We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Laura Diaz-Alberto a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Laura, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s kick things off with talking about how you serve the underserved, because in our view this is one of the most important things the small business community does for society – by serving those who the giant corporations ignore, small business helps create a more inclusive and just world for all of us.
As a woman that loves fashion, I was used to being able to use it as a form of self expression and creativity. It wasn’t until I got pregnant for the first time that I realized that designers weren’t designing for pregnant women. It’s interesting because they were designing for women, and women get pregnant, but the two weren’t being connected to one another. According to Pew Research Center data from 2018, 86% of women in the US are mothers by the time they are in their 40’s and, except for the very limited selections available at maternity stores, most fashion brands were not addressing their customers for that particular stage of their lives.
That means that women like me, for whom fashion plays a key role in everyday life, are left out by the brands they love.
This matters because the nature of motherhood, taking care of others’ needs before our own, tends to make us feel like we lose a part of ourselves. It make us wonder who we are now that we are moms. Unfortunately society and the media paint a picture of a mom that remains in the background serving snacks in a casual basics that are mostly functional pieces with no personality. Some women comply and play into the role that they grew up watching on tv. Others, want to maintain their personal essence and flair because not doing so is detrimental to our sense of self. I was part of the latter group, and I did everything I could to continue to shop at the stores I knew and loved, finding pieces that I considered to be “bump-friendly”, wearable with a baby bump. I looked for tops and dresses that flared out and allowed by belly to grow. It wasn’t easy, but it allowed me to continue to feel like myself and keep my sense of personal style. Eventually, I began to make my own clothes. It got to a point where searching the stores was too much of a task and the pickings were slim. So, as a fashion designer, I had the skills I needed and I started making pieces for myself as I needed them.
That’s when I realized the need for fashion that addresses the needs of moms and moms-to-be that love fashion, and how underserved this particular group was.
That’s how I started my brand which was originally a tiny Etsy shop called LaDi with a BaBy, pronounced ‘lady with a baby’. It was meant to give women a slew of options of beautiful things to wear, in gorgeous colors to choose from, all in one place. My goal was to provide women that love fashion, a selection they can count on to look good so that they could feel good in this transformative part of their lives. It was my way of giving them a solution for those moments when they’d need something special to wear. A lot can happen in 9 months, and I knew they would want to look nice for special invitations, dinners, date nights, vacations, weddings etc. I also knew these were really hard to find out there.
I like to think that my brand empowers women to show up for themselves fully. It is not a hinderance to be pregnant or to be a mom, except the industry makes it so when it comes to fashion. I design with the frame of mind of what we all really need which is: ease. I’m making sure that these pieces are easy to wear and easy to look good in so that women can just put the dress on and go.
Laura, 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 realized that I could be of service to other moms and moms to be, and that’s how and why I started my brand. It was originally a tiny Etsy shop called LaDi with a BaBy, pronounced ‘lady with a baby’. The idea was to give women a slew of options of beautifully designed things to wear, in gorgeous colors to choose from, and all in one place. My goal was to provide women that love fashion, a selection of clothes that they can count on to look good so that they could feel good in this transformative part of their lives. It was my way of giving them a solution for those moments when they’d need something special to wear. A lot can happen in 9 months, and I knew they would want to look nice for special invitations, dinners, date nights, vacations, weddings etc. I also knew these were really hard to find out there.
I like to think that my brand empowers women to show up for themselves fully. It is not a hinderance to be pregnant or to be a mom, except the industry makes it so when it comes to fashion. I design with the frame of mind of what we all really need which is: ease. I’m making sure that these pieces are easy to wear and easy to look good in so that women can just put the dress on and go.
As a mom of 3 boys, I am the guinea pig for my brand as I personally take each piece for a test run. I created a signature cut that allows women to grow into and out of the stage of pregnancy, gracefully. This signature cut is important because it gives the pieces a much longer lifeline than clothes that are just made for maternity, and that are often considered disposable by the women that purchase them. Our cut lends women the opportunity to obtain a more sustainable option with clothes they can continue to wear long after they’ve had their babies and even before they venture into motherhood. This cut is flattering and forgiving, allowing the change in our bodies to happen naturally without the need to “snap back” immediately or wear restrictive undergarments.
