Factory Delivery!!

Hello friends!

I want to thank you for your patience since the last update. In between, the fabric went to the factory, and two months later, they're emerging as dresses. We're picking them up today, just ahead of a big winter storm!

I've been back and forth to the factory many times since they started production, and was even interviewed on Japanese TV for an NHK show called "El Mundo" as the symbolic representative of all the indie plus size designers in the US. How cool is that? And yesterday, I was in the factory bagging up the dresses for transport to my studio, which is about to get very, very crowded. Hopefully, not for very long!

For your viewing pleasure, a few racks waiting for delivery:

I'll next be delivering dresses to those who pledged at the amounts to get them as part of their Kickstarter swag (thank you again!!), and to the several boutiques who pre-ordered them. I will also then release them for sale on the e-store website, http://www.store.cabiriastyle.com and hopefully sell out very quickly. The success of the line's sales will determine if Cabiria goes forward with a Fall Winter 13/14 line, but here's the secret: it's already been designed, patterned, and first prototyped. Prepared!

I'll be updating soon, and if you were a backer at the level to get dresses but did not pick what you wanted, PLEASE get in touch with me as soon as humanly possible! If they are sold and gone, I can't replace them for you.

Thank you again, and all the best,

Eden

The Best of Kickstarter 2012

Hello friends!

By now those that pledged should have received their incentives in the mail. I understand that one mug arrived in tiny pieces (so sad!), and I will be replacing it. If you had trouble with your package, please let me know so I can replace it for you - there's a (very) few mugs left here at HQ.

Those that pledged for dresses as well, news from the factory is that they should be ready to start shipping in about 2 weeks. First orders will be sent to the backers and the stores that have preordered. The rest will be placed in the online store, as well as re-offered to plus size boutiques who'd expressed interest. Please note: I have non-compete pricing on the website, so you will be paying the same AND supporting small businesses in your area if you get your Cabiria dresses at a boutique near you. I will be telling you who is stocking Cabiria once we ship.

Finally, I want to express my utmost gratitude to those who backed us on the Kickstarter campaign, no matter what level. The Best of Kickstarter 2012 numbers are out, and it turns out that Fashion, as a category, is the least funded, with projects only meeting their goals 26% of the time. The fact that you guys believed that we are a worthwhile project, so much so that you made us the Most Successful Plus Size Project EVER on Kickstarter, means even more given this new information.

Thanks again so very much, and have a glorious next few weeks. I'll be posting again probably when we go to ship to you. Hooray!

All the best, Eden

Following are two images from Cabiria being manufactured (notice the Cabiria label on the bottom far left of the Flaminia in Tropicalia dresses in the 1st image), and a third image with the astounding numbers from the Best of Kickstarter 2012. You guys made this happen.

Happy Holidays

Hello friends,

As the year winds down, I want to thank everyone for being part of such an extraordinary adventure with me. I am so pleased that on a professional and personal level I've gotten to become part of a larger group of communities as an entrepreneur, a successful crowdsource marketer, a plus size advocate, and as a creative designer seeing my dreams become fruitful. Thank you for being part of that.

I wish you all the most extraordinary luck, love, hope, wonder, and prosperity in the new year. Happy holidays of every stripe, and enjoy ringing in the New Year. Now go out there are open up some presents!

All the best, Eden

Swag Report and Money Spending

Hi everyone,

I have been busy receiving shipments of swag to my workroom, and it's very exciting! Today the DVDs and tote bags came in, and yesterday the chocolate arrived. I've hidden it from myself or there's a risk of a highly sugared and caffeinated designer running amok.

I've also been working on the cutting tickets, which are the numbers for the factory to Cut, Make, and Trim ("CMT"), and scrambling around buying more silk jersey to complete the orders. Such a great response means that for all my preparation, there's more success to meet expectations! I consider this a wonderful and honorable problem.

