ONLINE EXCLUSIVE: Interview With Wearables Artist Charlotte Hall Hamilton IN PURSUIT OF HER PLACE IN THE WORLD OF HIGH-END WEARABLES
by Paula Chaffee Scardamalia

Charlotte Hall Hamilton

"The fashion world is a competitive market," says Charlotte Hall Hamilton, head instructor of the fashion program at Houston Community College in Houston, Texas. "I tell my students to find a niche they can fill in the market as well as a way they can excel at it." For Hamilton, finding a niche not only in the fashion marketplace, but also in her career has taken Hamilton on a circuitous route. But, she has finally found a way to pursue all of her passions: fashion, travel and sharing her knowledge with others.

She began her journey as a student in costume design and illustration at the University of North Texas. Upon graduation in 1969, however, she realized she wanted to explore the fine arts, especially three-dimensional design. She enrolled in a master's program in ceramics. "Making pottery is a very tactile thing, not that dissimilar from making fabric. I loved the sculptural aspects of clay."

Aware that she had turned to clay primarily to expand her knowledge of the three-dimensional elements of design, she decided it was not what she wanted to pursue as a career. So, she dropped out of the program and, returning to the fashion world, took a job as a designer for a line of children's clothing.

She then moved from designing for the company to merchandising and sales, which enabled her to travel the country to represent the line. She loved certain aspects of the job, especially the travel, but she eventually got tired of the mass-market aspects of the fashion industry -- its hype, its constant pressures and its focus on the bottom line. So, when the opportunity arose to use her marketing skills to represent an academic publisher, she took it. She was still in sales and still traveling, but enjoying it more.

Soon, however, Hamilton became nostalgic for fashion. Recognizing this, Hamilton's husband gave her a loom and signed her up for weaving lessons for Christmas. She happily began working with fabric again.

When the opportunity for a change in jobs again arose, she and her husband moved to Philadelphia, where she enrolled at Drexel University in a master's degree program in fashion design. It was there, as a student, that she began her custom design business.

"Faculty and others began coming to the fashion department of the school looking for someone to do couture and custom sewing. They were my first clients and [from there], word spread," Hamilton explains.

Hamilton's appreciation for and understanding of fine couture and custom fashion design grew when she was given the opportunity to curate the university's historic costume collection.

RESOURCES

Houston Community College 1300 Holman Fashion Design Department Houston, TX 770004 (713) 718-6191 -- Hamilton office number E-mail: hamilton_c@hccs.cc.tx.us Web site: http://ccollege.hccs.cc.tx.us/instru/fashion/fashion2.html Drexel University 3141 Chestnut St. Philadelphia, PA 19104 Web site: www.drexel.edu Design With Heart Conference April 29-May 3 124 1/2 Galisteo Santa Fe, NM 87501 (505) 982-1737 Hamilton will be teaching a workshop "Reaching the Fashion Market in Five Not So Easy Steps" at this conference, which will be held in Santa Rosa, Calif.

Re-focusing her infant business
When she received her degree in 1982, Hamilton and her husband moved, once again, to Houston, Texas. The change in location prompted Hamilton to reevaluate her business. Knowing that the "real money" in fashion is to be made in production, she decided to change the focus of her business, and began researching the field. "I went to major trade shows and studied the trends. I picked what looked to be a growing market in the '80s -- active wear -- which was developing [amidst] the new exercise-conscious society."

She designed a cover-up that complemented another company's line of active wear and, after creating samples and connecting with a manufacturing firm, began to rep both her line and the line of active wear by the other company. "It is hard to get a new line established," she says. "Especially when you are the new kid on the block."

Hamilton had several solutions to this challenge. She showed her samples in the other company's showroom in Dallas. She visited and pitched specialty stores, boutiques, spas and resorts throughout Texas, along with making cold calls. Sometimes buyers chose to carry both lines, sometimes they carried only hers. Regardless, they were buying, and her business took off.

Once a shop began carrying her line, she would do trunk shows at the shop to encourage more sales. And, one of the most important things she did, she says, was to get involved in local women's organizations. "This is one of the best ways to promote yourself and your work and, of course, a great place to network."

Becoming a teacher
It was through networking that she was approached by someone from Houston Community College. The school asked if they could bring their fashion students to see her studio, and eventually she hired one student as an intern. When the school asked her to teach, she agreed. She began part time, but, she explains, "with both my husband and I running our own businesses, we decided it would be a good idea for one of us to have a more reliable income." Hamilton alo felt this was a good opportunity for her and volunteered to teach full time. Her business was set aside.

