Kathlin Argiro
Kathlin Argiro
Fashion Designer
http://www.kathlinargiro.com
Imagine your business partner wants to quit to raise her kids. Your top salesperson leaves for a bigger salary. Your bookkeeper decides not to return from vacation. Your new computer system is boggling your mind. And all you want to do is create beautiful dresses.
Those are just a few of the challenges in-demand dress designer Kathlin Argiro faced during the last two years. Now Argiro, whose dresses have been sold in stores like Neiman’s and seen on the Today Show, is going solo, without her sister and longtime business partner, and getting ready to launch her spring 2006 line.
Bigger Crisis Than a Busted Heel on the Catwalk
“Last summer I went through what was probably the most challenging time in my business. My sister wanted to stay home to raise her twin baby girls. She and I had started the business together eight years ago, not to mention that we were best friends.
“So I had to suffer through the closure of my original business, and the difficulties of severing ties with my sister, both financially and emotionally, and figure out all the Ps and Qs of opening a new business. The summer prior to last summer had already been difficult… her twins were born prematurely, then as Murphy’s Law would have it, we experienced a mass exodus of the staff.”
Overcoming People Problems
“I am very determined and very resourceful. There were a few good people remaining who stuck by me. Ironically our top salesperson ended up wanting to come back… her salary was bigger at her other job, but it wasn’t a nice environment like we have here. When you have lost 4-5 months worth of sales, it’s a killer. Fortunately we had one of the best years we had ever had prior to that, and that helped to carry us through.”
Fashion-Able Since the Age of 14
“I was always artistic… actually I originally wanted to be a cartoonist for Disney, but I didn’t feel like I could live in Orlando. That’s a crazy thing for a 10-year-old to think about. (At 14 years old ), when I was at Georgetown Visitation in Washington, D.C., my sister had a best friend who had a brother who was starting at another school. They set us up to go to a homecoming dance together.
“I couldn’t find the dress that I had envisioned. So I sat down and sketched it. Then I remember sitting mesmerized for hours, sketching and sketching, that first time, and it started my love affair with fashion. ”
Working for Industry Icons
“My mom got me sewing lessons with a bridal designer in the Alexandria, Virginia area, and from that moment forward, I have been super-focused on fashion. I went to the Parsons (School of Design) summer program when I was 16. In 1992, I won the Gold Thimble Award, which is the school’s highest honor for eveningwear.
“I interned with Geoffrey Beene and worked for a designer in SoHo. I paid my dues. I also interned for designer Caroline Simonelli who I am friends with to this day. One of the formative designers I worked for was Arnold Scaasi… it was a great experience because it was really couture, made-to-order dresses, sourcing the top fabric makers in the world. Then I worked for Carmen Marc Valvo for three and a half years. I left no stone unturned. I knew I was going to have my own business, but didn’t know how or when, I didn’t have any money.”
Working for Herself and Her Sister
“Meanwhile, my sister worked on Capitol Hill for Senator John McCain. She had a successful career, but became disillusioned with politics and thought it would be exciting to have a business together.
“When my sister made the proposal to me at first, I was getting over a divorce. I was married at 23 and it was a very short-lived marriage – I was divorced after two years. So I just wasn’t ready to start a business. About six months later, I called her up and told her I was ready. That was the fall of 1997.”
Start-Up Costs
“We basically started with very little… I had small amount of money from my divorce settlement, and my sister put in a small amount of money. It wasn’t much. I’d estimate we started with about $60,000.”
Mass Mailing, One Phone Call
“The first mailer I sent out was 1500 pieces and I got one phone call. That was scary. I thought, ‘Wow, we did all this work and no one’s coming to look at my clothes! That’s a problem.’ So I picked up the phone and called the buyer at Neiman Marcus at the time. We were going back and forth and hadn’t gotten the order yet… and the buyer wanted me to FedEx all the dresses down (to Dallas) so he could show his boss.”
‘I Got on a Plane, and Got the Order’
“I thought, ‘I can’t put all my children in a box!’ So right on the spot I said, ‘I’m going to bring the dresses down myself.’ He said, ‘You don’t need to do that.’ I said, ‘I know I don’t need to do it, but I’m going to do it.’ So I got on a plane, and got the order. When you get an order from Neiman Marcus during your first season, that’s pretty much unheard of. It sets the basis for getting orders from other people.”
Dressing Differently
“The reason why I think (my dress collection) took off is because it was mostly eveningwear and it was all in color, which eight years ago, no one else was doing. Everything was still all black and dark.
“Also, I was doing it with a light hand – not overly beaded and embroidered, my things have always been very ladylike and understated chic. I use beautiful colors, simple lines but my clothes are all about the dressmaker details, like the trims and the little satin bows. That’s what stood out.”
Fashion and Common Sense
“I learned business by the seat of my pants. First of all, I had good parents. The Number One thing they taught me and my sister was to have common sense. As they say, ‘Common sense is not so common.’ Sometimes it’s astonishing to me. When I want to figure something out, I’m going to figure it out.”
Looking for the Right Partner
“I say that I’ve been in business school for the last eight years. The learning curve is steep in fashion. I want to find the right strategic partner. The qualities that the person will possess are being honest, being a great businessperson, someone with deep pockets and with a lot of experience in fashion. I want to do what I do best, which is being the creative person, PR person, marketing person and work on branding the label so that I can license products. I want to have someone else doing day-to-day operations and minding the shop.”
Greatest Challenge – Hand-Holding
“Managing people. Everybody needs a lot of attention, a lot of affirmation. Everyone is afraid of being wrong. They don’t want to go out on a limb and make decisions, so it’s hard to find people who can take the burden off of you. They want you to be their mother, their sister, and their best friend.”
Greatest Successes – Big- Name Clients
“I think having gotten into Neiman Marcus in my first season, and having been in the really top stores – Bergdorf Goodman, Henry Bendel, Bloomingdales, Saks, and other specialty stores, is a huge accomplishment.”
Her ‘Magic’ Dress
“I go to a lot of networking and social events, and the Ladies Who Launch Live event (in 2005) was the best networking event I’ve ever been to. There were 400 of my ideal target customers in the audience, and the beautiful vivacious co-founder of Ladies Who Launch wearing my ‘magic’ dress. I call it that because when I wear the dress, women literally stop me in the street and ask, ‘Where did you get that dress?’
“But the dress goes even further into the magic… at the event, one of the people in the audience was Allison Berlin, a stylist for What Not to Wear (on The Learning Channel)and The Today Show. She called me and asked me if I would lend my clothes, and of course the answer was, ‘Yes.’ So Stacy London of What Not to Wear wore it to tape an episode, and also wore it on the Today Show and while filming the year-end recap.”
Favorite Advice from Famous People
” I’m a quote queen… a crazy quote queen. I keep a bunch of quotes posted right in front of me. One of my favorite quotes… when I first went to Parsons, my mom gave me this quote from Calvin Coolidge:
‘Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not, nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan “press on” has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.’
More Quotes from Kathlin’s Archives
‘May your dreams defy the laws of gravity.’ – Jackson Browne
‘Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.’
- T.S. Eliot
‘The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.’- Eleanor Roosevelt