Tomorrow the fabrics are being taken to the factory in midtown (made in the USA!), and then we are off to the races making these beautiful things! Hooray!

Thank you all for making me step up my game. And for those who haven't completed the surveys I sent last week, please do! I need your info to ship the magic to you!

All the best, Eden

Keeping the ball rolling and finding new audiences

Hello friends,

On October 23rd, Cabiria launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise $8,000 towards funding production of the Spring Summer 2013 Collection, and we reached that in just over a week.

Since then, we've become the MOST SUCCESSFUL PLUS SIZE CAMPAIGN EVER on Kickstarter. That is in terms of percentage raised over the initial goal and amount of dollars raised. This is stupendous!

Now, more than ever, I need your help. Any amount you give, from $1 on up, will bounce our analytics higher on Kickstarter. More interest in the campaign means more outside interest from outside our friend circles. More interest creates Staff Picks and Popular placement on the site, introducing the campaign to more people. More interest means more donations and more possibilities for getting more clothing into more hands.

We've gotten great mentions in Plus Fashion Blogs, we were interviewed for a radio podcast broadcasting from New Zealand, and interest from wholesalers from all over North America (I'm including Canada here) from the publicity about this campaign. My alma mater, Pratt, placed the campaign in their Curated Page. It's all great news, but we still have 13 days to go.

If you have not already, please contribute.

If you're involved in Social Justice, Equality, Costume, Fashion, Design, Plus Size, Straight Size, Feminism, Entrepreneurship, Startups, Bootstrappers, Classic Movie Buffs, Europhiles, or just delight in seeing things go viral, you have an audience for Cabiria. Please spread the word and really get this campaign out there, across platforms!

Thank you!

All the best,

Eden

following are: 1. a graph of how we're doing on here and where the funds are coming from (transparency)

2. a wonderful and overdue article on Plus Bloggers and Stylemakers from today's New York Times, and

3. a fascinating article written for Ms. Magazine titled "If the Clothes Fit: A Feminist Takes On Fashion?", which incorporates the social justice part of Cabiria's message.

132% Funded! 16 More Days! And Where Your Money is Going

Hello friends,

First of all, thank you so much for this great momentum we have on Kickstarter. We're 132% funded and still have 16 days left in the campaign! I can't even tell you how exciting this is, and I'm so glad you believe in Cabiria and it's message of social justice through beautiful clothes.

I've been talking to some potential retailers for stocking the line, and potential business backers who want to expand the way we're currently structured (one woman running around like a chicken). I'm a designer. I like to think of myself as a pretty good designer. But in starting a project like this I've had to scale a pretty steep learning curve to become a proficient traditional marketer, social media marketer, public relations person, accountant, photoshoot producer, web developer, tech pack producer, factory production manager, sales rep, and fashion lawyer. Oh yeah, and autodidact MBA. I wouldn't say I'm great at any of these, although I'm not too shabby for an art school graduate (cough). All that said, I'd love to work with people who do these things well and with ease, all in concert to make the end result access to beautiful clothes. Big plans!

In the meantime, the knowledge that I will receive funding from Kickstarter backers at the end of the campaign has allowed me to order beautiful hand screened hang tags and business cards from an independently owned press in Richmond, VA. For a long time I'd been hunting for the perfect hang tag - those heavy cardboard tags that hang off garments to say what brand they are, and that hold the secondary information, price and RFID tags. I obsess about these small details because I really do think that the details are part of what differentiate Cabiria from others out there. All the details, on the clothes and off. I can't wait for them to arrive in the mail so I can show them off!

The funding has allowed me to look at planning a trunk show or three with Bombshell Boutique in St. Paul, MN, Vive la Femme in Chicago, and The Voluptuous Vixen in New Orleans.

The Voluptuous Vixen (and the Head Vixen herself),

Bombshell Boutique,

and Vive la Femme.

The funding allows me to consider making more pieces than the original factory quota that I'd need to meet, so I can have more to sell to more retailers. More access for customers. It also allows me to devote stock to online retailers that we can pair with so there's more ways to get the clothes.

