Transcription of Roxi Suger for the show Mill Town Creativity #201
Lisa: I’ve been hearing the name Roxi Suger probably for about three, four, five years now. It always happens that if I hear a person’s name enough, they eventually come to be in my life that I get a chance to actually meet them. This has happened with Roxi Suger who is here with us today. Roxi Suger is a designer based in Biddeford and her collection Angelrox is an eco-friendly wardrobe crafted and created in the U.S., in fact, Biddeford. Roxi was raise the in Muscle Shoals, Alabama and attended the University of Alabama. She honed her skills directing designs from collections ranging from high-end designer Vivienne Tam to retailers such as Urban Outfitters and Le Chateau. The trademark of Angelrox is focused on balanced and giving. Roxi directs her business and life with a dedication to making a difference. Thank you so much for coming in.
Roxi: Thank you so much for having me here, Lisa. It’s a pleasure.
Lisa: It’s really interesting that you’ve ended up in the very mills where my family used to create textiles. The Belisles and the [Carrier 00:31:45] family came down from Canada and spent time creating textiles. This is a few generations before me. Now you’re doing the same creating in a different way.
Roxi: Yes, of course.
Lisa: You’re revitalizing an entire industry that I think many Mainers are familiar with.
Roxi: Well, I’m a small part of I think of a broader revitalization that is happening in a very exciting time in our society, in Maine, across America as we’re seeing these mill towns not be empty builds anymore but become thriving parts of the community. We are so delighted be there in Biddeford and to be a small part of that very exciting revitalization that is happening. The magnificence of the history and of so many families having worked and strived and brought up their families in that very mill I mean we can feel that spirit every day as we’re there working and trying to do our little part to bring it forward. It’s quite a gift and a blessing.
Lisa: Now, how did you make it all the way from Alabama to Biddeford? I’m sure nobody’s ever asked you that question before, right?
Roxi: Well, it, as I like to say, has been a wonderful spiral. Basically, my training in Alabama I knew my path would take me to New York, which it did, and spent eighteen lovely years there which was a very formative, very instructive, learned a lot and was able to launch Angelrox there and in addition to, as you mentioned, designing for many other lovely firms and also teaching at Parsons. All of that was just a part of my evolution as not only a designer but in giving back. I adore education that interaction with the students was as gratifying as each interaction I have with my customers. It’s just an amazing thing to be here.
Lisa: Are there a lot of designers that come out of the University of Alabama or from Alabama in general?
Roxi: Well, I don’t think it’s allowed for that specific field, but it was a great program that I went to in human environmental sciences. I was very fortunate to secure the one scholarship they had specifically for fashion design right out of high school. To have that early dedication be rewarded in such a way was very gratifying. I chose to go there so I would have that broad university experience and still be close to family through that development time of college and before I struck out on my own to New York and beyond. In New York, of course returning back to your question of what has brought us to Maine, a long with all the great things I got to do there I also met my love and we started our family. As our son started to grew, we wanted to offer him much more freedom and a much more holistic life than we felt we could provide for him in New York. We had been coming up to Maine. We’re very fortunate that my father in law had retired to Saco, and so we were frequent visitors and put our sights on making our way here soon as we could.
Lisa: You brought your love with you today.
Roxi: I did. I did. Mr. Julian Schlaver, yes.
Lisa: Julian your husband he’s sitting over to the side here. He seems like a pretty active part of your organization.
Roxi: Very much a part. In fact, I was able to get Angelrox started and self-financed and it was really me, some beautiful interns a long the way, and my little guy as an infant going with me to the office every day until I got the business to the point that Julian could leave his very nice job in the city to come onboard full time. That has been a huge, huge catalyst in our growth, in our ability to move here, and to continue to grow and serve our customers and to give back to the community in all that we can. It’s been very exciting since we landed here. It was just Julian and I. His dad rolled up his sleeves, jumped right in to help as we landed, and now we find ourselves in this beautiful facility with our beautiful sweet little store up the street, Suger, and a staff of ten that are just amazing. I mean Maine has fulfilled all of our thoughts and dreams and hopes of what it would be just full of the most dedicated hardworking, beautiful, responsive, giving people and we are so happy now to call it home.
Lisa: How old is your little one now?
