As seen in Gab Magazine: The Coming of Age Issue

By Isabella Mansfield

Hobbyist designers Sean O’Loughlin and Emma Barnes didn’t know each other before starting their pieces inspired by Gab’s “coming of age” theme, yet their processes led them to the same locally beloved place. Village Discount provided them the materials, then the materials guided what they were going to make. 

“I went right to ok, let's put together things that you might have had growing up, an old bedspread, a blanket, a flannel, just things that provided you comfort, comfy cozy things, and mash them all up.” Sean's inspiration materialized in the form of a patchwork business suit, made entirely out of secondhand materials, “I was asking myself, as I come into adulthood and get into the workforce, how do I carry the feelings of childhood with that, how do I keep a whimsy about things?” Sean works in data analysis at an insurance company, but the internet knows him better as seanybtw, sewing, embroidering and crocheting ingenious and funny creations that have resonated with people in a way he never expected. His favorite part of his process is watching his ideas materialize. As he puts it, “You can think of something random then you make it happen, and make it into a piece of reality.” 

What began as a covid hobby for him blossomed into a successful business and social media presence, with over 50 million views on his various accessories and garments. “I had this idea for these earmuffs that are shaped like a pair of hands. I’ve sold like, three hundred of them at this point, which is insane, I never thought that would happen. I also made a sweater that I sewed traditional tattoos onto. I started out with just a barbed wire cuff on the sleeve and just posted it like, whatever I just need something to post, this’ll be stupid, and it just went insane.” 

His “coming of age” suit is a variation on what he usually does. “This suit is more of a complete concept, which I’m really excited about, because the things I usually make have just been one-offs. That was one of my goals for this year, to be a little more intentional about what I’m creating. To get my stuff out of my bedroom, and into the real world.”

While these designers feel no personal attachment to the actual materials used in their pieces, the process of sewing itself is nostalgic. For Sean, “I would say it’s more the process of making something since my mom taught me and I grew up watching her do it. Watching her sew something wrong and get pissed and rip it up, stab herself with a pin, get frustrated, now I’m doing all the exact same things. That’s where the nostalgia comes from.”

For Emma, the process was quite literally handed down. “My grandma has actually gifted me fabrics that she's collected throughout her life or have been passed down to her from her mother, her grandmother, who were all big quilters, so I have a lot of those, which is really special. Of course, I rarely use them because I’m scared of messing them up.” Instead she looks elsewhere for inspiration, “A lot of my sewing projects are made from second hand materials, I try to imagine the history of them.” For this sewing project, she’s making a skirt made entirely out of ties collected from the $1 bin at, yes, Village Discount. 

Village seems to be the place to go right now for garment makers.  As Sean puts it, “I went to Village Discount, and was like, alright, what do I have to work with? Which is another thing that I really love to do with sewing. Fabric is really expensive, and Joanne just died, which is sad, but I saw it coming.”

For Emma, the concept of the tie skirt reflects who she was as a child, “What it really reminds me of is ransacking my dads closet as a kid. I would put on my moms heels and play with my dads ties around my neck and run around. As a kid, I was so gay. I had absolutely no interest in men, I had a crush on all of my girlfriends and would dress very tomboyish up into 8th or 9th grade. Now my style has completely shifted, but I still like to have aspects of the masculine.” 

To know Emma is to know her distinctive style, with vintage statement pieces that bring a playful sense of humor to the mundane of everyday life. Her style mixes masculine with feminine, vintage pieces with contemporary silhouettes in a way that is both effortless and romantic. “I’ve always had a very sentimental attachment to clothes. I came at it with a curatorial view even as a kid. I had specific items that meant so much to me. In 7th grade I went to this craft fair at the high school and I bought this fish messenger bag, you’d open it up and inside there's a little coin purse that's a smaller fish. That’s where I’d keep my little coins to buy cookies. I would wear it everyday, without fail.” 

This curatorial approach to style (she’s a Taurus) combined with her witty imagination allows her to make fun out of everyday life, “My wardrobe is all statement pieces. I feel like I get into character when I buy things or try to imagine it in a specific setting, like I have this big polkadot skirt that I exclusively wear to Honky Tonk.” (If you’d like to see the skirt twirl in person, come to Empty Bottle Friday between 5-7:30pm and ask Emma for a dance).

One can argue that this fun-making takes form best in her sewing practice, which began in high school, “I started out mending clothes and got really into embroidery, repurposing things I didn’t wear by adding designs to them.” 

As a child Emma didn't fantasize about being a grown up, and still doesn’t. As she puts it, “I couldn’t really visualize it at the time, that’s how I feel now, too. I’ve always thought about the past more than the future.” Funnily enough, Sean couldn’t visualize it either, “I had no career aspirations at all as a kid, I always just said I wanted to be rich. Or Anderson Cooper.” Whether they could visualize their future lives or not, what they can do is watch their ideas materialize before them with something as simple as a trip to Village Discount and a few hours in front of the sewing machine.