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

Factory updates!

Hello friends,

I've been very busy since the Kickstarter campaign ended, and been a little lax in my public blog posts. I am now going to correct that.

By the time you read this post, ALL of the incentive packages for Kickstarter backers will have been mailed out, minus the dresses from the line. As mentioned earlier, those folks will receive their swag now, then when the factory is done and everything is double checked, they'll receive their dresses in a separate shipment.

More good news: all the fabrics and stuff that goes into making garments are in the factory, and in the process of being cut. I dropped by yesterday, and it's really exciting to see all the bundles of fabrics and cut pattern pieces ready to go to the next step, sewing. I love these surreal moments!

In the next few days, I will be reissuing swatch cards to reflect the real fabrics per real styles being offered in the Spring/Summer 2013 line. It will be different than what you may be accustomed to seeing, as there will be limited quantities of each item per fabric. I will update that in the Cabiria Store as well as specifically letting my retailers know what they can order. It's coming together, folks!

In the meantime, I hope you have a wonderful holiday season, and much peace, health and prosperity in the coming year.

All the best, Eden

this is the beginning of packing up all the incentive boxes with our dressform standing watch:

and this is another beautiful silk jersey fabric that will be in the line. Surprise!:

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

What's Landing on Our Doorsteps

Hello friends!

Just giving you a heads up since our Kickstarter campaign ended. I've been busily writing down all the requests from donors for swag and adding them to the Thank You page on Cabiria's website. If you have not already answered the survey questions from the Kickstarter website, please do as orders need to be placed all at once per vendor.

Some of the swag that's already been placed for delivery to Cabiria HQ are the bistro mugs, which are 16 oz. (not 14 oz. as previously stated), the tote bags, and the DVDs. I'm still waiting on some coffee orders, then that will be ready to place as well. Yum!

Today I went to see Pamela Bartual of Mark Da Grading services, and she should have my pattern pieces ready to go into production very soon. Tomorrow, I meet with her again, and then with the factory right here in New York City, in order to having everything through the workroom as soon as possible. It's really happening, people, thanks to you!

As a matter of fact, because of your largesse, I was out buying more fabric today to fill more orders. I can't even tell you how exciting that is to me - that my storeroom needs to be replenished to meet demand! How COOL is that??

And finally, I was sent the first shipment of business cards and hang tags by Triple Stamp Press. They were printed using a double pass white ink on heavy black stock, and I think they are some of the sexiest hangtags and cards I've ever seen. Hooray!

Thank you for making this happen!

All the best, Eden

The Last Day of the Campaign

Hello, friends!

I want to thank everyone who ran with the banner of the Kickstarter campaign while I was called away. Thank you for the kind words and letters of condolence that you sent, and thank you for not letting the Cabiria campaign fade away so I have great things to look forward to very soon.

My mom had great style in the 70's, and everyone said she looked like a Jewish Sofia Loren. More importantly, she was an incredibly smart woman who fully took up causes relating to women's rights and feminism, and taught me that with diligence, I could become anything I wanted to, regardless of gender. That tenacity and iconoclasm is her legacy to me, and I am a richer person for it.

This photo is me, my mom, and my brother just after my 7th birthday. This is how I remember her best: sitting with her kids, waiting for us to touch one of the animals at the petting zoo, and delighting at our peals of laughter.

The Cabiria campaign is the culmination of my mom teaching me strength and tenacity, and you have shown your support of my dream. Thank you for that, and if there's anyone who hasn't heard about Cabiria's campaign on Kickstarter, please let them know - it's the last 24 hours, and this last push will take us into new, untold heights.

All the best,
Eden

Final week of Kickstarter Campaign and a Call to Action!

Hello, friends!

We are four leaf clovers and unicorns! The incredible blog Envynde, which advocates for emerging designers across all size ranges (fantastic yeoman's work) has written an article about us stating that the rarity of a great, high quality, fashionable plus size line such as Cabiria is like finding four leaf clovers and unicorns. Pretty fantastic! They also wanted to write the article in advance of completion of our Kickstarter campaign so they could brag about the scoop. Well done!

Our Kickstarter campaign was also mentioned quite flatteringly in the "Links:Shopping" on the fantastic DIY design blog Not Martha. She really liked our coloring book incentive as well as the dresses! Her blog makes my home decorating, craft-making fingers itch.

We are now in the final stretch of the Kickstarter campaign. With a little over a week to go, we will be reminding you (again) to make those backing pledges which will bump up our popularity on the Kickstarter website. Kickstarter themselves need to be reminded that our numbers prove that we are a worthwhile project, and they should put their considerable marketing force behind us as well. So far, an astounding 81% of backing has come from word of mouth from friends and allies, known to me and new friends, and only 19% from Kickstarter generated links. Thank you for that, you guys! But the power of a strong platform like Kickstarter is that if they believe that the project is worth boosting in the feed, they can make people pay attention. So I ask you two things:

1. if you have not already backed the project, now is a great time to do it. We have 7 days left and every dollar creates a bump of interest across the platform and
2. write to Kickstarter on their webpage. You will need to scroll to the bottom of the page to the "Contact" link in the footer, but then let them know that you think this is a great project and you want to see it gain recognition in the Kickstarter public arena (their Staff picks, their blog posts, and their emailer to backers internationally. Feel free to point out that we are the MOST SUCCESSFUL plus size project EVER on Kickstarter, and why you think we're worth promoting.

Let's make this a record breaker together!

All the best, Eden