Reaching past the funding goal has allowed me to start conversations with silk mills to make our own production runs of fabric, so we aren't limited to job lot fabrics sourced in the marketplace. Meaning if you want that dress in that print, it's yours. And reorderable.

Every dollar added allows all these possibilities to come together. Thank you for helping me reach these goals and create new opportunities together. As always, please spread the word!

All the best, Eden

please support independent retailers and help them thrive

WE ARE FUNDED ON DAY 8!!! now onto Stretch Goals!!

OH MY GOODNESS! Yes, I'm shouting! And shaking, although it might also be because I've been drinking a lot of coffee today. But WE ARE FUNDED at 100% now!!!!!

Day 8! 88 Backers! $8,000! I know my new favorite number!

Every single person who has donated or put out a good word has pushed this project into the stratosphere. The person who gave the pledge that knocked us into 100% was a woman who gave me my first job in television nearly 20 years ago. The first person who donated was my wonderful brother and his incredible family. But in between there have been strangers with indecipherable screennames, new friends I wouldn't have met other than through this channel, and old dear friends who have believed in me for a lifetime. I am so incredibly honored that you chose to back me.

Now I move forward with the stretch goals. As I mentioned in previous updates and the FAQ, each one is a mile marker, not an aggregate, so each amount pledged from now on goes towards making those stages a reality as well. We are still 22 days from the end of the campaign, and there are still many opportunities to get the word out.

In the meantime, Thank You So Incredibly Much! Once I stop shaking, I'll start working on the hang tags and stickers again.

xoxo, Eden

below is Eddra Gale from Fellini's "8 1/2" in about the same state I feel like right now

We've topped $7000! We're over 87% Funded (and there's a hurricane coming)

Pretty much that's my whole message. We've broken the $7000 mark on Day 6 on Kickstarter, with a hurricane bearing down on us and riots over bottled water in the streets! A friend is telling me that in some areas the meteorological service is expecting waves of 14 to 22 feet, and the seawall in several areas of New York City is only 9 feet high.

If there are major power and internet outages because of this storm, please don't think we're slacking. I'll be back when the storm repercussions are over, and updating our results as we go. Wouldn't it be an amazing and surreal thing if the power goes off and we have $7000, and when it comes back on, we've topped the goal and I miss it? Only time will tell.

Thank you so much, everyone, and please stay safe and dry out there.

All my best,

Eden

following is an inexcusable "bathroom mirror shot", but I like showing that you can dress these pieces up or down. I didn't have Matthew Powell, our brilliant photographer, on hand to take a better picture, so mea culpa.

86% Funded, New Stores and Stretch Goals!

Hi everyone,

I hope all of you in the Northeast are battening down the hatches in prep for the crazy storm headed our way! I'm trying to think what I can do offline to work on Cabiria if the power goes out. I know it's a little geeky, but I love patternmaking and textile development, so if there's no internet, I might play with Illustrator and Photoshoot to work on new textile artwork for a future printing. If there's no power at all, I might work on some new patterns for Fall/Winter and keep moving forward. I don't sit still well.

We're on Day 5, and we're 86% funded! Thank you so much! There's been activity on the networking front; I went to a great event put on by The Big Girl Blog, and met some wonderfully positive, effusive plus size women, then got and email from Gussied Up, a new plus size boutique in Toronto, and another from Bombshell Boutique in St. Paul, MN interested in potentially carrying the line in their stores. So exciting to possibly have things in brick and mortar independently owned shops!

