Well, I’m no professional blogger like my stellar friend @ www.disasteronheels.com  + Trust me, you want to read what she has to say!

So here’s to my annual blog post…

10 months, 30 models, one documentary, 300 dresses later…

My mobile website is finally up + running!  This is for all of us who would rather forget to put on underwear than leave our iPhone at home.  Now, from anywhere, in the palm of your hand you can have your very own instructions of how to style The Convertible Dress any of FIFTY ways!

It’s still just me, one woman, one dress, one company trying to make it happen in the one world.

So, if you’re done tweeting, texting, facebooking, and still have 5 long min on your train ride home and scared to make eye contact with a real human, here’s your saving grace!

Check out the mobile version today!

www.theconvertibledress.com

Don’t forget! You can still order your own TCD online on our main website.

Thank you for supporting TCD :: The Convertible Dress!

Stop in to try one on if you missed the event and purchase one for yourself while they are still in stock.

We would love to hear your thoughts! Post feedback on our Facebook page

You will want to be aquanted with this store and the owners if you are not already!

Mabel & Zora.com

748 NW 11th Street, Portland, OR

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

OK, since I didn’t make my “hopelessly optimistic” goal of selling 1,000 dresses in 3 months. (Seriously, what’s hopeless about that?!)  I’ve decided to “up” the level of professionalism in my project.  As you know, I’ve been a one-woman operation (with a huge support team of friends and family).  Building my own website, taking the pictures, and blindly marketing the convertible dress! WELL! Not anymore!!! I’ve sought the expertise of, yes, more friends and family.  Bartering consultants in exchange for sewing and bribing marketing dinners.

Things have been quiet for the last month.  One because I really wasn’t experiencing the immediate importance of my blog.  And two, because I have been focused on re-vamping the brand image.

Here is what I’ve been working on…soon to be seen on www.theconvertibledress.com

An instructional video demonstrating how to change the dress into its many different styles

Photo shoots of live models (yet “real” people) wearing the dress.  Not just on a mannequin, and shot by professionals.

I just might even decide to start posting photos of my “style a day”.  An idea I had from the beginning to wear the dress a different style every day and post a photo.  Just warming up to that seemingly narcissistic idea…

SIDEBAR:

Since I’ve been on such a roll with my new career as a web developer, I’ve decided to rebuild my Couture Cat Designs website that has not been touched since I owned my store in Portland, OR!

It shows a lot of my past fashion designs and custom clothes from Portland.

Check it out!

www.couturecatdesigns.com

SFFMA: San Francisco Fashion and Merchants Alliance is putting on a collaboration of fashion shows this week in order to attempt to resurrect the highly desired fashion scene in SF.

The kick-off: Owen Geronimo and team at the Vitamin Water social club in North Beach, last Friday and Saturday night. I was excited to attend these events for one because it’s the first time since I’ve moved to SF that there has been any attempt at a “fashion week” showcasing local designers…and two, the convertible dress was being featured!!! I’m making effort to attend all the fashion events this week in order to market the dress (yes, I’ve worn a convertible dress to every even thus far, styling it in different way each time). I believe the convertible dress project makes an incredible story for all established editors! Just a little face time to convince them is all I need. Next week I’ll be posting links to all the written articles!

Stay tuned! And buy your dress for you and your friend! They are in full production and ready for shipment!!!

Thank you for your support!!!
Cat

Even though I used to be a Production Manager for a major women’s retailer of over 700 stores mainly sourced in the Far East, I’m finding one locally produced dress to be a greater challenge!

Here I am, week four of blogging, marketing, and producing with the dress rolling out the door.  However it is not uncommon for the sewing houses to threaten to quit every time they get a little face time! (Remember the “60 yards arrived” post?!)  Complaints of the cut pieces all not being the same size (even though every piece is laser cut and the exact same size!)  Instead of every dress becoming easier to sew with practice, they each become more and more difficult.  Perhaps this is one reason we do so much production in the Far East…less chance of face time and less opportunities to complain and threaten quitting!  If the first 10 dresses came out so perfectly why is it the quality is dissipating with every dress!  I’ve now added the hat of QC and sourced a second sewing house…best part is I no longer will have to tie and balance the hundreds of cut pieces of fabric to the Vespa and scoot them across town.  The new sewing house works in conjunction with in-house cutters!  No longer will I be the middle man between the cutters and sewers!  It will now be their responsibility to sort out that the cutting is accurate.   Lets just hope they wont threaten to quit every time I see them!

