A STORY IN SILK

Once upon a time there was a girl. She was born with the blessing of modern magic inside her. Like any good fairy-tale, this girl had to fight; physically and mentally, not just the enemies but to find the power within herself. That girl was me.

   What do you want to be when you grow up?  Every child gets asked that, I think. If not by a parent, then by a teacher or a friend. When I was little, the future was an unknown to me, but it didn’t stop me having dreams. From the moment I was born I knew that there was something out there that needed my magic. And I made sure that everybody around me knew it.

   My world was filled with the things that I loved. Music, art, clothing – I surrounded myself in color, light, and love. Each day was a blessing. My only goal for the future was to live life to the fullest. People laughed when I gave them that answer. I was young. I didn’t know why. I thought that it was a good answer, and a good way to embrace the world around me.
   Then, suddenly, I was grown up...and I still didn’t have an answer as to where exactly my magic could be released. People demanded a set a path. They wanted me to tell them where I was headed. What was I going to do for a living? They told me that I would be lost without an end goal in mind.
   Funny enough, I found that I wasn’t lost. My spirituality guided me through the days. As long as I stayed true to myself, I realized that I would never really be lost. There was magic in my thoughts, but that seemed even crazier to those around me.

   Over the next few years, I started to put as much effort as I could into making my life as full and colourful as possible. University was my first choice. I wanted to surround myself with people and cultures. Still, people refused to see the magic in my soul. They would chuckle and say “magic doesn’t exist! You just have a sparkle.” But, what is a sparkle if not magic?

   Somehow, by a stroke of luck and talent, I found myself working as a model. Still, they didn’t believe in my magic. They said it was a coincidence. All about hard-work. The photographers could see it though. They said there was magic in me, but I needed a better way to let it out – to give it to the world. The days were long and sometimes gruelling. It was a challenge to balance work and my studies, but one that I fully embraced.
   Life wasn’t meant to be easy – it was just meant to be full. Full of magic. I kept moving. Every day was a new challenge. Those challenges helped me grow. My life was suddenly full of strong, independent women. Some of them had been in the industry for years. They could tell that I had a true passion for the world of fashion. They were never catty or cruel. Instead, they only further helped uplift me because we all had magic in our bones. The fashion industry was my cover, and we were bound together, ready to reach out and reach others. To share our unique brand of magic, and let it flow. Yet still, I didn’t have my outlet. What was it that called me with whispers on the wind? 

   It didn’t matter how much of a struggle it was to keep everything balanced. I never wanted it to end. I was going to find it.

   At twenty two, I had more of a grasp on my world than ever before. My years as a model had given me the inspiration to open up my own modelling agency. I wanted to help other women learn the power that could be found in their beauty.
   People often confuse pretty things with delicate, weak, and easy to break. But anyone that has ever been in the fashion industry knows otherwise. There’s power to be found in beauty. These were my women, my coven – a whole host of girls grasping their natural powers and saying, yes. This is me.

   A woman who knows they look beautiful feels empowered. The women who came through the doors of my agency were strong, bold, and elegant. They held the world in their hands.
   I taught them just as much as they helped me. My agency was bustling. I formed contacts with women who wouldn’t stay in my life for long, but I also formed contacts with women who I knew would always be in my life. We helped each other.
   It was an experience that I will always be grateful for. But...the longer I owned my agency, the more I realized that something was still missing. I started searching to fill the void. There had to be something missing, right?
   For the first time, I began to wonder if the people from my childhood were actually right. Maybe I should have been planning my life from a younger time. Maybe I should have had a plan from the start?
   I couldn’t remember being this lost before.
   University. My agency. The people I met. It didn’t seem like enough anymore.
   I wasn’t sure what to do, so I tried to broaden my horizons. The lure of Thaiboxing was strong, and one that I quickly fell into. I was good at it! It was fun, invigorating, and exhausting in the way that I was always craving. I could let loose all of my frustrations, and stay fit in the process!
   But I also learned something during my time in the ring. I wasn’t the only woman there, not by far...but there was a disconnect between the sport and the idea of femininity. Why were people trying to bottle our magic?