What I’m most proud of is how beautiful my collections makes women feel. How you feel is everything, so uplifting women and especially mothers, is an act that has the potential to change the world for the better.
Okay – so how did you figure out the manufacturing part? Did you have prior experience?
Imagine this, I started by making my own products. As a fashion designer, I had experience with the entire process from the design stage, to creating the patterns, to cutting, sewing and finishing the garment. I also had my own sewing machines at home and all that allowed me to get started with just my hands and what I already had available to me. At first this was a great benefit because I was able to go live with my collections without having to count on anyone but me. My skills made it simple to come up with new ideas, bring them to life and add them to my shop. I was making everything to order while I took care of my then babies at home. I kept my expenses down with no employees or contractors. Little did I know, I was also keeping my business really small. That worked for me for a while, because as a mom, I had a lot of flexibility to do my business along with my home life. And that was really important to me especially when my kids were younger and needed me the most. But once my kids were all in school I realized that every time I had success, lots of orders at once, I had to sit down and make them one by one. That meant that I couldn’t work on my business because I’d be busy working in it. The time it took me to make all these pieces myself was time I could have been using to bring in more sales and growing.
Even with this realization, it took me a long time to let go of the making of the garments. Perhaps because I am an artist at heart and part of what I love is the creative opportunity to make something with my hands. More importantly, it was because I would have to restructure my operations in order to move manufacturing to a local factory. And that was a big task that with many different arms. It involved finding a factory that aligned with my products and my values, and that was also local so that I could have the most hands on experience. It also involved readjusting my pricing and realizing that I wasn’t paying myself enough to begin with.
So, even though my own skillset facilitates the process in that I can communicate exactly what I need very clearly to the factories, planning on manufacturing earlier on in my journey would have been more effective and profitable for me. It’s one of the lessons I’ve learned. It is better to do all the research and work involved in finding the manufacturer early on because it’s the only way to be able to truly scale. I am currently still in the process of fully shifting all of my production to the manufacturer and creating a system that is smooth and efficient. But, I can say it’s better in the long run to start off with this step in mind.
How’d you think through whether to sell directly on your own site or through a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc.
I started with an Etsy shop (LaDi with a BaBy) and I did so because a marketplace is like opening your business in a mall. The traffic is already there, the systems are already there and if you use them properly, you can go really far. For me it was a no brainer to start on a platform like Etsy, especially since I have the handmade aspect of my business where I was making everything myself. And I learned so much from starting off there. I learned about SEO, marketing the business outside of there, driving traffic, fulfilling orders, tending to customers’ specific needs. I even learned about my products, what worked, what didn’t, and where I needed to make adjustments. It was like a beta test. The tradeoff with Etsy is that the customers are not yours, they are Etsy’s. That makes it impossible to cultivate a relationship with them, market to them directly or simply keep in touch. And that is a big tradeoff, because after you do all the work of getting them to buy from you, they are really just an Etsy customer. It’s even known that when people buy something from a marketplace, they rarely acknowledge the shop itself. People say things like “I got it from Etsy” or “I got it from Amazon”. So, you lose that recognition for your brand.
So I created my own website in order to sell my products. That has it’s pros and cons too. Now I’m solely responsible for putting that site on the map and for driving traffic to it as opposed to having the powerhouse of Etsy do it for me. And that is a major challenge for small businesses and startups. It’s one of those things that you have to take the time to learn and implement so that it works for you eventually. But having ownership of your online presence, your content and your customers is extremely valuable so it is definitely worth the effort to have your own website.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.la-di.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theladipage
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theladipage
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laura-diaz-alberto/
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@lauradiaz-alberto6400?si=T8VjucqQQ7c3e8ll
Image Credits
Daniel Valez Derrick Johnson Marggiori Salas Shaquita Garcia Linette Diaz-Valentin