the nogoodforme.com interview: 31 Corn Lane

Interviewing the ladies of 31 Corn Lane is like crashing a sleepover, only without the fear of having your bra wind up in the freezer if you fall asleep first. Creators of super-cheery, grade-school-reminiscent, seagull-adorned accessories and totes, the sisters Sperber (Teeter and twins Heather and Amy) gab away about everything from Lee Radziwill and the Bay City Rollers to the joys of "dressing like a Pink Lady from Grease kicking it in Phys Ed class" and ratting your hair like Amy Winehouse. Make sure to cue up the Annie soundtrack before reading on.

Tell us all about how you started 31 Corn Lane. It was 1998 and all three sisters were living in the West Village of New York City. We had an amazing life: went to tons of rock shows, hosted themed house parties, orchestrated slumber jams with our girlpals and just the made the most ridiculously ah-mazing memories. Only one downer: the whole gang was crunched into 500 square feet - space was soooooo tight! We had heard chit-chat about an artist subsidized housing community called the Westbeth located a few blocks away. The premise of it was to help struggling artists make their way through the expensive twists and turns of city life. Needless to say, we became determined to apply and, fortunately for us, there are very few things that can stand in our way when we set our sights on something. No matter that we weren't artists and we weren't struggling, we were going to find out way into affordable housing if it was the last thing we did!

So one night we pow-wowed in our (little little) living room, brainstorming as to exactly what our "art" could be. One of us, can't remember who, suggested tote bags, because at the time, not too many girls were sporting extra-cute rock-and-roll-specific ones.

So we purchased supplies, hand-sewed and screenprinted them right there in the micro-apartment. The first line was a bubblegum-pink tote with an extra-tuff cherry-red skull-n-crossbones centered on the front. We included a batch of them with our application and then had a sizable amount left. We gifted some to our sassiest girlpals and then ended up getting an offer to sell the rest at the coolest punk rock record store in our li'l Jersey hometown. We set them up for sale and they moved out of there faster than the fastest hotcakes!

This ended up giving us all a collective epiphany. "Holy Cow," we thought. "This is the best feeling ever! People like our wares! If we make more, cool girls will actually buy them!" Soooooo, we kept making them, improving them with each new season and never ever looked back. Our best sisterly idea to date!

Turns out we've never got into the community because we didn't fit the income bracket, but the best reward we got out of trying is the most important part of present life - owning our own company.

What was your original vision for 31 Corn Lane? Our vision, first and foremost, was to have every single item we designed and produced somehow tie back to our family, our childhood memories, or something we loved. To date, we've never strayed from that intention, which is awesome on a myriad of levels. We've come to find that shoppers really enjoy the personalized identity that 31 Corn Lane presents. (Sidenote: Our company name is the childhood address of where we grew up! Mom and Pops still live there, swear!) They like to know that there is history and meaning behind what they're purchasing. Best part is, we know this for defs, because they've repeatedly told us so!

As a result of this feedback, we've remained ultra-mega-committed to always keeping it personalized, no matter how much larger we grow. We never want to lose that sense of personality, that special touch.

In terms of what our original (and present) vision for 31CL was/is, we always dreamed of having a storefront with totes and accessories and couches and good tunes up front, and a design studio in the back where our gaggle of small dogs could hang and snooze and snuggle, much like Built by Wendy's flagship store - a warm and creative environment that we can report to everyday and meet new sassy new people like ourselves. For now, howevs, we hold down full-time jobs, and work on 31CL from home in our spare time.

We will get there sooner rather than later, it's a promise!

Who are some of your favorite designers?

Sis Teeter: Luella Bartley, Built By Wendy, Marc Jacobs, Snack Mountain and Judy Rosen (not just cause of her awesome spazz-tastic wares, but also because she's loud as the dickens and is a taxidermist on the side. Punk!).

Sis Aim: Ditto, Teet named to best ones. I also love Lady Luck Rules OK from England, and I also love Biba and her vision for a unique shopping experience.

Sis Heath: I love Topshop, Oak, and Marc by Marc Jacobs. Oh wait! Do mind-blowing key vintage pieces on eBay count?

Who are your style idols?

Sis Teeter: Jackie O., Karen O, and Wendy O. Williams - the Magical Oh-Oh Trio. (Sidenote: Not to neglect Sister Heather, but she doesn't have an O in her name.)

Sis Aim: I kind of love the girl who works at the local liquor store. She rocks these looks like it's nobody business. God bless creative dressers.

Sis Heath: I love little Edie Beale from Grey Gardens, the documentary film made in the mid 70s about Jackie O's crazy hideaway cousins. I also live for any girl with a well-pulled together, messy spectacular look.

Whose closet would you most like to raid?

