Prom Dress Fashion Designer Blog

I found out today that Cosmo Girl is going to use one of our prom dresses in their 2008 prom magazine on a celebrity and in a couple of editorials (gotta love it)! Seventeen Prom will have two of our dresses in their editorials (more to love) and Prom Magazine will have us in their magazine on two celebrities! (wow wow wow). Editorials are awesome for a designer. Why? #1) Because designers don't have to pay for these - they are not ads. Regular ads cost anywhere from $7500 to $72,000. for a one page color ad. #2) Another reason why I love editorials is that the magazines use my dresses in a different vision. For instance, what I envision my dress to look like, they use it in an entirely different photographical scene. I love to view what fashion editors come up with for my dresses. Sometimes the fashion editors and the photographer see my dress in a different light and I've never been dissatisfied with what they come up with. If you are a fashion editor for a major magazine, you are the epitome of fashion (next to a prom dress designer that is). You have to love fashion and it shows in the editorials that they put out.  Perhaps it's what we have in common that I like the most, we live for fashion.  Here is a past editorial that I like from Cosmo Girl.  CosmoGirl used Ashley Tisdale in a pile of feathers (how fun is that?), then show the dress later on a mannequin.

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Last night I attended a dinner/auction fundraiser for Animal Allies called the “Fur Ball - cough it up for the animals!”. My company donated two handbags for the cause and both sold for full retail. This auction means more to me that any other auction I have attended. People would probably say it’s because I was the one who originally started the Fur Ball in the first place, but the reality is, it’s all about the animals, it’s all for the animals and this is where my heart lies.

The objective of the Fur Ball was to bring in money to build a new shelter. The current shelter is in awful condition. There is no ventilation, and if one animal urinates in his stall at the end row of cages, this forms a stream which runs all the way through every other animals stall on the way to the drain in the center of the building. People don’t want to visit a shelter and see what these dogs/cats are going through. Hence, the less people that go through the shelter, the less animals that will have an opportunity to find a good home.

If you love animals like I do, I highly suggest to donate your time towards them. I have, and it has been a very rewarding experience. Here are some things you can do to volunteer at a shelter:

* take the dogs for a walk (you also benefit by getting exercise). If no one shows up to help walk the dogs, the dogs have to stay in their kennel all day. Dogs start to turn constant circles if they are left in kennels all day. I believe it’s some kind of mental condition that they develop from having to be in a kennel all the time. In many instances, animals rescued by the shelter are already going through this kennel turning.

* clean cages. I know you wouldn’t want to live in a cage like this.

* if you cannot tolerate messes, what about helping at a fund raiser. The Animal Allies is in our area is in constant need of volunteers to help staff the walk for animals (handing out t-shirts, collecting donations, running the dog Olympics), x-mas card photo for dogs having their photo taken with Santa,, the dog gone good time event, the list is endless.

* are you good with bookwork or filing? Animals allies is always looking for help filing papers to putting out the next newsletter.

* help writing the newsletter.
There is something for everyone. The only thing needed is your time.

* most importantly, if you know of someone who needs an animal, tell them about your local shelter.  Many of the dogs that are admitted are pure bread dogs.

So what to animals have to do with fashion? Think about cavemen, the fashion was to wear fur. Speaking of fur, I need to add a little tidbit. You will never find any real fur being used in my designs. This is the 20^th century, the need for having to wear fur was probably appropriate in the caveman ages. Now-a-day’s it’s not necessary and it’s downright cruel. Animals also provide inspiration for my designs (see below):

White Faux Fur Bolero Jacket

Leopard print dyed fuchsia

Leopard print

To find your local shelter, look them up under "animal shelter + your city and state" under google.com or yahoo.com.

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Did you know that the US had no taxes until 1913?  We were a tax-free country!  Some countries are still tax-free (Bahamas, Cayman Islands, Anguilla, etc). After the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the US was tax-free for 137 years!  For two years we were taxed a civil war income tax but in 1894, the Supreme Court ruled this tax unconstitutional. 

What does this have to do with fashion?  Everything!  US Designers work hard for their dollars.  They have 28 to 50% of their paycheck taken away from them at the end of the day for income tax.  Then we have property tax, sales tax, etc.  What is the incentive to work?  The people who don't work in this country live off the middle class and high income earners by participating in welfare.  Wages go up so that people can support themselves which forces companies like mine to take their business overseas.  Hence, this causes a lack of jobs which causes more poor people.  For instance, a dress that I can have made in China for $100 would cost me $1200 in the USA.  Not many prom girls want to spend over $2000+ on a prom dress.  Why from $1200 to $2000+?  Don't forget you need to take wholesale mark-ups for storage costs, salaries, taxes, advertising and promotion of the dress, etc., then you need to take another retail mark-up for the stores who carry that dress for their advertising, salaries, etc.  Everyone involved in the process from making to selling this dress needs to get paid.  So this $1200 ends up being 2 to 3 times that amount after all the expenses are calculated.  I'm sure you would agree, you would rather have the same dress for under $300 than pay $2000+ for the same dress - even if it was made in the US vs. China.

