Smashing Darling Blog

Podcast: A Conversation with Smashing Darling’s Julie Rorrer and Trisha Ginter

January 30, 2008 — 02:30 AM PST — by Mark ‘Rizzn’ Hopkins —

Smashing Darling is ‘an indie fashion site that features independent designers and their products’ founded by Julie Rorrer and Trisha Ginter, both guests and finalists at this year’s Open Web Awards. It is a social network/catalogue site that allows you to join as a designer (or as they say, ‘get smashed’) or to shop as a consumer, thereby either sampling or creating fashion designers that fall outside the mainstream design lines you’ll see at the major department stores.

It’s an interesting idea, and something that has clearly been well executed, something someone like me who isn’t a fashion aficionado can plainly see. In the interview, the founders express how the site went from idea to reality and what their motivation behind the site was

This interview is another in a video series taken by Brad Hunstable from the Open Web Awards that we’ll be broadcasting here at the blog and in our podcast over the next several days.

The embed is available below, or you can download the MP4 file directly here.

Subscribe to the podcast here.

You can check out Smashing Darling here.

An editor of Lucky Magazine has been checking out Smashing Darling! Here is what she had to say to us after she looked around a bit. Food for thought about the product shots.

“I really like how the site is laid out -

I clicked through some things and did some looking around. They use the designer’s photos of the pieces (out of lookbooks, etc) to show them. While I understand why this is done, these images of the products are not always the best images for an e-commerce boutique to show…normally they are very “artsy” and not so much showing how the clothes fit. I also prefer sites that look more streamlined with all the items shot the same way, on the same model/mannequin/with the same background, etc.

I love that she sells vintage items; very neat.

As an over-all, the pieces that were sold were interesting in their own right – either colors/concept/construction/etc.
I love the aprons…”

Todays interview is with Melissa Alvarado one of the girls that started the Stitch Lounge in San Francisco. A very unique business that encourages customers to pick a project and just get started! We love that because that is what Smashing Darling is all about, letting your indie OUT! She also co-authored, with her friends and partners, Melissa and Hope, Sew Subversive and then Subversive Seamster. So if you are in the neighborhood, pop in and experience the lounge! These girls are always up to something fun! Congrats are also in order for Melissa and her pending nuptials. She practices what she preaches! She is designing her wedding dress! Hopefully the she will post some pics when she is done!

SD: When did you learn to sew? Who taught you?
MA: My momma taught me how to sew when I was about 7 or 8 years old. She kind of just gave me a push start and let me figure it out on my own, which translated to many broken needles and abandoned sewing projects (mostly scrunchies). I picked it back up decades later (not the scrunchies) when I reunited with some childhood friends in San Francisco after college. We started sewing and crafting and we learned together, the good old trial and error way.

SD: Where and when did you meet the girls you started Stitch Lounge with?
MA: Melissa and Hope and I have been friends since childhood. Melissa and I met in kindergarten and we met Hope in Junior High. We all grew up in San Diego and worked our way up the California coast, reuniting in San Francisco after college. Thank you www.highschoolalumni.com!

SD: How did the idea for Stitch Lounge come about?
MA: I love wearing clothes that are different from what everyone else is wearing, so I do a lot of thrift/vintage store shopping. I like to pair and style pieces in new ways and refashion them with my own twist. Since I didn’t have a sewing room, or my own machine for that matter, I always thought it would be fun to be able to shop in a second hand store and then take your purchases to a sewing area in the same store and refashion or embellish them. This was the basis for Stitch Lounge: a place where you could sew in a group setting… like using someone else’s sewing room and bringing your friends along! The idea grew and morphed into what Stitch Lounge is today, with sewing classes and a boutique, but the basic idea of a modern sewing circle is alive and kickin’.

SD: How Did the 3 of you turn the idea into a business?
MA: Knowing nothing about starting or running a business, Hope and I found a wonderful resource in San Francisco called Women’s Initiative for Self Employment. This amazing non-profit organization provided us with a comprehensive and accelerated business education. They helped us write a business plan and they awarded us with the seed loan to open Stitch Lounge. It sounds sappy, but Stitch Lounge wouldn’t be open if it weren’t for Women’s Initiative. They gave us the confidence and knowledge to make our dream a reality.

SD: Who is the customer at Stitch? Do you find more people wanting to sew and design?
MA: Being in San Francisco, our potential customer pool is very diverse, and at Stitch we get a truly representative sample. While the majority of the customers are women in their 20’s to 40’s, we have plenty of men that come in to sew on a regular basis, and a lot of younger people wanting to learn the craft of sewing and design. It is encouraging and exciting to see the younger generation working alongside the older generation of sewers, all coming together over a common desire to make stuff and be proud of it!