Several people have pointed out that with the campaign doing so well, I should put out some Stretch Goals. Things that can make Cabiria really fly. I've come up with quite a few, but keep in mind this is not an aggregate total - this is the cost of EACH THING, and they are pretty conservative estimates.:

With $900 I can buy the most amazing Bemberg lining that's in limited supply, but could become a signature look for the company, especially as a finishing trim or full lining.
With $1000 I can buy ad space in Plus Model Magazine, Skorch Magazine, DailyVenusDiva, Just As Beautiful, and a few other plus size fashion online magazines to promote pre-sales and encourage retailer and direct customer interest.
With $1250 I can work with The Apparel Agency or Indie Design Association to streamline production delivery and make sure it's all done according to industry expectations.
With $1750 per location, I can do a trunk show with models and refreshments at a plus size boutique interested in doing pre-sales, for instance in New Orleans, St. Paul, Toronto, and Chicago. (this pays for flight, meals, hotel, car, models, refreshments, signage, gear, etc.)
With $4000 I can pay the models, photographer, locations, makeup artist, hair stylist, and additional crew to shoot a Fall/Winter photoshoot, and for digital photo cleanup.
With $6000 I can hire a part time assistant during the production and delivery cycle.
With $7000 I can expand the product development and include sizes 24 - 30. With $8000 I can rent booth space and show at Women's Wear in Nevada (WWIN)or Pool/Magic Expo trade shows which could potentially get us into large department stores and boost us to the next level.
With $9000 I can have 500 yards of custom printed silk jersey made so there would be no sold out fabric patterns (well, per design) ever again.
With $15,000 I can develop the Fall/Winter 2013/14, and purchase fabrics for production of the second season.

That's only $65,550. We can pull that off, easy! Right? Am I right?

the amazing Bemberg lining I've wanted for ages. I know what shelf it's on and how many yards are waiting for me, quivering with anticipation.:

Every step costs money, and every step is one closer towards making Cabiria something that thrives on it's own. Thank you for believing in this project and pushing it out of the nest.

-Eden

More great news (69% funded!) and an explanation for some critics

Hi friends,

Today was another great day for Cabiria's Kickstarter campaign moving ahead. We're 69% funded on Day 4! Thank you! First thing this morning I met with a lawyer from the Fashion Law Institute Clinic from Fordham University. Yes, there is something as specific as a Fashion Lawyer. Although the woman who runs the program is smartly dressed, it's regarding the specific laws around contracture for sales, licensing, labeling laws, indemnity, delivery, as well as intellectual property protection and trademarks, etc. for a business where garments are knocked off all the time, and designs are difficult to protect.

This may sound cutthroat and not in the spirit of starting a creative project, but as an artist it's also important to think like a businesswoman. Upshot is that I got some great pointers and referrals. Yay!

here I am heading out to a networking event last night in Flaminia in Black Cherries. Tiny Empire State Building in the hazy background.

Afterwards, I found out that we'd been mentioned by The Brickhouse of Style and Skorch Magazine on their social media platforms, and the store Wells & Verne in Portland, OR and Nina Blakemore in London, UK are interested in carrying Cabiria as well! We're international, baby. (hey - the new James Bond is coming out. I can't resist a little Austin Powers impression.)

Then off to the patternmaker, Michael Bevins at 4 Seasons Fashion, right down the street from swag provider Gregory's Coffee to do some final pattern tweaks before being ready for grading and production.

In the past few days, I've gotten a lot of compliments and kudos from people really seeing the value of this line. But, being in a public forum, I've gotten a few critics on one specific question, and I'd like to address that.

Why don't you make higher than a size 24?
The implication in this question - actually it's been outright stated - is that I am becoming part of the problem that excludes plus size consumers greater than a size 24. Since I stop at a size 24, I suppose it's a valid accusation. However, it's unfair to lay the ills of an entire industry at the feet of one small designer simply because I'm accessible with a face and an email address. Succinctly, it becomes a financial decision that I had to make to have any solvency ever.

It took me 2 years to get this project up on Kickstarter, after years of just mulling it over in my head. I worked several jobs, didn't go out and play too much, and saved my money in order to pay for the development and initial launch of the line. I called in a lot of favors, but some things are still costly and set as a fee, such as use of people's factories or services. They in turn have spent money to keep their doors open, much in the same way that many of the indie boutiques Cabiria wants to be in are self financed and run with a very narrow margin of error.

