We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Donnalee Austen a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Donnalee, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Growth is exciting, but from what we’ve seen across thousands of conversations with entrepreneurs it’s also dangerous if costs aren’t watched closely – sometimes costs can grow out of control outpacing revenue growth and putting the viability of the entire business at risk. How have you managed to keep costs under control?
It’s nice to meet you. I gave myself a budget. I have found that one of the major costs for starting a clothing brand is having the pattern and samples made. I found a small company downtown and in my rush to get started I dove right in. It ended up costing me quite a bit as the patterns didn’t come out correctly and the fit was off. They were also going to charge me for every revision and I never even got the digital files from them.
I knew if I continued down that road, it would have cost me my entire clothing line budget. So, we figured out how to do patterns ourselves by hand. It took some time but saved us so much money. We went through several different sample seamstresses trying to find the right one, which we eventually did. There is so much you can learn to do yourself to save costs and stay in budget.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I have always loved Old Hollywood. As a kid, I would watch classic movies and I wished I had the dresses that the stars wore, like Grace Kelly from “To Catch a Thief” and Audrey Hepburn from “Sabrina”. I couldn’t find them in any store and if I could, they were very expensive.
My high school prom was coming up and I could not find a dress that I liked, so, I decided to design my own. I found a seamstress and brought her my designs. It was a baby blue satin wrap dress with thin straps and a scalloped hem, and I was so proud of it. Then high school was over, and life took me on an adventure.
My love for the wild west brought me out to Los Angeles. I drove across the country, with $1000 in my pocket and two days later, I landed in the film production business.
I started out as an assistant and then moved up quickly to become a production coordinator/manager. I loved working in film production. Every day was different and there was always an adventure or something to figure out. I was hired to work with Leslie Zemeckis, Robert Zemeckis, Ridley Scott and some of the best talent in the business on commercials, music videos, feature films and documentaries. I have worked with Hawker Hunter jets to NASCAR race cars and everything in between.
I had always wanted to start my own business and especially to have the freedom of being my own boss. I did not go to fashion school but having worked in film production for so long, I learned to be resourceful.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
I knew nothing about fabrics or where to purchase them and began to look at designs I liked online to see what fabrics were used in their construction. I went to the showrooms in downtown Los Angeles and studied the different fabrics and was in search of durable, comfortable fabrics with a nice stretch. Fabrics that would appeal to everyone.
It was also important to obtain the best zippers. A good zipper is essential. They mustn’t stick, especially if you are about to run out the door. I wanted my products to be made with high quality products, have attention to detail and most importantly for them to be Made in Los Angeles.
My business partner and I learned how to do everything ourselves. We sketched the designs, made the patterns by hand, sourced the fabric, set up wholesale accounts, designed the website, created artwork for the logo, hangtags and care labels and found the cutter, marker and grader. We obtained a great referral for a sample seamstress and had sample after sample made until we obtained the perfect fit.
Three full days were spent shooting the dresses on a mannequin and then spent countless hours doing a variety of photo shoots with our model friends. Color cards, tech packs, line sheets, newsletters and social media accounts were created. We did everything ourselves and just figured it out. Just Add Heels launched at 4:00am on July 15th and we were so excited when our 1st dress sold 4 hours later.
For our first run we had cut and sewn seventy-five dresses. I was beyond excited when we picked them up from the manufacturer. Put them on the wardrobe rack and wheeled them out. A friend of mine was a sales rep and we got into five stores rather quickly: the French Quarter of New Orleans, Palm Desert, Fresno, San Luis Obispo and Bellevue, WA.
Customer service and presentation are extremely important. I carefully prepare and personally track each package for our clients. I have been told by some of my customers that our dresses are so comfortable that it’s like wearing nothing at all.
We are rolling out one design at a time, making sure our fits work beautifully. Building a brand is 24/7 but I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Okay – so how did you figure out the manufacturing part? Did you have prior experience?
We have everything manufactured in Los Angeles. When I first started, I didn’t even know what a pattern card was. I googled everything and created my own templates. It took me three days to get the cut ready for the manufacturer after we picked it up from the cutting room. Not only, did we have to make sure the inventory was correct, we had to prepare the zippers, logo labels, care labels, size labels, bias and any other supplies that were needed. It is important to provide as many details as possible to the manufacturer.
After the dress is sewn it has to be put on a hangar, steamed and placed inside a garment bag. The pattern card is most important has it has all of the details, number of pattern pieces, sketch or photo of the dress, zipper size, where you want the logo, size label and care label placed, what kind of seam you want, how long the zipper and bias should be, which side the face of the fabric is and the inventory such as number of sizes per color and style.
We are rolling out one design at a time, making sure our fits work beautifully. Building a brand is 24/7 but I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://justaddheels.com/
- Instagram: @justaddheels
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/justaddheels
Image Credits
Donnalee Austen