SD: Tell us about your books?
MA: Melissa and Hope and I wrote Sew Subversive and then Subversive Seamster. Both books are about refashioning clothing: taking something old and breathing new life into it. Sew Subversive was our first book, and was intended for the absolute beginner seamster. We walk readers through the basics of sewing, teach them how to set up the sewing machine, and start them off with lots of easy refashioning projects (some only require a pair of scissors and some imagination!).

Subversive Seamster is our follow-up to Sew Subversive and it is chock-full of refashioning projects for the advanced beginner. This time, our projects start with common items that you find in the thrift shop as well as the back of your closet, like muumuus (which we turn into a very NOW peasant or baby-doll top) and bridesmaid dresses (that transforms into a halter top for the lady and matching tie for her beau).

Both of our books emphasize experimentation, reduction/reuse, and FUN! We want to show people that refashioning can be a low-risk, green, and super stylish way of sewing unique pieces into your wardrobe.

SD: Did you all sit down and decide to write a book together or how did that happen?
MA: It was meant-to-be. Shortly after opening Stitch Lounge, we received a call from the editor at Taunton Press asking if we’d like to collaborate on and author a hip book about sewing. Although it was not one of our original intentions with the business, we couldn’t turn down such a great opportunity. We worked with the editors at Taunton to fine tune the concept and develop the content, and then we wrote, edited, illustrated, and modeled for the photos (good times!).

SD: You also run a website together, who writes in the blog?
MA: Our blog is part of the Stitch Lounge website (www.stitchlounge.com). Hope, Melissa, and I post regularly about projects we’re working on or other sewing/crafty related interests that we have. We feature happenings at Stitch, sewing tricks we’ve picked up, refashioning projects that we’re proud of, and our thoughts on Project Runway! We also feature a guest blogger (and great friend of ours), Lisa Bagchi (representing for the East Coast!), who gives us her witty P-Run commentary on a regular basis. Oh, and we’ve got some plans in the works for a new site that will expand the sewing circle concept outside of the geographic boundaries of San Francisco; so stay tuned for more on that!

SD: Are there any thoughts of expanding the business?
MA: We are frequently asked versions of this question, and while we’d love to share with the rest of the world, it is just too much of an undertaking for us three. A number of other sewing/crafting lounges have opened up around the country (and world in fact) since we opened in 2004, and we are always happy to help answer questions since it means keeping this movement a movin’. As I mentioned above, we have plans to grow our community in the virtual world, so everyone can join in and share, no matter their zip code.

SD: What advice would give someone wanting to start a small business?
MA: Get help. It is way more work than you think it is going to be, so make sure you’ve got your peeps behind you. Whether it is for actual tasks like accounting stuff, or marketing stuff, or its just for moral support, make sure you’ve got some friends or family in you’re corner. While it is a genuinely rewarding experience, it can be tough and it helps to not go it alone. Once you’ve got your posse, mount up and learn as much as you can from your local chamber of commerce or city government sites. There are a ton of free resources available, so find ‘em and use ‘em. www.nolopress.com is a great place to start.

SD: Do you have any events or you are getting ready for in the near future?
MA: Personally, I’m getting married this July!! YAY! The wedding planning is so fun (I’m the planner in the bunch!) and I’m working on a piece for my dress—it is an obi-style sash that will also be the train of my dress. I’ll be blogging about it and posting photos as it progresses, so check out our site to see what I’m up to.

SD: Do you have a question or a comment for anyone one Smashing Darling?
MA: Thanks for doing what you’re doing, and thanks for reaching out. My first conversation with Trish was so exciting and enlightening! I just adore that you are so open and in love with independent fashion; I appreciate you turning me on to a bunch of new designers (thank goodness for the interweb!). Oh, and the Smashing Darling site is so pretty and neat and clean – a great model to follow and a great place to shop—nice work ladies!

Back again with more tips on making your digital photos look their best. Once you’ve gotten the resolution thing down (see last week’s blog post) it’s time to think about the thing that truly makes whatever you’re shooting look smashing … LIGHT, both how it falls on what you’re shooting, and how your camera sees it.

The first thing to consider is where your light is coming from. There’s no substitute for good, bright, lighting to show off every detail of your products. The first challenge may be getting around the little, tiny, light source that that most digital cameras have called the FLASH. The built-in flash on your camera can be absolute death to your shot … it produces an extremely harsh light that can blow out all details (we’ve all seen those “hot spots”), make harsh shadows, and create a very unflattering effect on your shots, especially close-ups and reflective or metallic items.

So get to know your camera … read the manual, and see if there is a way to turn off the built-in flash, or if your camera has a shooting mode that works without it .

