Dear Jenny Pennywood Community,

It’s Sunday night, and I’m on the couch with a tequila + Squirt (iiykyk), and I feel like writing an unfiltered Mind Vacation about the new Studio Tee and the pay-what-you-want situation. So here we are.

OK, so the Studio Tee. Here’s what it was supposed to be: a broader step toward “patterned basics,” and a tee that felt inclusive across size and gender (we were calling it the Everybody Tee.) We significantly upped our usual production quantities so we could offer the shirt for wholesale, which was a big thing for us. I worked with a production manager in LA who came highly recommended and positioned himself as an expert. The samples looked great; we were excited, and I let myself take my eye off the ball for a sec. Production moved forward and was completed, and the box arrived for the photoshoot. Mistake #1: It was clear a shrink test hadn’t been done before it went to cut-and-sew, which was his job to do and that made the shirts boxier and less unisex than intended. I figured I could live with that, because who doesn’t love a boxy fit? But it went sideways when we realized that the single-needle stitch at the neckline, which worked perfectly in the sample, broke on many of the production shirts, and that was the moment our entire plan shifted. Fuck fuck fuck. I couldn’t roll these out for wholesale, nor would I try to sneak this broken thread thing by my customers. That would have been stressful and not in line with my standards. So we scrapped wholesale, and our solution was to be super transparent, do a pay-what-you-want thing, and move forward.

Pay-what-you-want feels good, and the shirts are selling, but still, fuck, you know. I love the tees and wear mine all the time. I took that broken stitch out with a pair of tweezers, washed it, and it’s perfectly imperfect, just like I like it. And really, the Jenny Pennywood vibe carries a certain amount of imperfectness, and so one could say that this batch of production is on brand, but I’m disappointed nonetheless. Plans freaking change, and it gets under my skin. Whhhyyyyy!!!!! Why can’t things just go as planned? I’ve realized that I have had to be fairly flexible in the work I do, but sometimes I just don’t want to bend. Does anyone else feel that way?

I have a feeling I’m not alone in my frustration, so let’s chat. Tell us all about how you had to bend, but didn’t want to, and how you dealt with it, felt about it, and what changed because of it. Drop it in the comments section. I’ll read through them and will pick a winner and a runner-up and send you a tee.

I want to hear all about it.
XO
JEN