Fashion Show Follow Up

While I was at the F is for Fashion Show, I talked with my friend Josh. He writes for The Lance, the weekly newspaper at the local university. He interviewed me for an article he was writing, and I just picked up the paper and read it.
Here is a portion of it:

In addition to the dresses in Shkreli’s Dilly Daisy line, Friday’s show featured andal-lopez, Denial, Never Hopeless, Rejected, Something Clever, That’s Sew Sarah and Nicole Drouillard’s Knit, Nicole, Knit! line.

Drouillard has been knitting and sewing since the age of 10, but “F is for Fashion” was her first fashion show.

“I have scarves and neck warmers and cowls,” Drouillard said of her contribution to the show. “I also have hats, but none of the girls are wearing them because they all have fancy hair.”

Drouillard has been active within Windsor’s art circles and has sold her garments at craft shows and art sales for the last eight years. Now, Drouillard is looking to turn knitting into a full-time gig.

“I’ve been working the math out for it, figuring out how much I’d have to make and if it’s worth it,” Drouillard said. The business aspect can be foreboding, especially in the face of cheaper alternatives.

“People can go to Wal-Mart and pay $5 for a knitted hat. I hand-make a knitted hat and I charge $25. Each piece probably takes me two hours, and the yarn costs at least $5, so I’d be making about $10 an hour. And what I charge doesn’t even cover promotional costs, or fees to get into shows. It’s the math that’s hard, but I definitely want to. I know of a lot of people that are doing it and doing it really well.”

For Drouillard, being part of the show is necessary to satisfy her ambitions.

“I have seen a few people here that I do know through other events, but I’m seeing a lot of people who I’ve never met before. So I hope I can find … stores to sell in or other fashion activities to take part in.”

The ability to network is a major draw for all the designers, no matter how successful. Besides the business aspect to networking, the fashion show provides an opportunity for designers to admire each other’s work.

 The rest of the article can be read here.