Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009
Introducing Lara Bly, Designer and Illustrator. Part 1
Designer and Illustrator, Lara Bly
Studying fashion design and marketing at the American Intercontinental University in London, then living and working in cities like Beirut and Los Angeles as well as New York gives Lara Bly a uniquely cosmopolitan perspective on the business of fashion. She has held a supervisory position at Sacrosanct, a company based in London and Beirut. She is developing her own fashion line for women. Lara Bly and her husband share a studio in the Banana Factory, a Pennsylvania art space supporting local creativity. She shared some of her thoughts with PinkyShears about the fashion industry, aesthetics, and getting a business started, as well as her insights fabric sourcing.
About Lara
Lara Bly Collection
Lara is developing her own line of women’s clothing, in addition to doing fashion design and fashion illustration on a freelance basis. Currently based in Pennsylvania, where she’s from, she has worked in a number of places, including London, where she studied fashion, and Beirut.
She loves color, and envisions her line as “feminine and flirtatious, pretty, floaty, and kind of whimsical,” geared toward women from ages 25 to 45 or so. She likes to add a little sparkle to pieces like evening wear. The next phase would be to have a wholesale collection become more widely available.
Whimsicle. by Lara Bly
Having her own line has been the realization of a dream Lara had nurtured since she was in seventh grade. Laughing, she remembers “I thought I had the best hair in the world, and I thought I had really good taste in clothes to match my beautiful hair. But, looking back, I didn’t really have good taste until I moved to London. And my friends will vouch for me on that one.”
Flat sketches from the Lara Bly Collection
The American Intercontinental University in London was where Lara Bly began her fashion studies in earnest, and formed close, key friendships that continue to this day. Although fashion was her greatest love, she also had an interest in astronomy and history, which she continues to find fascinating. She and her fellow students plunged into hands on classes, like basic sewing. But, like many other designers and industry professionals, Bly says that her professional work experience taught her even more than her studies. Remembering her first job, she is grateful for the guidance they gave “a hardworking young kid, who was trying to learn. So they were willing to let me make a few mistakes, and I got so much practical experience, doing cost sheets and the technical side. I learned flats from Lucinda Lee, my first boss in London. She was very very tough but she was good at what she did, and she was a wonderful teacher.”
Lara Bly Collection
The fashion marketplace was different in Beirut as well. Sacrosanct’s business served a wealthy clientele, both for prêt-a-porter (ready-to-wear) and couture custom gowns. Conventional wisdom in the fashion industry says that it is almost impossible to make money off couture gowns, but Bly found that Sacrosanct’s gowns, the product of several weeks of hands-on labor, could cost $16,000 to make, and, marked up, would still turn a profit. “I mean, you could buy a dress at retail for $5000 to $10,000. You’re making good money. It was really beautiful, really expensive clothes, but it was in Beirut, and the market didn’t really translate to New York. You’ve got to understand where you are. You’re in the Middle East. You’re in Lebanon. You’re at a place where not just Lebanese people are coming. You have people from Kuwait, Saudi, all these women with major money, and they’re coming to Lebanon to shop. They’re coming to get gowns. So, they’re coming to us. They’re going to Abed Mahfouz. They’re going to Elie Saab. They’re not just going to one couturier. They’re going to all the couturiers. You see what I mean?”
[Click Here for Part 2]
Tags: banana factory, fashion design, fashion designer, fashion illustrator, lara bly
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