The Indie Shopping experience online!

Being a smaller independent designer, I’m all for shopping local!  If you can’t always make it to your favorite local boutique that’s ok – you can still shop great indie fashion in the comfort of your own home (or office).  One of my favorite sites to find some of the best up and comers is called Smashing Darling.

Smashing Darling is all about emerging Desingers!

“Founded by Julie Rorrer and Trish Ginter, a fashion designer herself, SmashingDarling is the online destination for anything new and emerging fashion, bringing together independent fashion designers with individuals who seek a unique fashion edge. With over 300 designer boutiques and new and exciting fashion added daily, both designers and fashion lovers can find just what they need—what they always dreamed of—right here at SmashingDarling.com.”

Taken from their About Us section

Not only is Smashing Darling supporting and filling and important and needed gap in the marketplace online, they also have a great and easy to use website. You can shop by boutique or designer, clothing type (sweater, blouse etc), vintage, jewelry etc.

Our boutique on Smashing Darling

     

            

Lots of categories to choose from!

They also have a great blog that highlights some of their favorite designers, pieces, and local events that you should definitely check out to learn more about emerging fashion!

Click here to sign up to receive emails from them and show your darling side!  

Have a Great Weekend.  I’ll be in the studio pretty much all weekend fixing a production problem except for my 10 am free Cross Fit workout.  More on production problems and how to fix them next week and you can sign up for the free Atlas Cross fit Work out of the day or (WOD) with me for Saturday at 10am by clicking here.

Kate

My favorite CFI designer (other than me, that is!)

I am sure someone out there was wondering how CFI went with 6 designers all in the same space. I’m not going to lie, there was definitely some tension between certain people (one Russian in particular rubbed EVERYONE the wrong way-but I won’t name names ). My most favorite person I met at the Incubator was the lovely and talented Kristin Hassan. She is the greatest person and has become a very dear friend. She is in the middle of getting her brand, organiK Revolution, up online and available for e-commerce. She is such a doll and I would like to introduce her to you!

Interview with Kristin Hassan from organiK Revolution

How/when did you get into fashion?
I graduated from the Illinois institute of art - Chicago with a BFA in fashion design in 2006. I got into fashion at an early age as my mother and grandmother were very crafty and taught me everything from sewing to making jewelry.

Where are you from and where do you currently live?
I was raised in Midlothian Illinois, about 30 south of the city. I currently live in Orland Park.

Who/what inspires you the most when you're working?
I'm inspired by everything really. Music, art, billboards, toilet seats covered with stickers (found in the dressing room backstage at the metro). I love to travel and can draw on that always - I'm very fortunate to have been able to see places like Italy and Barbados and that always gets my creative wheels turning.

Do you think that Chicago is a good city to live in for your work, or would you rather be somewhere like New York?
I love Chicago and I would never chose to relocate. Ok maybe to Paris! (I studied French for 7 years and fell in love with the city on my honeymoon)
Chicago has an amazing underground spirit. I love that we aren't looked at a fashion capital yet. We bring such a unique vibe to the table and the talent here is really underestimated. It's definitely a small design community but I find that to be more comforting than being in the midst of a huge city like NYC.

Do you work from home, or do you have a separate studio?
For the last year I proudly had my office at the Chicago Fashion Incubator (CFI) at Macys on state street. CFI is a city initiative to keep emerging designers in Chicago and provide great resources when starting a business. It was a great space with office space, workspace, and a showroom but My term as part of the first class of designers in residence officially ended today, Feb 20th. For the mean time I've moved back into my studio at home. But with my husbands recording studio also in the basement (he's a musician) it's become pretty packed. So organiK revolution is in the process of researching a great studio space in the city.

What is your process of designing a new piece for organiK Revolution?
I'm involved in everything from sketching the idea out to sourcing the fabric, I make the first draft pattern, sew the sample, do the fittings, adjust patterns, sew another sample, do another fitting, cut production, hand it off to my factory for production sewing, get it back to tag it and hang it and sell it. Of course I have help with most of these steps but I'm involved in every aspect.

How would you describe your personal style (is it similar to your designs)?
My design philosophy is to always design what I want to wear. My style is a wonderful mix of girly dresses mixed with menswear pieces like vests and suspenders, a big touch of rock and roll and some cowboy boots for good measure. I love experimenting with layers (big fan of dresses over jeans) and find delight in crossing over styles which all results in a weird preppy girly rocker hippy kinda vibe.

What makes your clothes eco-friendly? Does this particular line of yours have a specific name?
organiK Revolution is an earth positive company because of a number of initiatives. Not only do we use sustainable fabrics like soy jersey (soybean and spandex) and organic cotton (cotton grown without pesticides) but we seek out better processes like screen printing organic cotton t-shirts with water based non chemical inks. We produce most of our apparel locally in Chicago which cuts down on carbon emissions release during travel. We're even working on replacing the lighting at our factory with energy efficient bulbs. I outsource t-shirts from a factory that is run entirely on solar and wind power. And of course we do the obvious things like using recycled paper and soy inks for all printing, etc.

How old are you (sorry, have to ask this one), and do you ever get flack for being so young and successful?
I'm 23. I always get asked if being young bothers me/sets me back... And the answer is always no. I think part of it is that I don't notice my age... I've always done what I wanted, good and bad, regardless of the age limitations. I think being young is an advantage... I'm not too scared and I've got a lot of energy right now. Besides if I screw this up, I'm tough enough to reinvent myself and no one would notice!

What do you think of shows like Project Runway?
I think that it's a great opportunity to showcase oneself on a national level.