Roxi: He’s seven now.
Lisa: How does he feel about all of this? He grew up with this. He probably didn’t know it any other way.
Roxi: He is such an advocate. He’s such a supporter. He’s already turned into quite the little marketer. He has definitely lived, breathed it. We used to joke that the first thing he’s going to do out of the womb or when he started to talk was probably a rap demo. He is definitely very much a part of everything that has happened, but he is also the biggest reason that we have chosen to be here and that is to have family nearby to be focused on that to have the time and the space to be with him and to spend just joyful moments with not only him but expanded family that we’ve already and joyfully created here since we’ve arrived.
Lisa: You said that you received a scholarship at the University of Alabama so this must have meant coming out of high school that you had a strong sense that this was the direction you wanted to go in. How young were you? How did you know that this is what you wanted to be doing?
Roxi: Well, naively by the age of … I started probably drawing and gravitating toward fashion by the age of seven, eight. My grandmothers, one in particular, taught me how to sew on the sewing machine, actually two of them. I had very inspirational grandmothers. Once I knew how to sew, then that was very much my path. I had a little deviation of thinking that I would love to be a ballerina. I gave that up wisely and focused on fashion and have never looked back and have never wanted to do anything else. It is very exciting to be doing exactly what I dreamed to do.
Lisa: Does it strike you that you if knew this when you were seven or eight then that’s about the age that your son is now that whatever he’s thinking right now could be what he does when he grows up?
Roxi: It is very, very amazing to think that, but it makes absolute sense to me. He is just absolutely fascinated with the ocean and the sea and all the creatures in it and he is so smart and intuitive and engaged and it would not surprise me a bit if he doesn’t become some kind of marine biologist or very much involved with that. I think that the kernels of our passions can emerge very early, but I think that anybody at anytime can set a dream for themselves and go down the path to follow it. I was very lucky in having that passion emerge so early and to be so tenacious or stubborn or whatever someone wants to call it to stick to it long enough to see it through.
Lisa: Well, that is a good point. I mean I think that there’s passion for the idea of it but then actually following through that’s a lot of work.
Roxi: I think anything worth while in life and any thing that we do is work. Every single day is an opportunity to do whatever you can towards your passions towards your dreams but also toward others and back to others. It’s just some days are going to be easier on that path and some are not. It’s just that’s life. It is an up and a down and a back and a forth. Just because I was tenacious doesn’t mean that it has always been easy and that there have not been days when the thought of doing anything else wasn’t just a little bit appealing because that’s just the natural course of things.
Lisa: Well, tell me about one of those experiences? What was one of those hurdles that you actually had to get over in order to keep moving forward with your dream?
Roxi: Being in New York during the course of 9/11 and that was right when I had started the business and naively and I think you have to have some naive bravado in order to start a business in the first place and so sometimes that is a good thing. I had jumped in very deep very quickly to having retail and everything else and had to very much retract back and between the probably economic circumstances of that situation as well as taking two aggressive steps right away as a small business got to enjoy a very wonderful humbling year of artists struggling and soul searching of can I stick with this. In those moments when my place of abode was an unheated artist’s loft in Dumbo, I had moments when I just wished I was somebody’s … Just tell me what to do. Give me my pile. Let me get through it today. I did go out and do whatever it took to survive and to as I like to say claw my way out of that and rise back up again to doing everything I dream to do. You definitely have those moments when the pasture looks greener somewhere else even though it probably is not.
Lisa: I like how you describe it as a wonderful year, the wonderful year of being the struggling artist and probably it was more than a year I’m guessing but yes.
Roxi: Yes, well, it took a few years to rise out but within a year I was back into a much better living circumstance in a proper very nice studio apartment in a space in which to work and live and start to thrive.
Lisa: Why Angelrox?
Roxi: Angelrox evolved … The symbol for the collection which to me represents balance and trying to find that place of peace and bliss and representing the balance of essential dichotomy so whether it’s hard, soft, light, dark, the skies, the Heavens, the Earth below, and so all of that is somehow encapsulated in that symbol for me. Angelrox emerged from actually a girlfriend of mine named Angel and I. When we would hang out together or go out together, that was a nickname or a silliness that emerged around us. It seemed to fit the logo at the time. It has been a wonderful for me exploration and a necessary part of my journey because I was never necessarily into angels or tapped into that ideal, but what it has led me down the path of is seeing the inherent angel in all of us here and now. That has been an incredible part of the journey, an incredible part of how our entire company sees the beautiful women that we work with that we dress that we have the joy and the pleasure to add anything to their life that equates to comfort and joy. It’s an amazing thing. Angelrox emerged as a match for that symbol and that logo. It has been a wonderful, wonderful exploration of spirit for me.
