I had a crazy, funky idea: create collectible, hand-painted martini glasses. Now my company is world famous.
They say personal reinvention is self-defining, like creating a sculpture unlike any other, constantly chipping away, reshaping. From Madonna to Lady Gaga, we know it can reap huge rewards. For me, Lolita, my head was always in the clouds. Changing who I was at 34 was like playing a leading role in my own play, the play of my life, my business, and my future. But as the creator and CEO of Designs by Lolita, a unique martini glass company, and the face behind the brand, I am realizing that dreams do come true.I remember the first year like it was yesterday. All the dreams I had were foggy and seemed so far away, but I remember carving away at them one day at a time. Did I make progress? I know I did over time (5 million glasses sold later). But I remember sitting at my kitchen table painting and running my oven almost around the clock to bake glasses while shuffling kid meals and diapers the whole time. It is a blur. My moments were about painting my famous designs on martini glasses with two toddlers pulling on my apron strings. If I fast forward to right now, I find that my toddlers are teenagers, my oven only cooks food when I want it to, and my once little product idea has now made millions. I’ve reinvented my life and myself in ways I didn’t expect.
Did I envision that I would actually change the meaning of the name Lolita? That I would actually become my fantasy, in all her silly glory, faults, hiccups, and many bumps along the way? (I figure that with being a bottle blonde I have a little wiggle room.) Not a chance. But I dreamed I could do it. And I have. When I look at pictures of me as a new mom, a teenager, a little girl, I see how far I’ve come.
My reinvention traces back to being in sales and marketing in my 20s, then as a stay-at-home-mom in my early 30s, then morphing back into the artist and budding entrepreneur I’ve always been. Art has always been my passion, deep in my soul. (My parents knew I was an artist as early as age 2. I would rearrange the food on my plate before I ate it.) And, as an actress all of my life (a sense of drama and an emotional side were always present), reinvention seemed a necessity in an unhappy marriage and with a less-than-ample financial existence—recession reminder, anyone? I also was fortunate to have had some sense to get some sales and marketing experience, which my family encouraged, which I would advise any future designer to do.
