Today we’d like to introduce you to Ana Marie Mann.
Ana Marie, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I’m originally from North Little Rock, Arkansas. I grew up taking trips to Memphis with my family. We’d often go to the art museums and zoo. I was always crafty but never really considered myself an artist. My dad is an art teacher and professional artist, he makes stained glass and glass jewelry. He’s also a very skilled painter. My sister is an artist as well. She does mainly illustrating and painting.
My little brother does some art he’s a musician and has a little band going with some of his high school friends. I did competitive dance growing up so I took rigorous ballet classes almost daily and that’s how I spent most of my time. Though I loved the exercise aspect of dance since I’m pretty athletic, I never really resonated with the Dance Moms aspect of the competitive dance world.
My favorite part was the costumes and sparkles and I realize now how that has affected my sense of style and I believe is a large part of why I dress so costumey. This is actually quite similar to Thierry Mugler, one of my favorite designers, who also was a dancer with a very costume-like taste. He is one of if not the most inspirational people to my fashion. My parents are kind of hippies, to say the least, and we didn’t really grow up watching tv.
Most of my childhood was spent outside or doing art projects at home. My dad taught me and my siblings how to sew when I was about 8 years old. He showed us by making stuffed animals for ourselves out of recycled materials. My sister made it into a small business for herself even setting up a booth next to my dad’s at the farmers market on the weekends.
He sold his glass art at the River Market in Little Rock every Saturday since I was very small and often left us in charge of manning the booth during bathroom breaks where I got the experience of my first sale. I eventually used my sewing knowledge to start making some purses and tried to sell those with my sister but I wasn’t that passionate about it then. I took my first serious art class in high school.
It was college photography. I went to the Arkansas School for Mathematics, and Arts for my 11th and 12th-grade years, a public residential high school you must apply and interview to be accepted based on test scores and other qualifying factors. The class was college photography and we learned the basics of DSLR cameras. For my final, I decided to shoot portraits of some of the homeless people I saw around town.
The school is in Hot Springs and the homeless population is huge. In exchange, I gave every participant a large bag of food, water, and toiletries, even those who declined to be photographed. When I submitted my photos to be graded by a teacher who wasn’t a man of many words came up to me personally and said I should take my talent seriously and pursue photography professionally.
I didn’t really take it seriously then but that’s always stuck with me. Since then, I began college at the University of Memphis where I decided to major in photography. I didn’t really know what I wanted to do but I loved taking photos and making people feel good so I felt that was a good start. In my photography class, I continued to learn about DSLRs and how to use photoshop through different projects and assignments.
I experimented in all kinds of ways having friends and family model for me. I dropped out of school after my first semester feeling that it was kind of pointless to pay for an education I believed I could get through YouTube and hands-on experience with my craft. I purchased my first camera, a Minolta X370 (a manual 35mm film camera), and began to experiment. I had always edited my photos to look like film but up until that point I had never shot on film.
I immediately loved it. It was so much more deliberate and intentional than the digital I was used to and learned on. I met some people who also shot on film and they helped me figure out all the techniques and what to do and not do. It was a rough start I probably shot 5 blank rolls and if you shoot on film you know that’s expensive. It’s been about 2.5 years since I bought that camera and I’ve had many paid photo shoots under my belt.
I’ve shot a few covers for some musician friends and done a lot of fun shoots as well, styling my friends and begging them to model for me. I’ve also shot a great deal for my clothing brand with friends as models in my clothing. Since buying that camera I’ve only shot on film and I’ve started collecting vintage cameras. I now own about 20 vintage cameras (like half aren’t operational) and my favorite to shoot on is my film, Canon Rebel K2.
My favorite style to shoot is editorial fashion and I do the majority of my own creative direction as well. Typically I get an idea from an outfit or piece of clothing I saw and go from there. Going back to the clothing side, I dropped out of school in January of 2020 and began working full-time as a server at a restaurant. Little did I know everything would close about two months into that.
I had just bought my camera but I was mostly using my time working to afford to live by myself. I’d also gone through a pretty bad breakup and was getting through that. I had two jobs and I lost both of them within one day when everything shut down. My parents still thought I was in school and I had essentially no more income to support myself.
I told them there’d be no way out of my lease convincing them to assist me just a little bit in order to stay in Memphis and continue working when life reopened. During the downtime, I had a lot of thinking time. I realized how much I gravitated toward making when I had the time. I started painting a ton and sewing things together on my sewing machine I stole from my mom’s house.