Sis Teeter: Oh dude, Sister Heather's, no contest! I have the easiest access to it, can swiftly steal stuff when she's not looking, and only have to deal with Mom when I get caught, which is always. It's a ginormous walk-in teeming over with Marc Jacobs, high-end Japanese streetwear, and classy-lady-style thrift items, like an indie-rock/Williamsburg hipster version of JLo or Mariah Carey's closet. I would take it one step further than just raiding it; I would like to live in there, nestled snugly between the neatly labeled (Whattup, Brother P-Touch!) "Leisure Wear" and "Summer Looks" baskets.

Sis Aim: I would love to go back to the 70s Granny-takes-a-trip-to-the-dress-shop days to see what key items they kept in the stock room.

Sis Heath: Lee Radziwill, the younger sister of Jackie O., would be one for sure. I suspect Elton John has a pretty amazing closet, too. I would also love a few hours in my grandmother's (her name is Grace Ribustelli and she was a total vision) closet from when she was a young women. I have recently been through her older sister's closet and its absolutely beautiful – style of dress from the 1920s was such an aesthetically perfect affair.

What's your favorite clothing item (or outfit) lately?

Sis Teeter: My thrift ninja best friend just bought this mind-blowing sweater. I'd say it's a late 60s number, puke brown, made by "Janice, Junior Styles for Her" that looks like a gingerbread house and has an attached scarf, excessive pockets, micro pom-pom buttons and lettuce edging. This look, combined with my skinny denims and ridiculously oversized sunglasses, has been my style uniform for almost three weeks straight. I don't know how to tell you this, but I'm kind of a dirtbag.

Sis Aim: I have this red short gym suit from the 50s. It has bloomers built into the legs. When not dressing like a Pink Lady from Grease kicking it in Phys Ed class, I look like a 70s sitcom mom - complete with high-waisted denims and poo-poo-brown clogs.

Sis Heath: I'm going thought this phase right now where I always want to dress like I'm going to a sailing club or a lawn party, but enjoy putting a twist on the look by throwing on a scarf from India. You know, sort of like preppy meets 1960s London, High Street.

Who are your favorite bands?

Sis Teeter: Oh snap, I love, like, 50 scrillion different bands in life but for the sake of conveying the most unabashed super stoke out for this particular answer, I will only focus on one. I am unhealthily obsessed with a band from Austin, TX, called Okkervil River. They are the best music-makers of right now with maybe the worstest name ever, which is way rad, because as a territorial listener of tunery, it helps keep them relatively small because most indie elitists think they're a bluegrass group. I describe them as "Goth Americana," only because they are stylistically similar to, like, Wilco, yet with the saddest, darkest lyrics and most ridiculously beautiful, poppy melodies. I listened to their last album Black Sheep Boy maybe 90 bazillion times, thinking I could never love anything more, that is, until I got my greasy little hands on a contraband advance of their newest effort, The Stage Names - which I am on my record-setting way to gratuitously overplaying. Will Sheff, lead singer and lyricist, is a brilliant brilliant boy who I would very much to build a life with.

Sis Aim: Teeter, don't kill me, but I watch Fuse all day. I love all the baby emo bands on the forefront right now, i.e., Paramore, My Chemical Romance, and The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus. Man, the list goes on. (Sidenote from Sis Teeter: I am so going to kill you. How embarrassing!)

Sis Heath: I love NPR and listen to it exclusively while driving my adult contemporary station wagon. I especially love Ira Glass from This American Life. In addition, I often listen to the Stayin' Alive soundtrack. (Sidenote from Sis Teeter: Heath, Ira Glass totes isn't a band or musician, yr kind of tarted, but we love you!)

What do you listen to when primping?

Sis Teeter: This is e-z. A Swedish pop band called I'm from Barcelona, 'cause they might be the most adorable thing since that child actor with the 5-inch thick coke bottle glasses in Jerry Maguire. I'm from Barcelona had me at hello.

Also, yeah, it's embarrassing and might make me sound totes self-obsessed, but I'm not gonna lie here, I mean really, we're all friends. I listen to my own band LadybiRdS' new record (It's called Regional Community Theater) a lot a lot cause it's not out yet and I can't believe I had anything to do with making it exist. It's electro-tastic cheezepop, which I've found makes an excellent soundtrack for hair-crimping and the application of sparkle eyeshadow.

Sis Aim: Amy Winehouse is awesome. I have started to ratt my hair kind of like hers.

Sis Heath: Wait, do you mean like, primping to actually leave the house? Truth be told, at present, I not involved with the outside world. I am sure this will change once Rob and Big goes into reruns - however, until then there will be no primping for me. Wait! Does brushing my teeth before my work day, while my yappy little chihuahua incessantly barks count?

Name one record you loved when you were a little kid that you still listen to today.

Sis Teeter: That Bay City Rollers record with the song "Give A Little Love" on it, the one that features them all on the cover, in their layered hair and tartan bell-bottomed, overalled finest. We had a special choreographed dance routine that we would perform while it played on vinyl in the living room, with Mom and Dad as our (captive) repeat pattern audience, natch.