In addition to some computer work and maintaining the school's costume collection, Hamilton teaches courses on the history of costume and on developing a collection. She also takes her students abroad regularly to places like Spain and China to help them understand the international aspects of the fashion world.

Hamilton did not realize then that teaching would fulfill all the aspirations she had for her career, but it did. She now devotes herself to it. She indulges her love for historical fashion by maintaining the college collection; she still gets to travel, another passion she had hoped to continue. She thrives on the interaction with students; and she gets to explore her creativity without worrying about whether it will pay off or not. She creates an occasional couture garment that gets her creative and imaginative juices flowing, and donates them to the area charity balls, knowing the money for the garments will go to a good cause.

THE IMPORTANCE OF SELF-EVALUATION

To help others find their own direction and a niche in the fashion world, Charlotte Hall Hamilton suggests that they consider the following: Work by Judi Beardsley developed under the direction of Hamilton. What are your goals? "I ask [my students] what their personal and professional goals are. Do they want their label to be nationally or internationally known? Do they need to support themselves? If so, are they willing to do other things, like alterations (a dirty word to most fashion design students), to bring in a steady income while their custom design business develops? Do they want to have people working for them or to work alone? Do they want to work independently or design for another company? Actually, designing is where most people make their money!" The answers to these questions, says Hamilton, can help all craftspeople. "If your work is well-received you will eventually have to make the decision whether to go into some level of production. If you know ahead of time whether or not that is what you want then you can make the right choices." Who is your market? Understanding your competitors is one of the keys to the successful marketing of wearables. "[If artists] don't understand who their competitor is, whether it is JCPenney or Neiman Marcus, and what is driving the market, then they are going to make expensive mistakes," she says. "Go to the galleries where you think you want to sell. Look at what they carry and what the prices are, especially of work comparable to yours. If you are making top-quality silk scarves then look at what handmade silk scarves in craft galleries are selling for. How does your price compare? Other considerations are color trends and customer demographics. "Markets are very regional, especially in regard to color palettes," Hamilton says, "and customer age is a market factor as well. The middle-price market is eroding. The baby boomers [have created] an older market with more disposable income, looking for high-quality, even couture work while the twenty-somethings are looking for the hot, trendy item with a low-budget price tag. It is important to talk to galleries regularly and discuss with them what seems to be selling well and why." Once you are in the galleries, however, your research is not over. "Try to arrange to have trunk shows. It is a valuable opportunity for marketing research in that region of the country," she says. "You can have your entire line [there] and work with the customers directly. You can hear from them what they like and don't like." Self-education In addition to educating yourself about the market, it is important to educate yourself about three-dimensional design, especially if you are aiming for the more demanding couture or one-of-a-kind market. "So much of the wearable art I see looks better on a hanger or the wall than on a human body. Fabric and patterns are two-dimensional, but when made into a garment and worn, they transform into something three-dimensional. A sophisticated understanding of fit and drape is very important in the higher-priced market. A good class in draping or even millinery would be helpful in understanding three-dimensional design." Keeping yourself abreast of the European fashion market is a good idea as well. "Even though the speed of communication has influenced how fast a market trend will spread, studying what is happening in Europe in the foreign magazines and Vogue will help keep your work fresh. I am not saying follow the trends, because they move in and out so quickly, but incorporating a color, a detail, a silhouette can keep your work interesting and competitive." What makes your work special? Hamilton requires her students to develop a line or collection, give it a name, and then write a description of it. She encourages them to use a book that has a long list of color names to make their description more exciting and precise. Then they write a press release for the collection. "I believe that if you are going to be successful in designing and marketing fashion of any kind, you have to focus 80 percent of your time on the business aspects and only 20 percent on the creating," Hamilton says. "You have to romance the buyer ... sell an image. Don't tell them you have the scarf in red, tell them you have a scarf in pomegranate. And if you can educate your customer with well-written hangtags, a booklet that tells them all the different ways they can wear your scarf, for instance, then you help them justify the expense of your work." Hamilton says craftspeople have a big advantage in the fashion market. "With the exception of the major manufacturers with their own mills," she explains, "most designers are working from the same fabric pool to create their garments. ... The weaver, the silk painter, with the ability to create unique fabrics already has the ability to create a truly one-of-kind look and to fill a niche."

Paula Chaffee Scardamalia is a Berne, N.Y.-based freelance writer who teaches and owns her own weaving business, Nettles and Green Threads.

MARCH 2000: TABLE OF CONTENTS