Launching Fashion Videos on Youtube

I just wanted to mention that I started making videos to feature some of my latest products and also to give both fashion and sewing advice.

I hope to be able to produce at least 1 video a week.

Please check out the first 3!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au7bQlFyOSQ

http://youtu.be/G8GPK0AW5Qc

http://youtu.be/soQpxkXD3RI

Sincerely,

ST

LA Fashion District Review

Hello Readers,

After a week's worth of visiting many different fabric, notion, and trim stores in the LA fashion district, I'm finally getting a better understanding of what to expect and how much things cost.  Of course, there are still many more places to discover.  However this is my first assessment.  

What is great about the LA fashion district are the prices and selection for knits, linens, interior fabrics, vinyls, and a variety of polyesters......oh and I forgot to mention fuzzy acrylic fabrics!  If you are looking for high-end novelty fabrics such as Italian wool tweeds, shimmer piques, cloques, pleated silk charmeuse, anything over $20/YD because it's actually worth it and not overpriced, this is going to be hard to find.  So far I think the best two places to find novelty fabrics are Mood and International Silks & Woolens.  However overall the kind of quality fabrics that I purchased in New York were much better in price and selection.  I think not only because New York is still the fashion capital of the US, and it is because New York is closer to Europe, and well California is closer to Asia. 

If you know of any specialty fabric stores that I missed, let me know!

Sincerely,

ST

First Day of Swatching in Los Angeles

It's been two weeks since I'm back to work and reopened my online shop.  Still trying to finish the fall/winter look book (got really delayed from the whole moving from New York to Los Angeles a month ago), I received 4 custom orders in 1 day!
So while finishing the look book and sketching new designs for my clients, I made plans to go fabric swatching earlier this week.

My first stop was Mood fabrics on La Brea Avenue.

Mood Fabrics 645 S La Brea Ave,  Los Angeles, CA 90036 Now for those that know me well back in New York, you know that I'm not an avid shopper at Mood fabrics.  However because I'm new to LA and one of my clients is particularly into really high-end fabrics, I decided to stop here first.  It's nice that there is parking in the back!  I'm realizing that free parking is like a luxury out here in LA. The store is quite spacious and very easy to browse.  However the selection seems a lot smaller than New York, and the fabric contents were not labeled on the tags, at least for the rolls that I was looking at.  Overall, I couldn't find anything that peeked my interest, but I'll definitely keep this store in mind for future projects. My second stop was in the fabric district. I started walking around Wall Street and 9th.  There are tons of fabric and trim stores, and it was definitely quite overwhelming.  I mostly window shopped, but there was one trim store in particular that  I wanted to go into because I read some good reviews.  It is called, Big Bargain Trims. Big Bargain Trims 623 E. 9th Street, Los Angeles, CA 90015 For those that don't mind the dust and just huge amount of boxes stacked up in rows, then this place is for you.  The price is definitely great.  I bought a roll of black 1/4" satin trim, 330yds for $15. I'm not sure if you can buy things here by the yard though. The fabric stores around this block were all cheapy polyester/printed cotton types and definitely not the Italian luxury fabrics from Paron Fabrics New York that I was used to.  I'm hoping it's somewhere out there, otherwise I'll have to fly out to New York to get my fancy materials. As I was almost giving up, I walked into this store called Home Fabrics. Home Fabrics 910 Wall Street, Los Angeles, CA 90015 Not realizing from the name that it was an interior fabric store, I almost turned around and walked out.  But I remembered back in my college days when I lived in Austin, TX I often shopped in the fancier interior design fabric stores because my only other option was Joann's fabrics.  So I took a chance and browsed through rows and rows of this store.  Although many were unusable for my kind of fashion design, there were definitely enough for me to put this store in my address book. And also I hit the jackpot!!  All the fabrics in the very back wall behind the curtains are remnant rolls selling for $2.95/YD for the entire roll or $3.95/YD for cut fabrics. Additionally throughout the store, there are sections where some fabrics are discounted, and they also sell sample sale already-made curtains. I ended up buying two heavy weight black and linen fabrics that would be perfect for summer totes.  This kind of fabric would normally sell for $14-18/YD, but I got them for $2.95/YD, amazing! (correction: I saw went back to Home a few days later and saw the same linen fabrics up in the main section of the store selling for $24.95/YD!) Both the guy that got the rolls and swatches for me and the sales lady were really nice.  I can't wait to go back to this store! I hope that I will find more fashion fabric stores tomorrow! I'll definitely keep you posted. Thank you for reading! Sincerely, ST