Meanwhile...down the street, Natalie was already there..with 4 kids in the mix she had started a quickly growing cupcake/catering business and was somehow managing it all quite well. Inspired by Natalie's success I re-visited my love for sewing and decided to try my hand at ebay selling embellished and re-vamped Halloween costumes.
Upon sharing my idea with Natalie it was all over...before my first costume was even finished, Natalie had bought a serger, designed her own pattern, and sewn her first custom dress only to top it off by casually mentioning that she had been to fashion design school BEFORE becoming a pharmacist and a mother of four. Who knew? It was a match made in heaven and Brava Boutique was born.
Within weeks the original plan evolved from Halloween costumes to custom Halloween outfits to custom Christmas outfits. By the end of November, Brava Boutique had created a 25 piece fall/Christmas collection for our first client (hey Marcine!). We named our creation Glad Heart based on Proverbs 15:13. "A glad heart makes a happy face."
As much as Marcine loved it, we needed more input. In exchange for a good old fashioned GNO, we asked all the moms we knew to tell us what they thought of our first effort. By the end of the night we had 8 custom orders and a re-newed confidence that we were on the right track!
Since that great night in November we took our first fabric shopping trip to LA, obtained our business license, attended our first textiles trade show, put on our first (and probably our last :)) fashion show, met with a web designer, and bought swanky brand new Bernina sewing machines.
As of April 2009, we are basking in the glow of the success of our Spring 09 collection. In one night we sold over 50 of the 85 pieces we designed and are currently in the middle of creating an exclusive Summer collection for Pattycakes Kids. Plans are already in the works for Fall and it will be our best collection yet!
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