We were lucky to catch up with Erika Neumayer Ehrat recently and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Erika thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.
I have been a member of the American Aid Society of German Descendants since 1990. When I joined the Jugendgruppe (youth group) in 2001, I knew I had found my home. Being of Donauschwaben descent, I felt a strong connection with the people involved and the culture behind the organization. As a part of our performances, we would wear dirndls. It was also so fun to feel connected to my heritage through the dress.
After graduating from design school, I saw a gap in the American Dirndl market that needed to be filled. It was glaringly obvious that there was a lack of anything fresh, modern, or edgy in the American Dirndl market. In my eyes, it was unacceptable that German Dirndl designers were far ahead of us! In 2010, motivated by my passion for the culture, I created the line Rare Dirndl, which combines modern fashion trends with traditional German, Austrian, and Swiss costumes. Designing Dirndls and tracht allows me to push myself creatively and be involved in the fashion industry and the German community. There is nothing I would rather be creating than unique and stylish Dirndls.
Erika, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I started Rare Dirndl in 2010 at the age of 23, with a few patterns, money I had saved from working customer service, a small workspace (aka my parents’ dining room), and a whole lot of determination. But everyone always wants to know, of all the things… why have a business centered around dirndls? (The dress the St. Pauli girl wears and most commonly seen at Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany.)
I started doing German folk dancing at the age of 4 with the American Aid Society of German Descendants and I danced all throughout high school and college. I graduated with a degree with distinction in apparel design from Dominican University in 2009 and at that same time I was seeing the awesome dirndl designs that were coming out of Germany. I asked myself, “Why can’t we get any of these in the US?” I did more research and realized that there really was no place to get a dirndl that wasn’t embroidered polyester or small floral print cotton. I decided then and there it was time for a fresh take on the classic dress that I’ve spent essentially my entire life wearing!
In my first collection, I knew I needed to have 2 things: an off-the-shoulder blouse that actually stays off-the-shoulder and an all-leopard print dirndl. Those were 2 things I knew the market needed and that were going to get me noticed… and sure enough, it did!
The business began to grow, sales increased and my “dirndl stuff” started to occupy not only my parents’ dining room, but also their living room, basement, shed, and when it started seeping into the kitchen my dad said, “I think it’s about time you start to look for your own space”. I soon found our current location in Lincoln Square. The space is open by appointment and during the Maifest and German Day weekends (the weekend after Memorial Day and the weekend after Labor Day at Lincoln, Leland & Western).
In the early days, I was sewing all the dirndls, blouses and aprons myself, but today I have built an incredible team that works with me to create and execute production on a larger scale (but not too large… everything is still made in small quantities to ensure exclusivity). We also carry a few other items from other designers to round out our collections and provide our customers with variety in style and sizing.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
In the very beginning, I was under the impression that as a fashion designer, I had to create a 10 to 12 piece collection for fall winter and spring summer with a wide variety of items from Dirndls, and blouses to shorts and skirts and vests. But as my business begin to grow, it was clear to me that this model was not sustainable, nor required.
Since the business was designed to sell direct-to-consumer primarily online, I had to unlearn this idea and realize that what I’m creating is not super high fashion, stuffy, runway garments, but something that’s meant to be worn while drinking an entire leader of beer, a pretzel bigger than your face and singing songs with friends.
In order to create the best experience for my customers, I certainly didn’t need to create 12 pieces every six months. I was ok to release a small run of just dirndls and blouses whenever they were available. I learned to design for the customer and really understand what they want to wear and how they want to feel.
Not to mention so much about online marketing and sales has changed in the past 10 years, hell it’s changed since last year!
Any fun sales or marketing stories?
A struggle that continues to come up within my business is the seasonality of the income and timing of production. The first half of the year we spend designing and producing new styles and building up our inventory so that we have product for the second half of the year. However, managing cash flow is always very difficult. Some years are easier than others, but every year it seems like we find ourselves in a cash flow crunch.
To combat this, this year, we tried something totally new and a little risky. I tried crowdfunding the new collection exclusively from sketchers. Buying no fabric, no trims, and spending nothing on patterning until they were enough people who had committed to buying the product that it made it worth producing.
We were worried that our audience wouldn’t understand the concept or be willing to put down close to $400 or more for something they wouldn’t see for six months. But what ended up happening was a great amount of excitement and community built around the new collection. Our customers became invested in the success of the collection and shared it with their friends. We were overjoyed, to have the entire collection fully funded within one month.
We did this by setting up an email and social media campaign featuring the sketches highlighting the different fabrics. We would be using and creating a progress chart that helped people follow along with our journey.
A struggle that continues to come up within my business is the seasonality of the income and timing of production. The first half of the year we spend designing and producing new styles and building up our inventory so that we have product for the second half of the year. However, managing cash flow is always very difficult. Some years are easier than others, but every year it seems like we find ourselves in a cash flow crunch.
To combat this, this year, we tried something totally new and a little risky. I tried crowdfunding the new collection exclusively from sketchers. Buying no fabric, no trims, and spending nothing on patterning until they were enough people who had committed to buying the product that it made it worth producing.
We were worried that our audience wouldn’t understand the concept or be willing to put down close to $400 or more for something they wouldn’t see for six months. But what ended up happening was a great amount of excitement and community built around the new collection. Our customers became invested in the success of the collection and shared it with their friends. We were overjoyed, to have the entire collection fully funded within one month.
We did this by setting up an email and social media campaign featuring the sketches highlighting the different fabrics. We would be using and creating a progress chart that helped people follow along with our journey.
I attribute a lot of the success to the fact that I have built a culture of trust and a community of like-minded people who support each other and feel like they’re a part of the brand. We listen to our customers’ needs and issues (especially when it comes to size) and we work hard to be very inclusive… and then when it came time for our community to help us, they were there!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.raredirndl.com
- Instagram: @raredirndl
- Facebook: facebook.com/RareDirndl
- Youtube: @RareDirndl
- Other: @raredirndl on tiktok
Image Credits
Professional Dirndl Photography by Vanessa Buholzer