Pattern development and fittings cost money. Each size that you add to a line adds development and grading costs to the line, which is why numbered sizes tend to fit truer than 1x, 2x, 3x, etc. But it's money, which I'm on Kickstarter to help supply.

a long article on grading and pricing

a long article on what's involved in developing a line with a patternmaker and samplemaker

Also, most brick and mortar plus size boutiques carry up to a 24. Yes, it perpetrates a difficult cycle, but why should a tiny business absorb more risk on top of all the inherent risks already in place? Again, I have a face so I am on the block, but there are LOTS of people with more money than I have who can take the financial risks and change the system. For instance, Marc Jacobs talking about having a plus line, but where is it? And Oscar de la Renta making "plus size" up to a 16. And Ralph Lauren saying they're using the first "plus size model (she's a 12)", when I clearly remember Guess? using Anna Nicole Smith at a size 16 in the 1980s and my dad showing it to me. Just three off the top of my head with much deeper pockets and false promises to the plus community.

I am one woman doing what I can within parameters that will allow slow and steady growth and survival. I am also very proud of trying to forge a path with a very unique line in beautiful fabrics and fabrications, and that's why I'm on Kickstarter.

All the best, Eden

Below are first fitting muslins for a master pattern, taken in 2010, when I first started working on this project.

Another Crazy Day of Goodness! (64% funded!)

Today was day 3 of the campaign. We are 64% funded, and gaining traction in the world outside my friends and family. Don't get me wrong, my friends and family are STUPENDOUS, but you can't build groundswell in a closed environment. What this means is that word is getting out in the Kickstarter world, Plus Size blogging world, people who want more fashion options, and people who believe in loving yourself and the body you're in today, and dressing well within it. I like this world!

Today has also brought some amazing attention. Marie Denee of The Curvy Fashionista, Gwen DeVoe of Full Figured Fashion Week, CeCe Olisa of The Big Girl Blog, and Patrice Grell Yursik of AfroBella Blog all shared word on their various social media platforms. Diana Rajchel of FatChic did an additional article about the Kickstarter campaign and featured the pitch video on her blog this evening, and I have a meeting with Aimee Cheshire of Madison Plus to show her the samples next week.

In the most fulsome press report to date, the blog Manolo For the Big Girl wrote an astoundingly great piece on Cabiria and on the Kickstarter push and I'm really honored that it's so good and, well, out there. I really felt like this was a writer got the message, and that's a thrill.

What an amazing adventure this is - scary because it's a whole new world of information and a very real deadline with real consequences, but thrilling because we should all be so lucky to learn so much and be supported by so many.

More posts coming soon! In the meantime I leave you with a photo from Cabiria's studio/ Kickstarter HQ. I'm sure they do it exactly the same way at PBS...

-Eden

Crack the Champagne, it's Opening Day!

OPENING DAY! It's here, it's here! After many months of hard work, today is launch day for the new website, the e-store for presales and wholesale, the unveiling of the SS13 Lookbook, Collection in catalog view, and the Behind the Scenes video, which shows the making of our lookbook, and is an important part of our Fundraising Campaign.

Currently we are waiting final approval from Kickstarter to launch that campaign, which means that while there are links to the campaign on our Incentives page and our Thank You page, they are not yet functioning links. I know this already, so no worries! As soon as that campaign goes live, I will let you all know, for sure.

We are also listed as "Coming Soon" on all the items in our Online Store. This is to give an opportunity to Plus Size boutiques to order for delivery in late winter so you can all have access up close and personal with our sumptuous clothes. Once we cover presales, I will open the store up at a retail level for online direct to you ordering.

