Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Answers

This is a fun change of pace. Usually I'm asking you the questions but today I'm answering some of the questions posed to us at the Buddy Walk on Sunday. Three seems like the right number of questions to answer in each entry, so I'll give that a try. If I get too verbose I'll stop at two.

Question #1 - Are you going to sew the clothes yourself?

No. No, no, no. Heavens no.

I don't think Susie ever learned to sew (in fact I'm certain of it since I've got to sew patches onto Robbie's Cub Scout uniform, as I did Teddy's last year.) And, while I do have a sewing machine - having fallen in love with sewing when I learned how in junior high school - I'm slow and deliberate and inefficient and probably not very good at it anyway. Although I did sew many clothes for myself in junior high and high school, it was always slow going. In fact, I think there may be a fancy mathematical equation that reverse-correlates a seamstress's talent with the number of seam rippers she owns. Given my seam ripper collection - several sizes, several colors - I'm no exemplar of sewing ability.

The clothing will be produced by sewing contractors/manufacturers who are good at this. So, the jeans and pants and tops and dresses will look like any other store-bought jeans, pants, tops and dresses. One comment I've heard often from parents is that their children want their clothes to look like the other kids' clothes. The It'll Fit'll clothes will.

Question #2 - Will your product line be for kids only or will you have an adult offering too?

We do plan to produce clothes for children, teens, and adults within a year's time. Our first offering will be jeans and twill pants (i.e. chinos) for girls and boys, through tweens. The next phase will be those same styles for teens and young adults. Then we'll introduce the adult pants offering. We will deepen the product lines, by age group, to include tops, shirts, dresses and the like as the market responds. We hope that's quickly and enthusiastically.

Concurrent with development of the pants lines we are developing a body suit line for younger children. I'd refer to those as "Onsies" but that's a trademarked term owned by Gerber. The body suit size range will begin at about 3 years old and continue through about age 7 or 8.

Here's our basic plan, as of right now. We will have our first pants available in December. In the Spring we'll have tops and pants for boys, girls, and tweens. For Summer our girls offering will include a summer dress and capris (that actually finish at capri length!) Spring/Summer will be the launch of our teen and young adult lines. Our adult line will launch in Fall of 2008. We are excited and hope that you guys respond positively enough to allow us to expand more quickly than planned. And, we're happy to hear suggestions and ideas from you about priorities and preferences.

OK, it seems that two questions at a time is the better approach. So, I'll end here. I've got a handful of questions from the Buddy Walk left to answer. In the meantimes, please feel free to pose additional questions to me via the "Comment" function or email me directly. I would love to hear from you and answer any questions you pose.


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2 comments:

Jessica said...

Hello ladies!

It was wondeful to meet you and I commend you on your perserverance on this project. I am so glad you were able to finally measure my daughter, Sophia! I know I mentioned to you the clothing that comes in half sizes at J.C. Penney but I thought of one more thing as I was folding laundry today. Last year I bought Sophia some capri leggings at Kohl's. They were by MUDD and came in solids at prints. At first I bought her a 2-pack. When I got home and tried them on her I happily realized that although these wouldn't be capris for Sophia, they would be the perfect length pant! Now I know this may not be a big deal to people who sew but sometimes it is even impossible to hem pants because of design,etc. Normally, I don't even bother buying pants that are too long or that I can't scrunch up at the bottom somehow. Soemtimes I have to pull them up so high on her belly (so that she won't trip over them ) that she looks like PeeWee Herman. So, in any case, I just wanted to mention that these capri pants turned into the perfect length pant for Sophia. I bought 6 pairs and I am quite sad that they will probably only fit her for a few more weeks since we have had them a full year! My favorite were the hot pink/chocolate brown camo print.

Looking forwrad to those jeans!!! Any chance the pocket detailing will look like 7 For All Man-Kind brand????


Jessica

Sherry said...

Jessica! Hi!

It was such a pleasure meeting you on Sunday. Thanks so much for your enthusiasm and support and for letting us measure Sophia. Thanks too for the insight about capris, pant length and the issue of losing the embellishments at the hemline when the pants are altered.

In regard to the pocket detailing: Yes! We are looking forward to having fun with pocket designs and embroidery. That's a big opportunity for fashion and fun and to reflect some personality.

Jessica, thanks again. I can't wait to see Sophia in a pair of It'll Fit'll jeans!

Sherry.