Location locked!

Hello friends!

I've been Tweeting away in 140 character updates this week, but it's been pretty spectacular for updates. We've got our location for the catalog portion of the photo shoot locked down inside the epic Archive Building in the far West Village:

So far, I have 3 finished sample dresses in my hands, courtesy of the superlative Michael Bevins at 4 Seasons Fashions, who slaved away during NYFW for me. The brilliant photographer Matthew Powell and I have been scouting the exteriors with a lot of promising results. If I haven't already mentioned it, Cabiria is lucky to have the stellar talents of Farrah Olivieri

Maxey Greene

and Allison McGevna

Insane how gorgeous these ladies are! We've also found great, hardworking PA's and the hair and makeup dream team of Fabian Garcia and Stella Sensel, as well as the talented behind the scenes documentary shooter Jendra Jarnagin and our inimitable video segment director Colleen Davie Janes.

SO MANY WONDERFUL PEOPLE!! I am so lucky. Can't wait for this all to come together in a few weeks, but in the meantime, back to paperwork and permits... it can't all be glorious, right? So why am I smiling so wide?

-Eden

Next round, coming up - this time with finesse!

Hi folks!

I know I've been very slow to post and report lately, but there's been movement on the Cabiria front, I promise.

As you saw before, dear readers, I hit a bit of a snag with my plans in Bangkok. When I came back to New York, the extraordinarily talented Michael David Bevins extended technical help my way through his company 4 Seasons Fashion. I'm diligently working away on patterns now, with a real class act providing the art of finesse. Such heartening news!

In the meantime, I leave you with this image from "Mad Men", returning to television in a few weeks. I am obsessed with border prints and the magic that they can do for any figure, slim or plus. Discuss.

Here's to new updates faster, sooner, and with more new dresses!

-Eden

Bangkok bound!

Hi all,

I have been an errant blogger, I know. So many things were happening in PersonalLand, that it made it hard to stay on top of the demands of a hungry blog audience. I am back now, though!

So the current news is that I will be going to Thailand in December and January, and while there, I'll be working with a wonderful Thai costume shop called Siam Costumes to build my patterns and first samples. They have experience working with vintage clothing cut for modern bodies, and a backstock of period fabrics as well. I'm really excited!

I still plan to manufacture the production line in the US, but there's just no way I could resist master cutters working on my samples while I ride elephants and give monkeys cocoanuts. Truly.

In other news, I'm also going to work on the Fall Winter 12/13 patterns and samples at the same time. This way, no matter what season we end up launching, Cabiria will be ready to go running into production. How exciting!

With that in mind, here's a dress, sans fabric, from the FW12/13 collection. You, my readers, are the first to see it!

There are many changes afoot, and I think the new approach will better serve my vendors and customers in the long run. Making plans then completely remodeling them seems to be in the air lately, but it's all good stuff!

Let me know what you all think, and I'll try to be more diligent on that blog posting thing!

-Eden

Pattermakers, Accountants, and Other Fun Updates

Hey there folks!

It's been a few weeks, and there have been some new combinations afoot. One of the things I'd done was learn Adobe Illustrator, at least the basics, so I could make flats of my garments for the patternmaker. Since I seem to do everything from the ground up, I'll happily share my flat plus size template for drawing out clothing on a truly plus size figure:

There were many like this available in mainstream sizes, but of course, like with so much in the plus size world, I found none so I drew that one myself. You like?

I've also changed patternmakers - while Werkstatt is a wonderful resource and she is obviously a talented patternmaker, it wasn't the perfect fit. I did manage to track down the patternmaker and samplemaker I'd worked with over a decade ago, when we were at Lucy Barnes (now wholesale private sales only). When I designed the line and envisioned the quality, it was always with this woman's craftsmanship in mind, so it's pretty genius to get her on board.

Finally, I've been reworking the business plan. I'd always thought of starting up with crowdsource funding and using that collateral to gain business loans, but now I'm trying to research what options are available with business partners and shared equity. I'm a workhorse, but I don't know everything about business and accounting, so finding someone gifted in the arena would be amazing. If you, dear readers, know of anyone who would be interested in contributing knowledge, resources, or/ and funds to bring Cabiria to market for love and profit, please contact me. I'm very open minded!

Monday begins a new phase of development, and hopefully my next posts will be about finding wonderful size 18/20 models in the New York area soon!

-Eden

Getting it together in New Yawk...

Hello all!

I know I've been horribly delinquent in posting how things are going for Cabiria. I am officially hand slapped. What I've been up to has been administrative, mostly - establishing the new LLC in New York State, talking to New york based patternmakers and samplemakers, and hunting for new workroom furniture, including an enormous cutting table. So much whirlwind activity, blogging ended up slipping to the side. Mea culpa!

The upshot is that dresses like this one:

will be coming together here in New York soon!

Stay tuned, folks. Stay tuned.

-Eden

the next set for your enjoyment

Greetings from sunny Orlando, Florida!

I wouldn't let you guys go without new dresses just because I'm on the road. This week's dress composite is the AIMEE (last week's was the SOFIA, if I forgot to mention it). All of my dresses are currently named after actresses or character names in Fellini movies, however I have a special perk. One of my donation incentives, albeit at the $5,000 level, is that you get to name the dress styles. It could be your own name, it could be someone you'd like to honor, it could be your superhero name! If you look at lifetime costs of having a child or a pet, it's really a bargain...

So onto the new dresses! Again, please let me know your opinions, comments, and constructive criticisms. The Aimee has an elasticized waist, a flyaway wrap skirt, pockets, and adjustable 1/2" straps on metal sliders. It's made of silk knit jersey, which can be hand washed in cold water and laid flat to dry, or dry cleaned.

Again, please be constructive in your criticisms and opinions! You can dislike something, but not telling me why doesn't help me change it for the better!

-Eden

Speaking of feathers...

Hi guys!

My fabrics have started coming in!! It's an incredibly complex formula because I'm buying job lots from wholesalers, which means I can only buy however many yards exist. Sometimes it's a few 100 yards, and sometimes, like in the case of this amazing Italian cotton feather print, it's only about 5 yards - enough for 1, maybe 2 dresses.

Isn't it gorgeous? I love how organic the pattern is; how it looks like both anemone and a George Grosz pen and ink drawing at the same time. Swoon!

What that means for Cabiria and my customers is unique and special - some of the pieces we'll create will be only a few of a kind, or maybe one of a kind. The style and size will be standardized for the line, but the fabrics - oh, the gorgeous fabrics - will be very rare indeed. How cool is that?

-Eden