So what’s the best way to get good light? Almost always, indoor lighting can produce objectionable color casts (most notably, fluorescent lights look green and tungsten lights look yellow or orange) and if the color in your shots just doesn’t look good sometimes the easiest answer is right outside your door in the form of natural light. A nice sunny day outside can be great for shooting.

Setting up the shot
Another huge consideration is how to best position your products in the light that you have to work with. The most important thing to remember here is that you want the light falling evenly on your product to show the most detail. Usually this means that your source of light should be to the front, or slightly off to one side. Side lighting can create some drama and add a bit of dimension to your shots, but be careful … the side that is receiving less light can fall into dark shadow, obscuring detail and creating a harsh contrast.

One thing you’ll generally want to avoid is backlighting, where the light is coming from behind what you’re shooting … this situation will generally result in your product being darker than the background. Never a good thing!

NOTE: As with all our tips…this is a very simplified and basic approach. We are in no way saying that this is exactly how everyone should do things. This is just a basic starting point. If you have any specific areas you would like to know more about for your photos please feel free to email us at: trishandjulie(at)smashingdarling.com

This just in from our LA Fashionista, Alyse at Spork Fashion

Spork Fashion faves Yosifa Penina have a new venture at hand that we are very excited about. The lovely lady behind the sturdy and attractive rubber accessories has put the rubber aside for the moment to introduce ceramic jewelry. These stark, graphic pendants are available in white, silver, or gold, and wrapped in a bezel setting. But act fast - there is only one pendant in each color and design available. Talk about limited edition!…..read more

We want to Thank Liz at Wickedly Chic and invite everyone to go check it out! You will have to if you want to read the rest of the Q&A we did with Liz! Below is just the beginning!

A big welcome this week to the Darlings. Wondering who they are? Read on for more details.

Who are the Smashing Darlings? The Darlings are what we affectionately call all of the members of the SmashingDarling.com community … they’re the talented indie fashion designers that we built this website for, & without whom the world would be a much drearier place, full of Gap & Old Navy & cookie-cutter mallwear. The founding members (The Original Darlings) are Trish Ginter & Julie Rorrer.

What is SmashingDarling.com? A marketplace & community for anyone interested in cutting edge independent fashion. From bibs to boots, grunge to glamour, undies to earrings … no matter the niche, SmashingDarling was conceived from the beginning as a way for indie designers with great ideas & great new looks to get their fashion off the runway & onto the market without getting bogged down in the mind-numbing grunt work of running an e-commerce website. For both shoppers & designers, the site is a truly unique experience…read more

The first person to comment on the blog and tell me who said or wrote this gets a Student Smash Up!

“Each person has his own safe place - running, painting, swimming, fishing, weaving, gardening. The activity itself is less important than the act of drawing on your own resources.” -?

We Love Spork Fashion! Pop on over Myspace News to read the rest!

In case you haven’t noticed, Spork Fashion loves Smashing Darling. Run by Trish Ginter and Julie Rorrer, they appreciate indie fashion so much, they have turned it into a career. Here, Trish tells us the secrets to their success.

My partner Julie is a true independent woman at heart. She has a diverse background in fine art, earning a BFA in Photography from Savannah College of Art and Design in 1995. Her life and career has led her in various directions, from photography and design, to cosmetics and manufacturing… and most recently motherhood…..read more

Don’t forget to get your LA fashion fix at the Spork Fashion Blog!

Click on any one of these photos, Click, ‘add to shopping cart’, click Checkout and away you go. Just think about it. It is only the 24th of January and you would have everything taken care of. Sit back and wait for it to arrive. No scrambling to the mall at the last minute accepting whatever you can find that hasn’t been picked over. The only thing left to think about is what make for dinner to serve in your own cozy home.

For him a gorgeous Rachel Park Tie

For her some yummy bling from Catalina De La Torre

For baby cozy, comfy tees from Studio 119

For Sexydarling, undies by Kitten Miami

Man’s best friend deserves a sweet treat from Wonder Dog NYC

For the smitten kitten an Elle P Designs

See something that you would like?
Recommend it to your sweet heart.
I didn’t lie, it is as easy as 1,2,3…

As a living art form, fashion is open to multiple readings. A vibrant reflection of contemporary culture, fashion—especially in its most avant-garde expressions—affects us through its intense visual impact. blog.mode: addressing fashion is the first in a series of shows designed to promote critical and creative dialogues about fashion. The exhibition presents some forty costumes and accessories dating from the eighteenth century to the present—all recent Metropolitan Museum acquisitions—and invites visitors to share their reactions online or from a “blogbar” of computer terminals in the exhibition galleries.

This exhibit runs from December 18, 2007–April 13, 2008 at The Costume Institute, ground floor of The Metropolitan Museum. Get a fashion history lesson reading their blog. There are beautiful examples of fashion and some great information about the designers.