And! And! And! The Annie soundtrack - 100 years later and I still sing it on the daily. No lie.

Sis Aim: Oh god Teeter, I love the Annie soundtrack too. I also love the Grease soundtrack and the Flashdance theme song. I still break into tears and dance when I hear "What a Feeling."

Sis Heath: Hands down, Annie soundtrack. "Dumb dog, why are you following me? / I ain't got a crumb, dog/ How about letting me be?" Sonic perfection!

Favorite makeout music?

Sis Teeter: I'm moderately bananas, so most dudes never wanna make out with me. And the ones that do are usually supes-gross or dirty or tarted and don't intentionally read, except for magazines and the internets. So I can't accurately answer this question, although I do remember once making out to Lenny Kravitz, when I was like 14. Ewh, gross.

Sis Aim: That would be the Dashboard Confessional's "Screaming Infidelities." Come on, Teet, don't make fun of me.

Sis Heather: While my boyfriend really likes Prince (and can sing high and tight just like the him), we always seem to end up making out to New Order or the soundtrack to Stayin' Alive. You should totally give it a listen. I mean really, there's nothing like kissing to the track "Satan's Alley."

Who's your number-one all-time music crush?

Sis Teeter: Probably Daryl Palumbo from Glassjaw and Head Automatica. He broke my heart into a million aching pieces and made me totally next-level batshit insane, but I can't imagine ever loving anyone more than him.

(Sidenote: The sisters will be soooo mad at that ever-so-unhealthy answer, but whatevs.com!)

Sis Aim: TEETER FOR THE LOVE OF GOD GET OVER IT!!! In other news, we all know I crushed out on Travis Morrison, the lead singer of The Dismemberment Plan.

Sis Heath: Garrett Klahn from Texas Is The Reason. Babe alert.

What are some of your favorite clothing shops (around your town or in the whole wide world)?

Sis Teeter: The Projectionist in Boise, Idaho - it's so amazingly craft-tacular that it's also completely overwhelming. We don't sell 31CL in there, even though we've tried valiantly, cause they're, like, over budget or cooler than us or something. Dang, cuts like a knife!

Sis Aim: 31CL is carried in some of the best stores in the world. One of many that I am a huge fan of is Minnie Wilde in San Francisco. They make the coolest clothes for our bags to hang with! And then there's the Mini Mini Market here in Brooklyn; they're our total local fave.

Sis Heath: Geez, that's so tuff, because right now with my severe mood swings and this nasty parasite I picked up on my latest work trip to India, I can't even think about shopping unless the store has a really clean and comfy ladies room!

What do you listen to when you're working on your designs? I know for a fact that Aim and I have rocked to HelloGoodbye and Kelly Clarkson while working. As previously mentioned, she plays the Fuse network 24/7 as well, so the overall design soundtrack ranges from sweeping Top 40 hometown Texas grrrl jams to painful half-a-million dollar, wall-of-noise, 20th wave mainstreamo tantrum rock videos.

Any advice for girls/boys out there dreaming of launching their own label? For sure! Start small and always be accessible to yr audience, answer their e-mails, sell at craft fairs and meet them. Focus squarely on improving yr product with every new design, hook up yr coolest friends with gear so they can cruise town and spread the word by looking good.

Most importantly, don't be afraid or talk yourself out of starting because you think you can't afford it - we started 31 Corn Lane with only $300 dollars per sister! And it's grown exponentially every year.

Always remember this, "If you make it, someone will buy it." It sounds overzealous, but it's so so so true. A unique, quality product will always be able to find a core audience. People love shopping it up!

What's your favorite thing about running 31 Corn Lane?

Three of the best things so far, check it:

1. Going back to our NJ alma mater, Shrewsbury Boro School, to talk to the small fries at Career Day about starting yr own business. They were so amped.

2. Opening an issue of Budget Living, one of our stylistically favorite print mags, and seeing a multi-page feature about the open-air markets in London, England. On the front page of the story was this photo of a cluster of ADORABLE girls. We noticed right away that one of the girls just happens to be rocking our bag, the "Classy Lady" design from a few years back. Our bag! In London! HOLY COW! From the small streets of suburban New Jersey into the hands of fashiony fantastic UK cuties.

Bestest. Feeling. Ever.

3. Lastly but not leastly, being on the subway platform, or on an airplane or bus - and seeing the cutest girl in the whole darn crowd rocking one of our bags. Going up to them and saying "hi" and telling them that yr part of the company that made their tote - and hearing about how much they love it, and then leaving the scene usually having made a new friend. As Dad Sperber has repeatedly said "Girls, always make yr circle bigger!"

What are your biggest inspirations? Job one is honoring our amazing family legacy and the people we love and letting the world know how super psyched we are to be Sperbers! In this lifetime we all got super lucky.

Posted by Liz in Interviews
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