

Who in your life would you consider to be a real man? What are the characteristics of a real man?

I’ve found that often a woman is attracted to a man by how he makes her feel. If she feels excited, loved, or safe around him, there is a good chance she will feel attraction. These are great emotions, but can be very deceptive. We’ve all known the woman who was deeply in love with someone we could obviously see was going to be bad for her and end up in heartache.

What is your definition of a real man? For me, the definition is someone who does the right thing at the right time. “A man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do.” Everyone is going to make mistakes but is he going to be there when the times get tough? Does he treat the people around him, especially his family, with respect even when he doesn’t feel like it? How does he treat the waitress that waits on you?

Look at the men in your life. Do they match up with what it means to be a man or are you “in love” and hope that he’ll change for the better?

I was excited and a little pleasantly surprised when we first opened our doors not too long ago and I got an email from a man wondering if we had men’s shirts, specifically the “Respect Women” shirt. (At this time we just have women’s.)

Shortly after that, one female customer said she wore her Respect shirt in the mall. She was only there 30 minutes, but within those thirty minutes, she received two compliments… and both of them were from men!

I’m happy to say we do have men’s shirts on the way, so think about who in your life might like one. They are in manly colors “Paratrooper Green” , “Texas Sunset”, and “Storm Cloud Gray”.

A good man is hard to find, but it looks like they’re out there!

Time for a Change

Today is #1! (Holding a foam hand #1) Today is #1! Today is 1-1-11!! Happy New Year!!

I love New Year’s. What a great time to reflect, plan out goals, and think of how you can change for the better. It’s so fresh and nice, especially when it’s normally so hard to change. You can see how hard by checking out how crowded a gym is in January versus how less crowded it is just two months later.

Sky Pie Apparel is all about change. We want to change the world in a positive way and strongly support anyone trying to make a change for the better.

But what about the people, other than ourselves, we want, or even NEED, to change?

Someone very close to me is going through a trial separation from her husband. Being the typical “deadbeat dad” he is financially irresponsible (buying a $500 gun when he says he doesn’t have money to buy groceries), unsupportive (coming home late in the night and sleeping most of the day when not at work), and emotionally abusive (making her feel like thing’s are her fault). It got so stressful, she had to leave.

Since she has left, he hasn’t shown much change. He’s gone to church a couple of times but nothing more. I asked him if he wanted to talk, but got no response. Now, there is a video on the internet showing that he is getting back into drugs which he had quit before.

I know the easy way out is just to say to leave him, and maybe ultimately she should, but love is something worth fighting for and there are children who need a good father. She loves him and knows he has good qualities deep down.

To the observer, he obviously needs to change; otherwise, he will lose his family and possibly his house and job.

Apart from going Michael Westen on his behind and hanging him out a window blind folded, what can we do to encourage change or help him to see that he needs to change? Feel free to comment.