   The other people there were of the mind-set that you couldn’t be pretty and strong at the same time. There was a sharp division drawn between it. Softness was viewed a weakness. I was an outlier. My belief had always been that women can have it all and never have to decide to be taking one journey only.
   Suddenly, I found myself surrounded by people who didn’t share that belief with me. Those were the ones that stood in the way, and I had the opportunity to knock them down.

   The other competitors in the Thaiboxing tournaments I attended often misjudged me for that very reason. They saw me show up in bright colours, and they instantly wrote me off as someone that wasn’t worth watching.
   I promptly proved them wrong of course, but that was such an odd experience. Eventually, I decided that it was an environment that I didn’t want to be a part of any longer. I kept practising in my own time, privately using Thaiboxing as a way to stay in shape, but I couldn’t manage to get myself to move past the fact that the people there saw me as weak just because I shared a love for the lighter part of life.
   It only made my life feel that much more complete.
   I started searching even harder for something to fill that void. 

   It took me six years to figure out why my life still didn’t feel complete.
   The modelling industry was full of powerful women...but it was stifling, as well. It was over saturated with the constant need to be the next big thing. The fact that only certain people could make it in that career – women with just one look – was starting to wear on me.
   I closed the doors to my agency. My search for a more holistic approach to my love for fashion began. The whispers were growing louder, but still, I couldn’t quite hear them.

   Eventually, it led me to Ibiza, where I now spend most of my summers. It’s here, on the beach, with the waves crashing and the gulls crying out, that I realized the future didn’t have to be set in stone.
   It could be made day by day.
   In the summer, I stayed in Ibiza. I let the wonders of the beaches wash over me. During the winter, I travelled through the states and through Asia, exploring the cultures that had fascinated me so much in my youth. This exploration helped settle something in my soul.
   The restless that had sunk into my skin during my days running the modelling agency slowly began to fade away. The world was glistening and new again.
   We create the magic in our lives. I created it in university, and I could create it again. My magic came in the form of turquoise beaches, pink sand, and the lightness of a sea-breeze. The world I had found myself in led me to realize that I didn’t just want to show off other people’s clothing.
   I wanted to make my own. I wanted to take all of the wonder and magic and power that I had gathered in my heart over the years, and share them with other people. The future was now. The future was whatever I made it out to be.
   The search for my true calling was on!

   The search was long and arduous. I almost gave up before I had even begun. The problem was that I wanted to create a design that stood for everything I was as a person. I wanted my first collection to showcase the elegance, femininity, and strength that I had developed over the years, and that I knew all women had within them.
   I didn’t just want to make another collection of denim wear or evening wear; something stiff and easy to over look. My clothes had to change the perspective of anyone that put them on. It had to teach the world that something as simple as a piece of clothing could lift up our entire moods!
   My collection needed to bring colour, life and love into the world. It needed to allow women to feel confident in their own skin. In university, I had known people with sensitive skin. I myself couldn’t stand the way that certain fabrics felt.
   Whatever I made my collection with, it had to be smooth and luxurious. It couldn’t be restricting. No. It had to empower the person that was wearing it!

   That was how I would put my magic out, in a very real way – a way that others could touch and feel, things they could believe in. Things they could feel.
   That’s when I found it.
   Hamsa-Silk.
   Hamsa-Silk was a high quality fabric made from ethically grown silk. My fabrics would be produced in Germany, to guarantee quality, and to ensure that I was not supporting any kind of cruel production. I couldn’t source from anywhere that might have been using child labour or other such harmful means of production. My products needed to match my values from the start of production to the final stage of it.
   With the fabric chosen, I only had one final bridge to cross: creating the designs.
   That would be easy, right? I was a creative individual with a strong mind for fashion! How hard could it be?

