Interview Brenda Bell, Bell Fashions with
Fashion-Schools
Baby and Children’s
Fashion Designing
Hello Bell Fashions,
Please allow me to introduce myself, my
name is Robin Wilding and I am a writer for Fashion-Schools.org. I am currently
identifying fashion designers, bloggers, manufacturers, textile companies,
marketers, advertisers and other fashion industry professionals across the
country and interviewing representatives from each company for feature articles
on Fashion-Schools. The interviews are designed to give aspiring fashion and
design professionals perspective on the work being done in the industry, what
skills employers value, and -from a bigger picture- to convey to them that
there are many roles that can be filled (or created), and not only becoming a
designer entrepreneur or working for a high-profile label.
Once completed, the interview will be
posted verbatim on our site and you would be welcome to link to our site.
I look forward to completing an
interview-based company profile on your esteemed fashion-related company.
Sincerely,
Robin Wilding
Fashion-Schools.org Writer
1. What inspired you to get
into the fashion industry?
I have always wanted to sew
baby clothes since I can remember. When I was 6 years old, my mom was
outside and left me inside the house. When she came in, I was standing at
her sewing machine, which I had been told to leave alone with my finger under
the foot and a needle completely thru my finger. She decided it was time
to teach me to sew. I have always loved babies and baby clothes. I made my
first dress for myself when I was 8 years old. When I had my first
daughter in 1973, the race was on to sew for her. I have always wanted to
design. Doing the production was never my joy but I sure did enjoy making
the first sample.
2. What
is your focus within the industry?
My focus is
100% babies and childrens fashions. I absolutely love exquisite
children's clothing. I am a great fan of traditional clothing and am not
a fan of the new clothing that makes babies and toddlers look like grown-ups.
I manufactured clothing for 26 years only because no one would hire me to
design so I had to make them myself. Now I am doing all my products in
Central America and China.
3. What
type of education did it take to get you where you are today?
No
Education. Not even a mentor, except my mother and grandmother.
My ability was a natural ability. My grandmother would make her own
patterns after looking at a child's dress in a store window and sew for her
children. My mother made all of our dresses. I purchased books from
the internet and learned to grade patterns. I had people who worked for
me that helped me learn the production line type operation.
4. How
has your career path progressed over the years?
Yes. I
tried to get a job with a company in California doing free lance design.
They told me they were interested and I sent them samples. The owner of
the company of Martha’s Minatures would never speak to me by phone after he
received the little dresses that I had designed. I finally got his
secretary to tell me that he did receive them. About 1 year later, I saw
my designs with the name Martha's Minatures in a Children's Clothing
Boutique in my town. I started my business and decided to produce them
myself. I started with 2 sewing machines in my entrance foyer. Six
months later, I purchased an old mobile home and gutted it and started
producing from that trailer. The following year, I purchased a second one
and these looked horrible in my yard but I was on a mission. We were
sewing in one trailer and pressing and shipping in the other. In 1990, we
hired a new sales rep that got us into a chain of department store. We
built a 7500 square foot building and are still located there today.
5. What
is your favorite part of working in the fashion/design business?
The designing
and seeing the first proof.
6. What
advice would you give to aspiring fashioniatas?
If you have a dream, go for it. If you want it, speak it to yourself and others. The words you speak about yourself frame your world.
7. What
school(s) does your company generally recruit new hires from?
My best
designer only has a high school education. She has ideas running thru her
head faster than I can write them down. I think designing is a God given
natural ability.
8. Do
you think there is an overall increasing or decreasing need for people in the
fashion industry?
I am not
sure. There seem to be more available. I have been to trade shows
for years. There seems like there are a lot more lines available.
9. Which
roles in the fashion industry do you think will offer the best career
opportunities moving forward? eg. designer, PR, entrepreneur, etc.?
Entrepreneurs
that can design will offer the best career opportunities.. It seems that
most entrepreneurs in the children's clothing business are designers. No
one seems to want to hire designers. I think the reason for that is, when
they are starting their business, they cannot afford to pay a designer.
10.
What designer(s) or brand(s) influenced you the
most as a creative professional?
A line called Mary Louise Originals and
also Martha's Minatures. These were ruffled girls dresses which is what I
started manufacturing. Our line was called "Bell".
In 1990, only one company, Joseph Love, was making dresses for chubby
girls. The Loves were getting to retirement age and they suddenly closed
and no one was making Chubby Dresses. We started a line called
"Daydream" and sold to chain store group in North and South
Carolina. That is when we really grew. They were a traditional
dress that was inspired by a line called "Monday's Child". When
we came out with this Chubby line, within 2 years there were numerous companies
that started making these.
11.
Do you think today's jobs in the fashion
industry require more of an artist's touch or business-like ruthlessness?
It requires both. It is a tough
business. There is a lot of competition. There is also a lot of
dirty dealing that goes with other companies stealing your ideas. You can
come out something brand new, we came out with a new line called
"Girley Girl". No one else had anything like it on the
market. In 2 years all my competitors were doing their lines very
similar.
12.
Which skills do you consider to be most critical
for a career in fashion?
I think you should
everything you can. My education, beyond high school, was business school.
I worked as an executive secretary and did not know that I would use those
skills. I have used everything that I learned there in my business.
I love grading patterns. I can get lost in that. I think that the
most critical thing is to have vision and imagination, and have the ability to
take fabrics and put them together with your ideas.
13.
What do you think the future of fashion and
design holds?
It is very hard
to say. I hope it will calm back down some. I am so tired of all
the crazy loud prints. Sometimes I go into a department store and can
hardly find anything to buy. I sometimes say that the designers are on
drugs. I think the specialty of a garment should be in the tayloring of
the garment and not the wildness of the fabric.