Lisa: Hearing that you might have wanted to once be a ballerina, it actually makes a little bit of sense because the clothes that you wear they’re very flowy, they’re very soft, but also comfortable, practical. I’ve tried them on a few times. I’m sorry. I don’t own any yet. There is something very nourishing about them, something very soulful.
Roxi: Thank you. It is a wonder to me and an absolute just beyond comprehension that the love and the passion that I feel somehow can translate through these tiny bits of cloth certainly the spirit of dance, certainly the spirit of adventure, the spirit of comforting, and just being confident to traverse through your days doing whatever needs to be done at all times the freedom to move and to express yourself in any way that you feel inspired to do.
Lisa: Giving back is very important to you. I know that I first learned of your collection when I was doing a fashion show with Ann Veronica and I think it was to benefit Preble Street. I believe that was that connection. You’ve also done your own work to benefit the community.
Roxi: Well, giving back is one of my core motivators for success. From the very start we named the corporation or I named the corporation BPG, as in be happy, be kind, and it’s also an ohmage to one of those dear grandmothers who’s name was Betty Peachy. The idea and spirit was that we would be able to get to the point that we could increasingly give back. I have always along the way been involved with any charitable event donating time, product, whatever we can to a vast array of amazing organizations. Since we’ve been here in Maine, it has been to wonderful to really focus those efforts most directly on our local community and to be able to see the impact of that has been exceedingly rewarding. We are very much about trying to do for others and give back all we can.
Part of that is a nice portion of our actual sales from Suger each month are donated to a local charity. That has allowed us to support everything from, of course, food banks like Seeds of Hope, to Mustang Rescue trying to care for beautiful horses and animals, to bicycle race, the women’s coalition bicycle race that is coming up this week in celebrating women and their empowerment and their health. For me and for us it’s been hard to pick one charity or one cause to give back to because we feel so strongly that whether it’s humanitarian whether it’s environmental whether it is community oriented that they’re all worthy and so we are very much enjoying this giving back to all that we can from a little epicenter and then hopefully being able to grow that over time. Then we were so excited last year to organization the Biddeford Ball, which we plan this year again. It was just such an incredible coming together of the community and incredible outreach and was able to raise wonderful, wonderful funds both for those in need as well as further development of Biddeford and it’s community and it’s revitalization.
Lisa: This idea of balance for you how does it manifest itself in your business and in your life?
Roxi: The every day seeking of it is always a wondrous humbling thing. You find it in little tiny snippets a long the way. Taking that day where I go ahead and I leave the office a little bit early and pick up our son and spend some time with him or go on a walk with him. The times that we sneak out and sit down to lunch and have a moment together. Moments of just stopping and taking a great big deep breath and a great big stretch and just looking out the window and seeing the blue sky, maybe not today but that’s okay, seeing the beautiful rain drops that are feeding the plants just stopping to look at things and say, “Oh, my gosh, this is so beautiful, and I am so thankful I’m here”, I think that’s the biggest way that I find my balance is by digging into my well of gratitude. Sometimes it is so humbling that it can almost bring you to your knees that this life is so beautiful and it is such a gift.
Lisa: How much of your I guess your life space is devoted to design versus creation versus more administrative logistical tasks? I mean are you able to continue to find the space you need to design and create?
Roxi: That is always a challenge. As you build a business, you increasingly find yourself engaged much more in the administrative, in the marketing. For us right now and the growth of Angelrox there’s an exceeding amount of travel that’s involved, and so I would love more time to do what my heart’s passion is which is create and design. Every single day and all of those activities inherently have creativity in them. Every interaction I have with an individual, whether it’s a customer, whether it’s a buyer for a store, whether it is our employees, there is passion and creative expression that you have to put into that. You have to see the creativity that exists in every aspect that you do. I find the best times for me to be wholly creative are if I can snag like a late night at the office by myself. It’s challenging to say the least but you just have to go through each day and find those little snippets when you can and see how much creative outlet there is all around you and not just limit it to one aspect of what you do.