   It turned out that it could be really, really difficult. My mind was completely blank.
   For weeks, I bounced around ideas. I spoke to friends and family. I spent hours drawing up designs only for the paper to end up in the trash. Then one day, in an attempt to clear my head, I took my boat out for the day.
   It was a venture I had made countless times before. The waves lapped at the hull of the boat. The sun beat down warm and comforting against my skin. Birds flew above me. Taking a boat out into the ocean just off the coast of Ibiza was like stepping into an entirely new world.
   The wind was strong that day. I pulled a headband out of my bag, sliding it on to help keep the hair out of my face. The fabric was rough and worn. I knew that by the end of the day, my hair would be tangled up around it. I would have to fight to get it out.
   Inspiration struck.
   That was the perfect base for my collection. A headband!
   I grabbed the drawing pad that I had with me and started to work. Suddenly, everything else was falling into place! Before my very eyes, the basis for my first collection was becoming reality!

   Not long after what I’ve fondly been calling “The Boat Trip That Started It All”, I came to another even more important decision.
   I decided that the headband which would serve as a foundation for my entire collection would always be available. It would be called the Peace-Silk Headband, and by selling it, I would offer constant support to farmers and silk growers who produced ethical silk.
   It would be my way to give back to the people who made my line of fashion possible. I would also dedicate it to the people of Formentera, Spain. It might have been the smallest island of the Pityusic Islands group, but it was one of the single largest inspirations for me.
   I wanted to bring the luxury of the island life into a new form. The elegance of the island, the power of the ocean, and the smooth glide of silk..it was going to be amazing.
   Finally, the entire world would have a chance to see me.
   Me, Laila Regalado, The woman that had started out as nothing and had fought her way up, day by day, through university, through failed career attempts, through dark days and even darker thoughts.
   The world was going to see me...and I was going to change the world. One piece of silk at a time. 

And so, she stands tall, like every woman should, offering out silks that let others unlock their powers. We all have magic in our veins. And so, our story ends – but it isn’t happily ever after. It ends fabulously ever after.

Summary version 

A Story in Silk is the modern day, true fairy-tale that every fabulously independent woman needs to hear. A tale of magic, fashion and fabulousness.

Every girl wants to be part of a fairy-tale, they just don’t want, or need, to be the damsel in distress. In the world of fashion, I knew that my magic had a place. 

It was something that had always been inside me, even from being a little girl. The problem was, accessing it. I knew that my unique brand of magic was bigger than I was. It just wouldn’t fit in one person.

It led me to others who had the same school of magic as I did; strong, empowered women looking to calve out their paths in our high speed, beautiful world.

I floated by university and into modelling, but still, it wasn’t quite enough. The company was better, but my magic was locked inside me, I just couldn’t find the key to my destiny.

Seeking the help of my fellow cover girl coven, I set up an agency, banding together a powerful group of women with style and smarts. It was a fabulous Queendom, filled with glitz, glamour, good looks and girls growing into women.

Except, it wasn’t my Queendom. Not quite anyway.

So, I closed my doors, seeking to open other ones. 

It was then that fate led me to a new destination, Ibiza.

I wasn’t quite sure what I was going to do – I just knew that I was going to do it. And one day when on a boat in the Mediterranean winds, my fairy god mother approached in the form of a slip of fabric. I tied my hair up, knowing it wasn’t going to be enough to fight off the wind. And then it struck me. Headbands.

These could not be any headbands however. I scoured the land, far and wide and what did I find? The Peace-Silk Headband; slips of fabric that could carry my magic into the world.

I had done it. I had found the potential for my power, and it was in Peace-Silk Headband 

And so, she stands tall, like every woman should, offering out silks that let others unlock their powers. We all have magic in our veins. And so, our story ends – but it isn’t happily ever after. It ends fabulously ever after.