Don’t get me wrong, I love my country.  I'm a true American.  I've traveled all over the world for my job (China for my factories, Paris for fashion week, Italy for fabrics, etc.) and I still wouldn’t want to live anywhere else.  We have it good in the USA.  I'd just like to see the US go back to its roots.  The reason for why we became a great nation in the first place.  Teens today set the roots for the future of this country; perhaps you can make a difference.  Bring business back to the US - eliminate taxes. 

FASHION INFLUENCE:  History has influenced my designs.  I was studying dresses from the 1800's when I came up with the dress shown below.  I modernized it by adding floral embroidery (thank you history class for letting my practice my embroidery).  Can you see the 1800's influence?  Corset lace up front.  Let's not forget our past, we can bring it back.

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Continued from last blog…So why was I in New York? As a fashion designer the question should really be why am I leaving New York? New York is the fashion hub of the world. If you want to be a successful fashion designer I highly suggest New York as the place to live, eat and breathe. I’m from but a handful of designers that have actually succeeded at being a designer on a national level without actually living in New York. I can say from experience it would have been a lot easier living in NY and most likely a lot easier, less work and less travel. This trip, I flew to NY because a customer called on Tuesday wanting to see me on Thursday. All customer’s are important however, I only hop on a plane to New York within 24 hours of a customer calling when it’s a customer that can have a serious impact on my fashion business. They wanted to view my line and I was more than happy to show it to them. I could have sent one of my sales rep’s however, with a customer of this magnitude, I felt it was best if I went there myself. I was also able to schedule two other meeting which really made it time worthy.

Some say, “Wow - going to NY must be soooo Glamorous” - not really. I was in the hotel 95% of the time. My meeting with my clients was even held in my hotel. I arrived on Thursday afternoon and flew out Friday night. I did get to see a designer friend of mine who lives in NY on Thursday night for dinner. She designs knits and woven tops for a NY company. She’s doing very well considering she’s only one year out of fashion design school. Six months into her job the head designer left so she took over. Great timing - just enough time to get trained in and then bam - you’re head designer! One thing is for sure, she loves NY. Her only complaint was paying $2000. for a one bedroom apartment that is so tiny her kitchen is the living room. She likes the fact of living on the 2^nd floor because most of the apartments she looked located above the 5^th floors. Most apartment buildings don’t have elevators and it’s not fun climbing 5 flights of stairs when you have 3 loads of laundry and a gallon of water to bring up with you.

She likes her designing and production job but it wouldn’t be for me. There are many different kinds of designers; furniture designers, backpack designers, clothing designers, etc. Those categories can be further broken down. For example, in the clothing design category, I design strictly evening gowns, prom dresses, and social occasion gowns. My friend designs strictly casual tops made out of knits and wovens. Others may design just men’s suits. I love what I do, as she loves what she designs. It would be really hard to design something that you have no interest in designing.

FASHION CRITIC: What is it about jean skirts worn with leggings on the streets of NY? This seems ‘so last year’. I saw a lot of people wearing this style as I was eating lunch at the hotel restaurant looking out the window people watching. I do know this, it doesn’t do much for their figures. What am I wearing? Black of course, so I don’t stick out like a sore thumb in NY. I have on a crisp white top with collar and cuffs. Very classic and very safe.

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PromDressShop.com is constantly receiving inquiries asking questions about what life is like for me as a fashion designer, how I get inspiration for my designs, and other questions about fashion and design. Blogging was brought up as an idea to get life as a fashion designer in prospective for future fashion designer wannabe's. So here I am writing my first blog.

Perhaps what I write will inspire someone to become a designer - that's an inspirational thought for me. Then again, perhaps it will dismay someone who had big intentions about becoming a designer - that's a depressing thought. Either way, life as a fashion designer is what it is, take it or leave it.

So here goes, my first blog….

I'm sitting in the JFK New York airport and my flight has been delayed 3 hours (surprise? -not). The plane was supposed to leave at 9:00 pm, now it's scheduled for 11:55 pm - ouch. Looks like another night in a hotel room for me. Once I land in Minneapolis, I still have a 3 hour drive to my home. So unless I want to find myself falling asleep at the wheel, I should probably not drive home tonight. Why did I leave from the Mpls. airport instead of the airport from my hometown? Easy answer - there was not an early enough flight to get my into New York on time for my first meeting. So I had to drive down, stay at a hotel room and get up early to catch the first flight to New York.

It's October 5, 2007 at 11:55pm and they loading the plane, so this blog will be continued tomorrow (which is in 5 minutes)....

FASHION INSPIRATION OF THE DAY: The airport floors are all squares 5 white squares in a row then one black line of squares. It made me think of a dress I made with cut out squares. I couldn’t remember where I got the inspiration for that dress. Perhaps it was an airport floor?

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