Meet the Interns - Sanah

So here at Kate Boggiano, we rely on our awesome interns to do a lot of the work that comes in. Currently, we have 1 marketing/merchandising intern and 2 design interns. Today, meet Sanah, our Marketing/merchandising intern:

I’m Sanah Ahmad and I am originally from Naperville, IL. I currently live in Chicago where I go to the International Academy of Design and Technology. I am majoring in Fashion Merchandising and I graduate this year in June. I am super excited about that. My plans after I graduate is to hopefully work for a corporate office and become a buyer or on their marketing team or work for a magazine company and be on the marketing team for them. I love to go shopping, and predicting what is going to be in Fashion for the up coming seasons. What I don’t like is to see people with so much potential but overdue their look. I am currently an intern at Kate Boggiano. I came to intern with her because she was looking for someone that was interested in the marketing aspect of the company, also because our personality meshed very well together.

If you are interested in an internship in Kate Boggiano, please send your resume to contactus@kateboggiano.com Thank you!

Introduction and a little Background

INTRODUCTION

Hello! My name is Kate Coxworth and almost a year ago (wow that was quick!) I started my very first company, Kate Boggiano. Kate Boggiano is a women’s fashion company that makes high quality, great fitting women’s shirts, tops, blouses, and the occasional shirt jacket. Lately, I have been receiving a lot of: “Do you know who you remind me of? Anne Fontaine” a very flattering comment I might add (for those of you who don’t know Anne Fontaine, she makes beautiful blouses for women, primarily in a white and black color palette and her average price point is about $400.00.)

I decided to start writing a blog because I have received a lot of questions and interest from my customers about what occurs at kate Boggiano.com a daily basis. I figured a blog is a great way to explain a little more about our process as well as share some of the more interesting events that oftentimes occur surrounding our brand, Kate Boggiano.

A LITTLE BACKGROUND

Growing up, I always made things. From construction paper chains that I would use to decorate every room to making outlandish clothing for my dolls, I was always crafting and working with my hands. Unlike most fashion designers, don’t ask me to draw something first! I like to call myself a 3-D person with less than average 2-D skills. Ask my assistant designer, Katee, I’m a terrible drawer but ask me to draft a pattern for something that is 3-D and that’s no problem.

Anyways, I went to Indiana University for a bachelor’s degree in Biology/Pre-Med and walked away 4.5 years later (sorry mom and dad!) with a degree in fashion design. I never in a million years would have expected to major in fashion when I entered college. I was set on becoming a geneticist and spending my career finding solutions and cures to rare genetic illnesses. Well, that didn’t quite happen. Instead, I followed my dream, which until my junior year of college I had considered it a hobby, and switched majors to IU’s Independent Major Program with a concentration in Fashion Design. (Switching from something medical/science related is a fairly common theme among fashion designers. Little trivia for you….Vera Wang was actually a biology major! It is quite common!)

Taking the leap in college ended up panning out alright in the end. I graduated in December and by February, I had packed up all my earthly possessions in my car and drove out to New York City. After many trials, tribulations (including my car being stolen in East Orange, NJ), and joblessness in the beginning, I finally landed my first job in the fashion industry at Polo Ralph Lauren. I started at Polo as a technical designer for Women’s blue label. A technical designer is in charge of taking a sketch from a product designer (luckily, I didn’t have to draw it!) and translating it into a garment. This includes working with a patternmaker “making up” the garments specifications (exact measurements) before it is a garment. I was very good at this probably because of my math and science background, however, I grew very bored with it. My boss at the time, Sharon, and I would spend many hours getting a garment to fit perfectly only to find out that the merchants had only bought 5 units. To put it in perspective, when the merchants would buy only 5 units that would translate into the garment going into 2 out of our 1200 doors (doors=stores in merchandising). In real time this meant that approximately 300 people in somewhere, USA would be the only 300 people to see/buy this garment after Sharon and I had toiled for hours over aligning the belt loops with the pockets just right and shaving that last ¼ inch off the back rise. FRUSTRATION! So clearly, I decided after 1.5 years of that it would be a good idea to switch over to merchandising. So that’s what I did.

I started in Polo’s Men’s merchandising in order to make a difference in what happened with the “business” of Polo. What styles were getting out there in the biggest way (making it to ALL 1200 doors), while making sure to talk to the designers and technical designers to see what would fit the best and in the end, make the most sales. I really liked merchandising, but in August of 2006, Mayor Daley in Chicago announced the appointment of Melissa Turner to head up the City of Chicago’s efforts to create a fashion industry in Chicago, I knew it was my time to move home and start a business. (You can visit the city of Chicago’s website: www.chicagofashionresource.com to learn more about their efforts.)

In November of 2006 after moving back to Chicago from NYC, I marched into a local bank and showed them what I considered to be my brilliant business plan (which by the way, I told the bank that I would NEVER have ANY inventory-major mistake #1) and got my loan. By May 2007, Kateboggiano.com was up, live, and we had product to start selling! YIPPEE! I had this grandiose idea that the as soon as we went live, the phones would ring, the orders would come pouring in and I’d show everyone that I knew exactly how to build a business and make money my first year. Boy was I ever wrong!

Find out more about my trials and tribulation being and American Fashion Designer by checking back to this blog. In the interim, check us out at: www.kateboggiano.com.

Have specific questions you would like me to address? Please respond to this article and I will include your question in the next posting.

Stay tuned for the official launch of CREATE YOUR OWN SHIRT! CYO to be launched online Monday, April 7^th at 9am EST. Make sure to check it out-it will change the fashion industry as we know it forever.

Live in the Chicagoland area? Tune in to ABC 7 at 11am on Monday, April 7^th as Kate Coxworth will announce the official launch of CYO shirt/blouse live.