A Fly on the Wall: Backstory
A LITTLE BACKSTORY TO GET STARTED:
Savannah A. Martin popped out of the womb at six pounds five ounces, at 10:46 am, December, 28th, 2008. With a normal-sized penis, his birth-certificate gender was unquestionably ‘male.’ His mother, Karen Martin, was a sophomore fashion design student at SCAD, Savannah College of Art and Design, which most likely explains her choice of ‘Savannah.’ Interestingly, in 2008, Savannah was #30 for girls’ names, and #8,532 for boys. Perhaps Mom knew all along where this story would end.
Already modeling to help pay her tuition, Karen shared the top floor apartment in a lackluster modern building with Bruce and Eric, two openly gay photography grad students. Eric was the only grandson of a Wall Street tycoon, rich and smart enough to buy real estate on Savannah’s Wright Square. Eric also inherited one of the premier photography collections on the East Coast from his grandfather. Bruce and Eric did everything except stand at the altar. Savannah’s father was one of them. Which one, or how Karen conceived, doesn’t matter.
It should come as no surprise that Karen’s MFA thesis project was playtime clothing for toddlers, with little Savannah as her model, Bruce as photographer, and Eric as raconteur. Even back then, Karen’s professors said she pushed the boundaries on gender awareness.
Two years after graduating, Eric Perlmann used a small portion of his Wall Street inheritance to start TOMBOY Fashion, making confrontational unisex clothes for teens. In-your-face fashion for kids with gender-issues is not a huge market, but TOMBOY only sells through high-end retailers with outrageous margins. The market breaks down to 63 percent tomboys, 17 percent gay boys with effeminate tendencies, and 20 percent undeclared gender, which could mean anything, including transgender. Average family income, $750,000, both parents college-educated.
Nowadays, Karen and Savannah are TOMBOY pre, started in 2012 to serve the growing 7-thru-11 market. TOMBOYpre took prepubescence by storm beginning with Gangsta, 1920s pinstripes and glittery pizzazz modeled by a nearly eight-year-old sexually ambiguous high roller. Biker was faux leather, with eight-and-a-half -year-old social-rebel Savannah straddling a Harley. TOMBOY Rage was colorful linen and white latex, fashion and fetish for precocious kids to wear on the dancefloor, or to the mall. Nine -year-old Savannah pretended to pole-dance, a paroxysm of passion for the catalog photos, all shot in frenetic New Orleans. Gay boys love to party, and sent sales skyrocketing.
Karen, Perlmann’s chief designer, followed up with TOMBOY Range; distressed steel-gray, softer-than-normal denim with platinum-plated studs as big as cufflinks for the home-on-the-range androgynous maverick. The cowboy ensemble: Jacket with outsized lapels, cut overly tight, ending mid belly, with arm sleeves so skinny it was difficult to fold up the cuffs, $199.99; Jeans with stovepipe legs sitting very low on the hips, with only enough space for a three-inch exposed chromed-brass zipper, $119.99. A choice of a long-sleeved denim shirt with elongated tails or an extra-long white T-shirt rounded out the basic outfit.
They just finished shooting Range marketing photos at Cimarron; that’s Savannah’s grandfather’s vineyard/ranch outside Elgin, in southern Arizona. Cimarron backs up to the Patagonia Mountains of the Coronado National Forest, Nogales Ranger District. It’s a 45-mile fast drive to Nogales on Route 82/83. Horseback takes longer, three days minimum on well-marked trails. In less time, you can ride all the way to the Mexican border without seeing a soul, not!
ABOUT NOW, YOU’RE ASKING; ‘WHERE’S THE STORY?’
It’s on the CONTENTS page. Be warned it’s a long story; however, we’ll take it a day at a time, beginning when Savannah is nine years, five months, and three days old.
Opening scene; it’s Wednesday, 7:30 pm. Both personal choice and mandate from a weight-conscious mother, Savannah mostly eats salads for dinner. Tonight, it’s Frank’s Cimarron Salad, a Savannah favorite--a bed of baby mixed greens with pine nuts, black beans, red bell peppers, sweet onions, orange slices, and avocado, topped with grilled chicken; especially tasty with low-calorie orange vinaigrette.