blushless wedding dress fashion design

allison o’grady, founder of aspiring couture,  agreed to do an interview for the bumblesea blog. she dishes on what it’s been like to build an online fashion boutique which carries beautiful collections by emerging fashion designers, and promote the company while working 3 other jobs!

as you might already know from one of my previous blog posts, I’m in love with the wedding collection by the designer blushless. I can’t believe I had never heard of their work until aspiring couture came along. to be honest, I find most wedding dresses to be absolutely hideous. but blushless puts a modern spin on traditionally minimal dresses – resulting in the only wedding line I’ve ever found appealing.

you’ve obviously got killer taste, and you’re creative to pull off a huge project like aspiring couture. what inspired you to represent indie designers and open a boutique instead of designing products yourself?

I do have a strong interest in designing items and do plan to create some in the future. I guess it came down to the fact that I didn’t have the time to sit down and start sewing a collection because I realized that no one was going to know about it! I thought that other designers might just feel the same way. I decided to just look around to see if there were designers worth showcasing. I was pleasantly surprised that their were tons! It seemed like a much better purpose at the moment to try my hand in starting a boutique. It has been a learning experience- now I know more about marketing products. If the boutique does well, I can eventually make some pieces and add my own items too.

what are some of the goals you’d like to achieve with aspiring couture? (long &/or short term)

Well, that is quite a loaded question! I am a dreamer, I always have been, and it is no different with Aspiring Couture. I want to hold lots of fashion shows, have a fashion magazine, participate in charitable events and more, to get these designers’ names out there. I want Aspiring Couture to be a very well known website and I would love to open a few physical stores around the country. I’m working on these things, but they are long term goals.

Short term, I would like to be able to support these designers by selling their products quickly! I would like to get into a groove on my blog where I am constantly updating and have an ever-growing reader base of people who are inspired by my writing and my finds! My current goal is to spread the word of Aspiring Couture.

the variety of emerging talented artists can be overwhelming, how do you go about narrowing your choices down? do you just go with instinct or is there a specific criteria you have for collections you carry, questions you ask yourself before deciding to work with a company?

There may be more specific criteria when Aspiring Couture becomes more well-known or starts offering more products, but right now it is based on what I love. I pick designers I would wear myself, each product is a representation of me. I do know that not everyone likes what I like, so I will eventually broaden the range of styles. So far I have gotten some great feedback on the boutique- I am glad to know people respond well to my choices!

were there any obstacles (anticipated or otherwise) you had to overcome in order to get to this point with the company?

Oh wow, of course! Some times I never even thought I would make it to this point. I didn’t have many unexpected obstacles as I did lots of research before starting. I knew what was coming and I could plan for it! Up until the launch I actually didn’t have too many problems at all. I had fun with that and was getting lots of emails at the time from designers. I was creating relationships and was very excited about the expressed interest!

I have run into a few problems more recently though.

1. I don’t have a business partner so it can become extremely hard when I become uninspired! I don’t have someone to bounce ideas off of, or to get inspiration from or even to talk to about the business. So I am the only one who knows what I go through on a day to day basis. It can be hard to hold it all in sometimes. Of course I do have lots of friends and people willing to help or even listen which is great. I don’t know what I would do without them.

2. When you have a product or website, you are the only one who knows about it at first. So the marketing can be challenging sometimes. Overall, I don’t think I am too bad at it, but it’s definitely a field I have a lot more to learn about.

3. I have always been pretty ambitious and never liked downtime. So I started Aspiring Couture in top of the 3 jobs I was already doing! It can become challenging sometimes because I would love more time to work on it, or network around and find some new friends! I hold my schedule pretty well, but it can be rough when planning a day full of meetings when something needs to be done on the site.

any current favorite product or designer you’re carrying at the moment – or is that too much like choosing a favorite child?

Unfortunately it is like picking a favorite child! They each have their area of expertise and they are all my favorite for what they do. I love the feathered hair pieces, and Selah D’or has such an elegant line for the office or events. Sofie Olgaard, on the other hand, has a great summer line! All of the people behind the lines are great. I want to make sure that my designers are great people who want to inspire others.

anything else you’d like to mention?

We are in the very beginning stages of holding an Aspiring Couture fashion show! I haven’t said too much about it so far, but lots of good things are in the works! We have some great ideas for sponsors (including a favorite cupcake shop!) and the venue is in one of the most affluent areas here in Northern California. It will be quite a production, and I am looking forward to it! It won’t be until next year, because planning for a show of this size is a big project!

thank you, allison!

to keep an eye on aspiring couture or get more info about allison’s future endeavors, you can follow the aspiring couture blog.