Sample Sale
An interview with the local designers about their upcoming sell-off.
Posted by: Laura Cassidy on Nov 28, 2011 at 06:00AM
While Prairie Underground trunk shows are not uncommon events around here—the local line has a legion of followers, some of whom own small boutiques—a sample sale, one straight from the designers’ workshop and archives, is a different matter.
On Saturday and Sunday December 3 and 4 at the Canal Building, 716 N 34th St, in Fremont, hundreds of previous season hoodies, leggings, and dresses will be offered for 50 to 80 percent off retail prices.
We took the occasion of this opportunity to check in with Prairie Underground’s founders and designers Davora Linder and Camilla Eckersley about the sale, their brand, and your city.
WWW: When hosting a mixed-bag sample sale of past season pieces, you as designers have the chance to look back over the years and see how things have progressed. What surprises you, what makes you nostalgic, what are you most proud of?
Linder and Eckersley: The presentation at our sample sales always brings back memories. As designers and entrepreneurs we don’t often have the opportunity to look back at what we’ve produced, but revisiting previous styles continues to inform future design direction. We’ve produced close to 400 unique designs and sample sales are a great place to get an idea of our scope and to see more of the full collections.
It’s gratifying to revisit styles that pushed the envelope and remain topical like the moth coat, frock coat, and fur shrug. Then there are pieces that never went into production due to insufficient orders, items like the beatnik dress, foreign affair, and sub rosa jean. It’s thrilling to offer items when only 10 or 12 were originally made.
We don’t have a lot of overstock comparatively and yet our sample sets are large since we produce each style in a variety of colors. Seeing an actualized color library is quite satisfying. The spectrum of muddy color has rarely been as thoroughly displayed. Sometimes we find ourselves shopping the event a bit, like stowing items under a table. When you find a piece that really works sometimes it’s ok to have more than one color. These events are certainly the most cost effective opportunity to act on that impulse.
We’re most proud to meet the women who feel strongly about our clothing, they’re always inspiring and our primary motivation as designers.
When people talk to me about independent designers in Seattle, you come to mind as a key success story. How would you attribute your success? How did Seattle, as a civic organization and a loosely assembled community, help? How could seattle have helped more?
Our local sewing contractors took a chance on us and continue to make our dream of producing the collection in Seattle a reality. We remain committed to providing meaningful work them and keeping this industry active in Seattle.
Our workshop staff is comprised of some of the most talented, dedicated, and fascinating individuals. We feel really fortunate to work with them.
We were lucky to find retail supporters early on in Seattle, Portland, California, and New York. Some of those retailers we still work with today and others have moved on to other things, but we remain quite fond of all of them. That first handful of orders were so important in establishing distribution on any level. Our showroom, True Collaborative Fashion, found us at an Independent boutique in Portland and went on to introduce the collection to a constellation of buyers all over the country.
The Pacific Northwest can be a great place to launch a business, it’s a part of the ethic here to support indigenous industry and this makes us proud to live and work in Seattle.
Incredible women wear our clothing and share their experience of our garments with others. This organic evolution suits us better than having garments appear in US Magazine on the latest starlet, which, coincidentally has never occurred.
The upcoming sample sale has a charitable-giving element: 20 percent of proceeds will be donated to the Babes Network. Additionally, HIV30 is lending artwork to be displayed during the event. I imagine that being able to take on a benefactor is itself a measure of success. Would it be true to say you’re at a point in your careers when you really can give back? How did you choose Babes Network and why do they resonate with you?
Prairie Underground has always been charitable in varying capacities relative to the size of our business but we haven’t generally publicized this giving. We’ve been cautious to assure our business remains independent and financially secure but felt this was an appropriate time to do an event of this nature on this scale. In the current economic climate, many non-profits are no longer receiving the support that they have previously relied upon. It’s an especially important time for businesses to fill in the gaps.
Babes is an inspiring Seattle-based organization that focuses on peer counseling—a concept we find empowering and one that has similarities to the way our business functions. It’s a model of support and advocacy related to women’s health that we believe in and hope Prairie Underground’s customer will relate to. Camilla and I lost a childhood friend this year and this is the type of work she did during her life with a number of organizations, the spirit of Babes Network reminds me of her. This is about creating something fun and meaningful in the city where we live.
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Locally Made,
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Seattle Designer,
Prairie Underground
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