Lisa: What inspires the designs for your clothing line?
Roxi: The women that I dress. Increasingly as my collection has evolved it is about listening to them: What are they looking for, what do they need, what is the silhouette that is going to best flatter them give them the fluidity to go from their wellness activities back to work maybe out to diner as they travel to gave them increased range to make it through any event that they want. I really do listen to the customer at this point. As I evolve the collection, it’s very much that I have heard customers say they would love to see this, see that and then of course I have to add the obsessive attention to the curve and the shape and where it’s going to hit and what needs it’s going to fulfill to know if it’s going to be a right thing to adopt into the collection as it grows.
Lisa: You have a store in Biddeford and you also have other locations that carry Angelrox. Tell me some of those.
Roxi: Well, we are just completely thankful to be carried in over two-hundred boutiques across the country. Here in the state of Maine we have many, many beautiful ones. I don’t want to risk leaving any of the gorgeous ones out. I might like to say that the best thing to do is to visit angelrox.com where we have a store locator so that individuals can see which is the closest store to their area because we do have some beautiful ones. We have a gorgeous one here in Portland. I have to call out just one Jen Burrall, who’s also a gorgeous jewelry designer. I’m wearing one of her rings right now. Just all up and down the coast we are just honored, thankful, and delighted that stores are doing very well with Angelrox and the customers are loving the products so very thankful for that.
Lisa: If you’re in Portland, you can go to that store. If you’re in Biddeford, you can go to the Suger store. If you’re not, you can go to the store locator which is on angelrox.com.
Roxi: Yes, that is correct.
Lisa: Anything exciting coming up in your future?
Roxi: Goodness it seems like every day is exciting. I just got back this weekend from two beautiful trunk shows one at Kripalu, which is a yoga training center in western Mass., and then another beautiful event in Saratoga Springs. We are very excited to actually get to be here in Maine for two or three weeks consecutively which will be amazing. Then we have just wonderful journeys that we’re taking all throughout the summer and the year and of course very excited for the Biddeford Ball which is slated for October 3rd in Biddeford. We’re all gearing up our momentum toward that and the celebration that will be for the community and all the good things there.
Lisa: Those of you who are listening I urge you to go to angelrox.com or to one of the locations and to try on to experience the beautiful clothing that Roxi Suger and her husband and their team of angels are all creating coming out of the Biddeford mills. We’ve been speaking with Roxi Suger, who is a designer based in Biddeford working with her collection Angelrox. It’s really been quiet a pleasure to speak with you today. Thank you.
Roxi: [Crosstalk 00:56:27] you too, Lisa. Thank you so much.
Lisa: You have been listening to Love Maine Radio show number 201, Mill Town Creativity. Our guests have included Tammy Ackerman and Roxi Suger. For more information on our guest and extended interviews, visit lovemaineradio.com. Love Maine Radio is downloadable for free on iTunes. For a preview of each week’s show, sign up for our E-newsletter and like our Love Maine Radio Facebook page. Follow me on Twitter as Dr. Lisa and see my running travel food and wellness photos as bountiful one on Instagram. We’d love to hear from you, so please let us know what you think of Love Maine Radio. We welcome your suggestions for future shows. Also, let our sponsors know that you have heard about them here. We are privileged that they enable us to bring Love Maine Radio to you each week. This is Dr. Lisa Belisle. I hope that you have enjoyed our Mill Town Creativity show. Thank you for allowing me to be a part of your day. May you have a bountiful life.
Male: Love Maine Radio is made possible with the support of the following generous sponsors: Maine Magazine, Apothecary By Design, Mac Page, and Berlin City Honda of Portland. Love Maine Radio is recorded in the studio of Maine Magazine at 75 Market Street, Portland, Maine. Our executive producers are Susan Grisanti, Kevin Thomas, and Dr. Lisa Belisle. Audio production and original music by John C, McCain. Our content producer is Kelly Clinton. Love Maine Radio is available for download free on iTunes see www.lovemaineradio.com or at the Love Maine Radio Facebook page for details.