i did it! first phone calls made and samples on the way. more talks with reps to come. i'm getting samples from Kendor, Pickering, Sextet, and Envirotextile. if all goes as hoped, i will also be meeting with a local rep and designer who might (will) introduce me to some new mills and fabrics. that's a july thing. by the end of july, my goal is to have fabrics selected and to have designs done.
i also need to prettify this blog at some point.
more materials arriving for my headpiece and i should be ready to rock on that next week.
for you embellishers and belly dancers out there i found a great resource & bloggy-blog-thing. Check out the book Embellished Bras: Basic Technique and the author's fabulous blog.
i also re-read my market research surveys this morning. i am so grateful to all the women who took the time to tell me about themselves.
99% of my respondents said that fit and comfortability was THE most important thing when selecting their activewear.
why should that be so difficult? because most activewear is crap OR it is not designed for dancers. so we end up wearing performance wear to class -- as a dancer, i want my clothing to move and feel a certain way -- i do not want to feel like i'm getting ready for my next curl set. if we don't wear performance wear, then we are wearing regular little tank tops.
here is what we do: we lift up the bottom part over our chest so that we can see our bellies for class. then, when class is over we cover our bellies again. it's like DIY convertible dancewear.
am i the only person out there who would like a better option??
the focus on fit and comfortability is logical when we consider that over 90% of the respondants wear the activewear between 3 and 7 days a week. that's a lot of wear, mama.
combined with the fact that most of them are moms who are wearing activewear around the house and on errands and such and we have the perfect recipe for pieces that fit seamlessly into many aspects of life, feel good, last a long time, & are designed FOR dancers.
the women who i design for love life, their families, and themselves.
they are brave.
they are showing up for life with passion and verve.
market is a term that does not describe them very well. i am thinking of a better descriptive term...
2 comments:
How are you dealing with blocks? My demo is dancers as well, but Latin ballroom, and they're all so teensy. I have to get my head around the fit issue soon.
I am not yet at the block stage. Bellydancers come in all shapes and sizes so I have already decided not to have plus sized. That said, I will probably fit to a small tester, a medium tester, and a large tester; have them wear it, give feedback, then modify & test on a larger group of people. I'm just glad I work with knits! I suspect my fit issues wil be more in the tops than the bottoms. Good luck and keep me posted.
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