New Bedford The Drawing Room presents Arcane By Aidil Timas in store

NEW BEDFORD — The living room is curated with unique pieces that customers won’t necessarily find in other stores, that’s why Aidil Timas Grogan the designs are perfectly suited to the store.

“It makes me so happy to be here,” said Grogan, owner Arcanum by Aidil Timas. The recently moved boutique on William Street is the first to launch Grogan’s line of dresses and handbags.

“It was a good opportunity for me to put my things out there,” she said. “It’s my work of art. I love it when someone likes it — it makes me super happy.”

Originally from Cape Verde, Grogan is inspired by African patterns and textiles as well as the use of recycled materials.

“I love making dresses, but I do everything. It depends on my inspiration,” she said. “I also have this passion for bags. It’s a work of art that I can give so much detail to.”

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Over the past year, Grogan said he’s designed at least 20 outfits and around 50 handbags. She recently launched her line at a fashion show in Providence.

She also enjoys restoring and recycling old furniture.

Creation of her first dress at 12 years old

Growing up in a house where her mother, grandmother and aunt sewed and made clothes, Grogan said she used to hide under the table and steal scraps of fabric to design clothes for her. her dolls.

At age 12, she designed her first church dress, which she also embroidered.

“I was interested in learning everything I could love about embroidery, crochet – stuff like that that I was interested in knowing.”

In 1994, after the birth of her first child, she moved to Portugal where she worked with a designer named Annette to do alterations.

“I’ve seen her career and I’ve seen her sketch, I’ve seen her make patterns on the dummy. So the whole thing was like college for me,” she said.

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Annette not only inspired Grogan, she also encouraged her to go to fashion design school.

“I didn’t take it seriously back then, I was still trying to figure out what to do with life,” she said. “And then you have someone telling you that you’re good at it, you kind of pay attention all of a sudden.”

In 2003 Grogan moved to Rhode Island and soon after met her husband John Grogan. A mother of six, she launched Arcane in 2014 and in April 2022 moved from New Hampshire to New Bedford. She has not returned to her hometown of Cape Verde since arriving in 2003.

Without her family, she said she couldn’t create her designs. “I need to feel at peace and feel good with them so I can focus on my art. It’s kind of like therapy for me…for my soul, my spirit. It just brings me in another place.”

Veil by day, dress by night

During the day, Grogan works full-time at Sperry Sails in North Dartmouth, making sails for sailboats. At night, Grogan takes over his kitchen table and turns his dining room into his design studio by kicking his supporting family into the TV room for dinner.

“Maybe in the future I’ll find a nice place to work,” she said, adding that she was considering a studio in Kilburn Mill.

“He has been very well received in the new space,” said Anthi Frangiadis, owner of The Drawing Room. “We’ve already sold several of his pieces. And it’s fun to be able to add wearable components to our nifty collection.”

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Frangiadis said she curates her store with one-of-a-kind pieces that customers can’t find anywhere else in New Bedford, and each piece is one-of-a-kind, handmade.

“I’m doing it for myself first. I have to love this piece, so when I do it, that’s what I expect people to see when they watch it,” Grogan added.

“I have to love it first, before I can give it to someone else.”

Standard-Times editor Seth Chitwood can be contacted at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter: @ChitwoodReports. Support local journalism by purchasing a digital or print subscription to The Standard-Times today.