We were lucky to catch up with Lorraine Amodeo recently and have shared our conversation below.

Lorraine, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

My name is Lorraine Amodeo, I am the founder of Bananas Apparel clothing line & a nature photographer.

My battle with depression & grief was all too consuming. Few circumstances in life are more devastating than losing a loved one unexpectedly. Unfortunately, this sorrow was compounded for me when I lost both my beloved father whom I have had a very deep bond with, and a best friend who was shy of 40 years old when he passed. Both had died suddenly months apart of a heart attack in 2020 leaving me in a crisis of devastation.
These two losses spiraled me into a deep depression, consuming and affected many facets of my life. One being a creative blockage to my photography work.
In the past people’s love of my work inspired me. As my customers enjoyed my work they would kindly say ” Your work gives me hope that the world is a beautiful place ,they helped me to get through the day.”  I found myself unable to capture the portraits that had brought me so much comfort and so many others. I would look through my lens and nothing was beautiful. The once known vibrancy of life, became this place of disconnection and dullness. This dark phase of my grieving process went on for a little over a year, until I realized I had to make a change. I felt I needed a miracle, there was no way I was ever going to escape the depths of this despair that I was feeling. I battled within myself. I thought to myself  just because I felt broken didn’t mean I had to stop living right?  But how ? These are things I asked myself rhetorically. Depression is something I never experienced before, but at that time I fell deep and I isolated myself. But in my heart I knew I could not stay there, it was not a safe place for me to be, it was unhealthy and I needed to re-find joy in my life.
Then something happened!!!

Then this was the epiphany that set me on my trajectory for inspiration that literally hit me over the head.
I was crying out to the universe for solace one afternoon, while going through some boxes of old memories that were in the closet, a mystery bag that I didn’t even realize was there serendipitously fell on the floor. There was a monkey and on top of the monkey was a bird.  It read “monkey sell, as in sell the monkey.” The bird for me was of great significance, symbolizing my photography business because I take portraits of birds. Birdwatching is one of my passions. My father and I bonded over our love for birds, making this unexpected discovery even more prominent for me.

After this discovery, I went to sleep with these torn emotions. The next day I woke up and “I said to myself “You know what, I think I want to make a clothing and apparel line that is geared towards awareness, and encourage people who are struggling . I want my logo to be a monkey of the tailsman- like symbol. My vision for my clothing line is to bring awareness to all people who are suffering, whatever the cause is. Regardless of their pain I wanted my logo to be simple but powerful. no matter the challenge, no matter the struggle in life – when we decide to persevere, we can conquer anything.
For myself and with the hopes for others, Bananas Apparel represents perseverance.

At that moment I decided to develop a logo representing how I felt. I contacted a graphic design artist  and asked him to perfect my vision and create the perfect logo. We both worked diligently together and came up with the perfect iconic monkey to symbolize my visions. I feel we have both succeeded in creating the message. For me, just knowing  what my clothing and apparel line represents, has been a game changer. And now I could channel my grief into a creative expression which will help others.

Lorraine, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Can you talk to us about manufacturing? How’d you figure it all out? We’d love to hear the story.

Bananas Apparel prints it’s merchandise with several different apparel printing companies located only within in the United States. I myself felt this was an extremely important in making this decision for my business. My goal in this decision was to keep the American families working together.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

I believe being open publicly about my personal experience towards the development of product line which came from an emotional standpoint is relatable to not only my customers as people but the communities in which it serves. My business is geared to a standpoint of wanting to help others which in turn brings me the most satisfaction .My ongoing consistency of what Bananas Apparel truly represents I believe is what keeps it’s reputation strong.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://bananasapparel.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bananasapparel_/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bananasapparel
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/bananasapparel/
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@bananasapparel_ Every Mind Matters – Bananas Apparel Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1944717192587138

Image Credits
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