OUR STORY
It begins with a feeling.
A Venice atelier of hand-knotted scarves, sewn by hand from locally sourced dead-stock fabric and meant to bring you back to yourself.
CHAPTER ONE / THE BEGINNING
How it started.
Late Sunday Afternoon was not born from a business plan. It was born from a feeling, and from a hard season.
Our founder, Matthew Schildkret, came to Venice, California by way of Washington, where he had worked as an urban planner in the Obama administration. A month after he arrived, his father died of cancer.
He found his way to Windward Circle and the early days of Occupy Venice. The nights got cold. So he slipped into the back of a local fabric store, taught himself to use a sewing machine, and made twelve scarves. One for himself. Eleven for the others sleeping in the circle with him. Late Sunday Afternoon has been sewn by hand in Venice ever since 2012.
OUR PRACTICE
We are not a brand. We are a practice.
Everything we make is still made here, by hand, one piece at a time. We work with locally sourced dead-stock fabric, beautiful material already in the world that would otherwise go to waste. Because the cloth is finite, the pieces are too. No two are exactly alike, and once a run is gone it is gone.
THE FOUR KNOTS
Knotted four times, blessed once.
Look closely at any piece and you will find the threads left long, then knotted four times. We knot it and bless it for you, so that you might learn to bless yourself.
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KNOT 01
I. Love
For the people you carry with you.
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KNOT 02
II. Happiness
For the small joy of getting dressed.
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KNOT 03
III. Adventure
For wherever the week takes you.
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KNOT 04
IV. Mystery
For everything still ahead.
"I won't tell you the words I say while I tie — only that they hold." — Matthew
THE MAKER'S MARK
Made by hand, numbered by lot.
Matthew cuts every piece around his own neck, so the first cut carries the same care as the last stitch. This is slow making on purpose. It is kinder to the planet, and it is kinder to you, because something made with attention asks you to wear it with attention.
JOIN US
Welcome to the house of heart-minded people.
We are a small studio in Venice, California, and we are something more than a shop. We are a gathering place for people who believe softness is a strength, that craftsmanship still matters, and that the small rituals are the ones that hold a life together. If that sounds like you, you are already one of us.
May your cares be few. May love keep flowing. And may you always find your way back to a late Sunday afternoon, wherever the week has taken you.