Next stage: film production…

So here I am.  Day 19 of selling the dresses after they have gone into production.  My initial goal was to sell 1,000 dresses in order to make it to grad school this fall.  The quick math: 20 dresses/day.  I’m not making that goal, in fact, I’m WAY below it.  Call me an optimist, but I still think it’s all possible.  Here is why:

I call them 10-a-days.  I send out 10 press releases a day and each week I follow-up with the same editorial until I hear a response, i.e. if I wrote the NY Times (Yes, I actually did, optimist!) on Tuesday, I follow-up with them every Tuesday until I hear from them…and I do this with 10 new publications a day.  The list is getting very long, but very worth it.  See, even though I have not accomplished my daily goal, I think once I get some serious publicity my daily goal will be exceeded making up for the early lacking days.  Makes sense, right?!  Then again, I haven’t taken mktg 101…

Publications and blogs I have approached thus far…

NATIONAL

• Refinery 29
• Daily Candy
• NY Times Style
• Wall Street Journal Style Guide
• W
• NYLON
• VOGUE
• Style Trek
• Ladies Who Launch
• WWD
• Drapers Record
• In Style
• Elle
• Marie Claire
• O Magazine
• Bust
• Zink

LOCAL

• The Laughing Squid
• 944
• Asterik
• The Chronicle
• Business of Fashion
• SOMA
• SFFMA

BLOGS

• Natalie Off Duty
• Sincerly Jules
• Top Rouge
• Michaela Vattimo

etc, etc…

I know there are thousands more out there that I need to reach out there and this is where I need your feedback!  Anyone you can think of that would publish my story?! I do think it’s a pretty good one!  Seriously, in the sewing factory where I work everyday there is a an incredibly successful guy selling brightly colored, tacky printed FLEECE jam shorts…I said SUCCESSFUL!  If he can tell thousands upon thousands of these shorts, there has to be a market for the convertible dress, right?!

Thanks for reading and I look forward to hearing from you!

So, yes, my bolt arrived.  I took it to the cutters, (actually my 80-year-old NY Jewish mentor drove me and the fabric to the cutters because I can’t seem to get around with my broken foot!)  Made a quick amendment to the pattern and that day the marker was made…

The very next day I drove a Vespa with my foot in a cast (it works because I can drive with my hands!) to the cutters to pick up the massive bag of 28 cut dresses.  Looking a bit like a hard working sole in Beijing I then drove it to the sewers the next neighborhood over.  (Not to worry, I didn’t break my other foot in the process!)  After a bit of a conversation “I work too hard!” (reminding me of the Will Ferrell Landlord sketch: http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/74/the-landlord-from-will-ferrell-and-adam-ghost-panther-mckay) I seriously think of that every time I meet with sewers in this great city…  I work too hard! I want more money! Give me 4 beers now! After lots of repeated negotiation, a dress was made and 27 more to go this week!

GET YOUR ORDERS IN FOR THIS SHIPMENT – SHIPPING JULY 16TH!

ONLY 27 AVAILABLE NOW!!!

PROMODAL® – A UNIQUE FIBER BLEND

Throughout my 10+ years in the fashion industry I have strived to be “environmentally-aware”.  From the eco-bulbs in my boutiques built-in runway to the fabrics I choose to use.

“Eco-friendly” fabrics are so new in the history of fashion that the term is undefined.  It is our role as designers to gain as much knowledge about a fabric before ordering it for production.  So when I made a call 2 months ago to a trusty eco-fabric source that I had been using down in LA for that last several years, I was ecstatic to learn about the likes of Promodal.  One of newest fabrics on the market.

Most of you have, at one point, felt the softness of Modal or Tencel whether you knew it or not.  Both are made from cellulose fiber made by spinning reconstituted cellulose from beech trees (wood pulp).  The end result is much more expensive than cotton and smoother/softer than mercerized.  It is a dream fabric.  Doesn’t pill, machine or hand washable in cold water and made from natural sources.

So when I called my fabric vendor asking if had any modal or tencel he explained Promodal, the latest and greatest on the market, a blend of both fibers.  He shipped me 10 samples yards that day and I was hooked.   I made the first 3 dresses, held a launch party and started placing orders that night.

One problem.  It’s so popular that it’s on backorder!  My 3 month project quickly narrowed to 2 months while I anxiously awaited the arrival of my next 60 yards.

……….

San Francisco is a city full of design, inspiration and possibilities.  I set up shop inside of a local sewing factory and with the help of many mentors started producing                  THE CONVERTIBLE DRESS!

Design + Functionality + Eco-awareness

This travel friendly, made from wood pulp, pockets included, reversible and completely customizable dress is officially for sale.  I have solely built my first website, became an overnight photographer, designed my first mass-production garment, threw a launch party and began blogging and tweeting.

My goal is to sell 1,000 dresses in two months in order to enroll in design school this fall.

This is my story.  This is my dress.

Thanks for reading.

www.theconvertibledress.com