Thank you again for following this amazing adventure and believing in Cabiria so wholeheartedly! If you have any suggestions for better site functionality that either I can achieve or you know specifically how to implement, please let me know immediately and I will try my best to put it into action. Also, please Subscribe to our newsletter which will help cut down on redundant cross posting, and "Like" us on Facebook, which will help as well.

For Press and Publicity inquiries, please email press@cabiriastyle.com.
For Wholesale Access to Linesheets, Terms and Order Forms, please email wholesale@cabiriastyle.com (you will need a password).
For all other inquiries, please email info@cabiriastyle.com and I'll respond as quickly as possible. Thank you again, and stay tuned for the Kickstarter campaign!

Let's crack some champagne on this hull!

xoxo, Eden

Everything Coming Together This Weekend

Hello friends,

I have been working really hard the past few weeks to get all the ducks in a row and to introduce you to the new line, website, lookbooks, and videos for Cabiria. I have had a lot of help, and it's really great, because no one can do something this ambitious alone.

I have also learned a lot in the process. For instance, my initial desire was to launch all the new website, e-store, and Kickstarter campaign all at the same time. I should have read the fine print that said it takes up to a week for Kickstarter to approve my campaign application. That's okay - it means that the website and e-store will be open and tested live.

Live? Did I say live? Yes I did! And that's the most exciting news of all: we are going to be ready to launch and show off the website and lookbooks and catalogs Sunday or Monday! Tell your friends, tell your neighbors! In the meantime, here's another teaser from the photoshoot, the back cover of our lookbook:

And one more, with our music credit for El Haru Kuroi:

Mama Dog took quite a shine to Maxey on the location shoot - protective sweet old girl.

Stay tuned over this weekend, and get all the new developments as they come together!

xo, Eden

Almost ready to Launch!

Hello friends,

It's been pretty busy here with Cabiria - we're gearing up to launch the e-store, the Lookbook and Collections Catalog will be online shortly, the Behind-the-Scenes video is almost cut, and we're about to launch a public crowdsource funding campaign next week!

I will be sharing all of the links to our visuals next week when we're 100% ready, but here's one I love from the photoshoot. The lovely Maxey Greene enjoying life on location with a little help from her waiter Josh and a Pinot Grigio. Hard work, right?

Oh, and that's the Giuseppina dress in our Butterflies 100% silk jersey she's wearing.

Please stay tuned for the launch coming very very soon!

-Eden

Post-punk bossa nova, anyone?

Hi friends! Lots of details are coming together now, getting the GORGEOUS photos together and editing the behind the scenes video. Exciting news tonight is that we've been granted rights to use the music by fantastic post-punk bossa nova East LA band El Haru Kuroi!

Check out this video of them playing live a little while ago:


Sexy, swinging, and post-punk? Yeah, I think we've got that covered. Talk to you soon!

-Eden

Tales Of Glory from the Photoshoot

Hey friends, Wow, what an insanely wonderful photoshoot and videoshoot we had on Saturday! It turned out spectacularly well, and I couldn't have done it alone.

Actually, I truly want to point this out. I could sit in my apartment drawing pretty dresses all day long, but launching a business and getting all the various and sundry pieces and details together to get it out of your head and into the world is a process that only happens with good people around you. I am so honored to get to work with so many great and talented people, that I am going to do a credit reel at the bottom of this blog post.

There are two reasons I wanted to shoot a video along with the catalog and lookbook. One, everyone likes Behind the Scenes videos. Everyone. It's an internet fact or something. Two, and more importantly, this video is going to become part of a Kickstarter funding campaign, so we can put together the money to produce these pieces at the quality level that makes Cabiria a different product out there, and to do it in the USA and utilize the craftsmanship here (by the way, this link is about the factory where I'm producing the garments in NYC). Job creation! (it's an election cycle - I can't help but use buzz words).

For another perspective, one of the beautiful models, Allison McGevna, also posted on her own blog about Cabiria and her experience on set.

