We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Alison Conway. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Alison below.

Alison , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. To kick things off, we’d love to hear about things you or your brand do that diverge from the industry standard

I started Strange Bikinis in 2012 with the mission to help average or curvy women feel amazing in their swimsuit. When i started making swimwear one of the first things i did was base the designs of my body which was a Large and curvy figure compared to the industry standard. Beyond the actual designs i set out to show women on my website and marketing campaigns that had cellulite or stretch marks or maybe were larger than what had been shown as a swimwear model.

This was 2012, so it did take off as far a small business standards. Women loved the mission and the brand ehtos and i hit the ground running.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Ali Conway, I attend the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising before moving to reno and starting Strange Bikinis. I love surf and skate culture and have always been a creative with a thirst for adventure. I sewed all my products for 5 years and saved all my earnings to eventually boot strasp my first small batch production run in 2017.

I have been running this business off grit and intuition for 14 years. I have no business or marketing education.

I have had 2 children in the last 6 years while running my business.

I have a strong desire to teach women about consumerism and enviromental impacts of the garment industry. I have had to slow my roll with events and community out reach, but it’s something i hope to pick back up.

Can you talk to us about manufacturing? How’d you figure it all out? We’d love to hear the story.

Manufacturing is super intimidating. Although I had attended the fashion institute of design and merchandising in Los Angeles and had hands-on experience within production houses, I still didn’t feel confident reaching out to factories.

Like I previously mentioned, I worked on my brand for five years, working on construction ,fit, fabric development, and really knowing my audience before I even decided to jump into Manufacturing. I’m blessed that I know how to sew and enjoy it very much. I was able to make thousands of personalized custom swimsuits for my customers and build up my audience before I ever taking any huge risks on Manufacturing. I saved $70K to produce my first run of Strange Bikinis.

Now looking back, I wish I would’ve jumped right into Manufacturing because I would’ve been more profitable faster. I’ve used four different manufacturers since 2017. It’s always a pain in the butt to find them. I’m a personable person so I like to meet people and talk face-to-face . A lot of our manufacturers in the United States. English is their second language so communication can be extremely difficult via email add in the fact that I live in Reno and not San Francisco or Los Angeles, where the garment workers are primarily it’s been extremely difficult, costly and stressful.

Nobody wants to share manufacturers either. It’s very hush-hush type energy not me though. I’ve been lucky enough to meet a couple people in my industry that are open and honest about the realities of working in apparel Manufacturing.

It’s expensive to produce goods in the United States. It’s a dying skill. I truly think within the next 10 years, most of the Cut houses and sewing houses will be gone. Younger generations are not learning this skill, which makes it more expensive now for us, but it will eventually just be gone in the United States!

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Honestly, I feel like this whole experience… The last 14 years I’ve been nothing but resilient. Rejection while trying to get loans to start my business. Not being able to find a manufacturer to produce my goods. Having multiple miscarriages while I was in the height of my busy season and just having to keep pushing forward. Being evicted from my retail and workspace, of seven years ,and having to quickly pivot in the height of my busy season. Losing my FACTORY right before production started due to small quantities and not enough workforce. Being audited for giving away free products and fined nearly $10,000. Having a complete batch of fabric pill and not be up to my standards, costing me around $40,000 .

Really the list could go on and on about why I’m resilient. You just have to be when you’re running a business. You have to believe in yourself even when everything is saying “no” you have to dig down and say “yes” and make it happen.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.strangebikinis.com
• Instagram: strangebikinis
• Facebook: strange bikinis

Image Credits

“Lets talk” photo taken by Lora Wagoner 2019