I realized how easy it was for me to apply my sewing knowledge to make clothing and with my style, I could essentially now make everything I had thought of and couldn’t find in a store. It took me about a year to get from the realization that that was what I wanted to pursue to actually establishing my brand and showing that to the public. I made a lot that year though a lot of trial and error and many trips to goodwill.
When restaurants began reopening in May 2020, I immediately started working again but I promised myself I wouldn’t let go of my found passion. I wanted to make clothing differently and more deliberately than other people by not making more waste and using what materials already exist for my designs as much as possible. I launched my brand ‘ALTER YOUR MENTALITY’ on Depop in January 2021.
Within a month or so I had gotten recognized by a local art show organizer and been invited to feature my work in a local fashion show called ‘Art Bazaar’. I prepped a ton for this show going into full reclusive mode and focusing all my energy on my art. I dressed 7 models (all my willing friends) and got a little music mix made for the set. I was so proud and met hundreds of fellow creatives who applauded my art which was an out-of-body feeling.
I knew I was on the right path. In the last year and a half since then, I’ve done quite a few pop-ups, another fashion show where I dressed 12 models, built a website, and executed a number of custom-made commissioned pieces. I continue to grow my brand every day, though I still work in the service industry bartending now, I work as a bartender at crosstown Art bar, which is a huge advantage to me as an artist as it’s a nonprofit art organization full of highly connected people.
I use that to my advantage and have it be another platform I can connect with artists and share my designs through what I wear. I have plans to have my clothing featured on a couple of storefronts in the near future. I’m the CEO and therefore every other aspect of my one-man brand right now but in my growth plan, I plan to hire more seamstresses to execute my designs with fabric I source second-hand and take my brand to a more elevated high fashion focus.
I creative direct all my photoshoots and when I’m not shooting I employ my photographer friends to help me. I have plans to execute another fashion show in the near future and hope to begin to take my designs into new cities.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
To be short, HELL NO. I’ve had so many people (close friends, boyfriends, family members) tell me my designs weren’t anything special. I’ve had a pandemic I’ve worked through which we all know was quite difficult financially, especially as a young person depending on tips to get by.
I’ve had people cancel on me a lot with commissions which resulted in me putting a lot of work into making an outfit and receiving nothing more for my work than our initial deposit. I’ve struggled with my own mental health and burnout.
I struggle with anxiety and it’s pretty hard to put yourself and your work out there and not fear judgment from others. I work a ton in order to make ends meet so I’ve had to sacrifice a good bit of my creative time to work for someone else, often leaving me too tired in my free time to pursue and execute my creative ideas.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I would say I have two main creative outlets and I consider one my business and one of them for pleasure. Though I have accepted payment for both fields meaning they’re both technical businesses, photography is really something I’m not willing to do regardless of pay, while in fashion, I’ll pretty much design anybody whatever they want.
I’m a skilled seamstress, and CEO of my clothing brand ‘alter your mentality’ a non-binary sustainable clothing brand focused on rethinking the way we think about fashion. In my opinion, clothing should express you without you even having to open your mouth. I tend to go for the most extra and costume-like outfits I can think of, resulting in me being commissioned to work with a lot of musicians and performers.
I sell my clothing through my website, pop-up shows, and custom commissions. I don’t make clothing for “men” or “women” because I believe clothing does not have gender it is just fabric and we do not need to stick to the arbitrary habit of society to gender everything. I can pretty much sew or fix anything people ask me to do. What I don’t know, I teach myself.
I teach sewing lessons to others in hopes they will repair their clothing rather than toss it and pass that mindset on to their friends and family. I’m different because I dress differently every day. No person can really peg my style. My friends often joke that every day I show up as a new character and that’s the coolest thing about me.
How can people work with you, collaborate with you, or support you?
I think support can be shown in so many ways. You support artists the most through acknowledgment of their work. All you have to do is like a post, comment if you love something and repost their work. Those are the easiest ways.
Instagram is a huge benefit to artists and we are struggling through the algorithms as well. Our work is more seen when more people engage on media. You can also support by showing up to events and pop-ups even just to say hey it means a lot.
You can support me through purchasing items which is my favorite because it directly helps me pay my bills and live as an artist. If you wish to collaborate simply message me on Instagram. I’ll get back to you at lightning speed. I love to think up designs for people, style people, photo people, creative direct… the list goes on.
Contact Info:
- Website: alteryourmentality.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alteryourmentality/ | https://www.instagram.com/filmbyanamarie/
Image Credits
Lucile Healy @lucilehealy, Mango @mangomaat, Ana Marie Mann @filmbyanamarie, Hueman Sailout @ahuemanbeing, Ziggy Mack @fomoloop, and Seth Lyndahl @sethlyndahl
