Crazy Fox is Two People

History

From Haight Street to Don Gaspar

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Crazy Fox is two people (or is it are two people?). The official corporate name of this ‘Mom and Pop’ business is Blue Cove Inc. which stands for the two owners, Maya Blue and her husband Cove. Cove likes to say, “I’m Crazy … she’s the Fox.”

Maya and Cove met in 1970 on Haight Street in San Francisco, California and have been together ever since, most of that time working together in the ‘schmatta’ business. When they first met Cove was making marbleized fabric in Berkeley CA, as well as working doing continuous yardage silk screening in an old firehouse in West Oakland under the name Cove’s Firehouse Fabric Printers. Some of the fabric printing company’s clients were young, up and coming designers like Betsey Johnson and a young fashion designer named Karen Alexander who also rented space in the old firehouse building.

Hand printed fabrics were wonderful but rather expensive to produce, especially for a small garment manufacturer. As our hand-made arty printing business declined, Karen Alexander’s ready-to-wear clothing manufacturing business boomed. Her first successful product was a very popular line of women’s dresses called Foxy Lady.

As with most clothing manufacturing operations Karen had some overage (samples, returns, damages, refused shipments, previous season’s overstock, and excess fabric, buttons, findings etc.). In the garment business there is also the problem of what to do with this valuable, but hard to sell, inventory. Through Karen and Cove and Maya’s friendship Cove and Maya ended up acting as a jobber for the Foxy Lady line which was by that time called Shady Grove Inc. At first Cove and Maya sold this overstock at flea markets and swap meets all over the country, traveling about a million miles and going through six engines in an old VW bus. They also had a little store (Paradise Cove) and ran trunk shows and sales.

As the 80s came along, it was time to move and leave the San Francisco Bay Area. But before leaving they had a brainstorming session with Maya’s cousin “Flash” Gordon, the “rock doc” at the Haight-Ashbury Free Clinic, to determine a legit name for their women’s clothing business. Since they were heading to Indian country (Santa Fe), and because of our discounted prices, it was Flash who put together the brand Foxy Lady and the phrase ‘crazy like a fox’ and ended up with the name “Crazy Fox.”

In 1984 Cove and Maya settled down in Santa Fe NM and started Crazy Fox in Santa Fe Village, the same building they are in now. Maya worked in the store while Cove helped with the business, became involved in local politics, and continued to make marbled paper and art. As Margaret O’Leary put it: “She’s got the eye and he’s the money man.”