Newsletters

Business Advice

Departments

Fresh Inc.

Inc.com Featured Blogs

October 20, 2004

Diary of a Start-up

Diary of a Start-up: On the Road

Posted by Victoria Keddie at 2:42 PM

This is the second in an series of weblogs from one of the owners of redwagon, a business that makes and sells hand-crafted fashion accessories and clothing. Check back often for more from-the-trenches viewpoints on starting and building a business.

We recently had a fashion show in Philadelphia at a well-known art collective space showcasing our new fall line. The theme was Puss & Boots and consisted of leather belts, skirts, coin purses, and jewelry. It was, to say the least, a memorable experience. It is our first fashion show since our company began and in the city that three of us went to school.

A friend and co-curator at the space put together a show with music and fashion on a Sunday afternoon. The show itself was disorganized, the attendees were questionable, and most of the fashion contributors backed out last minute. Needless to say, we were there, and became the instant highlight of the event.

We had under two weeks to put a complete line together from our initial designs. With one sewing machine, and too little time, we made prototypes for all of our designs--and ran into a few problems. Our member out in LA sent some of her items for the show, and they were lost in the mail (eventually returned to sender), so we had no representation from her at the show. Also, we had major trouble locating models for the event in such short notice. Kelli headed the styling, I took over make up, and Hillary became a model. We had three models in total and all with a few runs. It was a bit tricky timing the girls, but it worked out extremely well. I brought some of our t-shirts on hand to sell, and we quickly sold out of them. We also had cupcakes to share, which the crowd loved.

In the end, it turned out pretty well. It could have been more organized, we could have had a more suitable audience-- but we proved that we could pull off something like that in two weeks with much success and much learned.

2 Comments

Posted by: Mike at October 20, 2004 3:04 PM: Sounds a lot like last weeks Apprentice. So tell us who you fired.
Posted by: Cyril at October 22, 2004 9:24 AM: Great story! We have our first show next weekend! Not exactly a fashion show but we are trying to sell clothing to a bunch of airline enthusiasts!

Post Your Own Comments

Try a RISK-FREE Issue of Inc. Today!

Renew | Contact Us | Current Issue