There was a LOT of preparation going into this shoot, in part because I take pride in being as professional as possible to make sure my entire crew and talent get what they need to put out their own creative work, and in part because I don't want to miss opportunities because I've forgotten an important step, like a street permit, or to talk to a location's manager, or snacks for the green room. Details become important.

The whole week before the shoot was super rainy, and I kept hoping it would get over and done with before our shoot day. Also, there is a bad flu going around, so I lost several of my crew members 2 days before due to illness. Thursday night, in a panic trying to replace my sick crew members, my roommate came home with a friend. Turns out, she was interested in helping, so at 2AM, as I sat in my living room lounge chair in my pajamas, I scored my final crew member.

On the prep day, Friday, it dumped buckets of rain on us as we ran around the city picking up gear and groceries, and loading into the theater where we'd shoot the catalog work, but with help we got it all done.

Before dawn on Saturday, I picked up my photographer with my awesome houseguest-now-PA, drove into the city and started to set up the theater space, stage area, and green room. Friends started arriving shortly after, picking up the carts of coffee and baked goods for our breakfast, laying out makeup brushes and camera gear, and even delivering the last of the samples that needed to be assigned to models.

Soon, two of our models were in the makeup and hair chairs, getting even more beautiful than they already were (how is THAT possible?), and it was time for my video interview!

My hair was done, my nose was powdered, and I did some yoga breathing and jumping up and down to let go of my on-camera nerves. When we were done recording my interview, everyone in the room cheered for me. Apparently, what I had said in all earnestness on camera resonated with them - about loving beautiful fabrics and garments, about feeling excluded from the opportunities to even try those garments on in most stores, and about how much I wanted to bring an equal level of garment quality and construction to the plus size market. It was very rewarding for me to get that immediate feedback. A real gift.

On to the cyc! A cyc, short for cyclorama, is a big background for the photographer to shoot against. We shot all three models in 12 looks, for a total of 7 different styles, some in different fabrics. I wore a style that is still in development, pending interest from buyers, I will bring to market as well. One of the unique aspects of Cabiria is that I hunt high and low for the best possible fabrics and prints to make our pieces. This means that sometimes I can get 12 yards of silk jersey, yielding about 3 dresses total, and sometimes that means I can get 1000 yards yielding about 250 dresses, but I have to have the orders in place to make that kind of purchase. Again, why the Kickstarter campaign becomes important for our success and growth. This rarity creates such cache as well - to have a dress that's very unique for a price that falls into a very competitive price point window compared to what is available in the marketplace. So for our catalog, we shot a sampling of what different fabrics can do in different styles.

After lunch, we moved outside to shoot on some picturesque street locations. Since we didn't have permission to stop pedestrian traffic, we got a lot of passersby offering their very favorable comments. Choice favorites were: "Beautiful dress!", "She has a beautiful figure.", and my personal favorite "That looks nice...oooh! and it has pockets!".

I love pockets and put them in almost all my dresses.

We shot until the last light faded towards the horizon over the Hudson, then boogied on to wrap out and head home with our gear. An absolutely fantastic ending to a wonderful day with talented folks. I continue to be a very lucky designer indeed.

Huge thanks to my entire crew and advisors, including:
Bergen Swanson
Catherine Wolfe
Chevon Coleman
Colleen Davie Janes
Deb Malkin
Fabian Garcia
Janie Martinez
Matthew David Powell
Jendra Jarnagin
Jen Kennedy Martin
Jennifer Fisher
Kim Thompson
Michael David Bevins
Ragnar Steingrimsson, Jenn & Vinstri
Rebecca Ralph-Farella
Robert Segal
Stella Sensel

and of course the gorgeous models:
Allison McGevna
Farrah Olieri
Maxey Greene

and finally, the gracious Spasso Restaurant, HUB Cycles, and Marc Stuart Weitz of The New Ohio Theatre.

Stay tuned for the relaunch of the website with the photos and video, and the upcoming Kickstarter campaign!

-Eden