Indie Designer Interviews: Trashy Diva by Candice Gwinn

| Posted May 5th 2008 9:05AM by Mallory Whitfield
Filed under: Stores, Vintage wear, Designers, Dresses and Skirts, Interviews, Under the Radar

We love all of the amazing independent designers out there. In order to find out more about just what makes all of these creative types tick, we present to you an ongoing segment called Indie Designer Interviews.

Today's interview is with Candice Gwinn, owner and designer of Trashy Diva, a vintage-inspired line of dresses and separates. What started as a vintage-only clothing store in 1996 has grown into three New Orleans boutique locations, a thriving wholesale business, and a successful e-commerce website. Today the Trashy Diva collection is carried in boutiques around the world, it has been featured in the pages of Elle and Lucky magazines, and has been worn by numerous celebrities.




Describe what goes into designing each Trashy Diva collection. The design process is always different. It just depends. It usually either starts with a vintage print that I want to reproduce, or an idea for one dress. Then I basically try to design a little group around that. In order to work well with my factory I need at least 200 or so pieces per fabric (usually even more). As for styles, I have quite a few favorites. So, even though I try and introduce a few new styles with each group, it is hard to top some of the favorites that have been refined with every group over the past 5-6 years. Although a lot of the dresses look vintage, many are not. Some are draped from scratch on my vintage dress form. Some are created by 'borrowing' elements from up to 10 different vintage patterns, and others are truly vintage reproduction pieces that are copied from flea market finds then adjusted to fit into the Trashy Diva sizing scales.

How did you first get interested in designing? I've always said that the start of design with me was after years of repairing vintage clothing - mostly the older 1910's-30's pieces that would fall nearly apart and I'd have to painstakingly reconstruct them. But several years ago some high school friends pointed out that I made lots of pants for myself and sold them at school too. So, when I really thought about it, there was that 5th grade project on the 'Cycle of Fashion Trends through the Ages' and that 3rd grade multiplication problem (8's and 9's) I still have because I was drawing ball gowns. I think that this is probably what I was born to do. I've never had any training in design or any related field. I just studied construction of clothing in my vintage shop and read a lot of books.

Where do you get your inspiration from? As with probably every designer the inspiration comes from everywhere. It is something that you think about non-stop from the moment you wake up. Usually with me, I find a fabric that I LOVE or a time period I'd like to explore. You'll see a lot of Asian influence in both the design and fabrics that I choose. Lately however, I've been obsessed with cottons and the 1950's so you'll see a lot of very pert, very wearable, 'all American dress shop' style dresses in cotton poplin and voile. I wanted this summer's collections to be very accessible in both casual feel of the fabrics and price.

What has been the hardest part of running Trashy Diva? Running Trashy Diva has always been a challenge. It seems as if it may never be 'easy' and really that is OK. One of the more difficult things for probably every shop owner is staffing, so that is definitely in my top 3. We are also self funded and have never had a formal loan of any kind. We don't spend what we don't have. So this has been a constraint that I've had to deal with when organizing a large clothing collection and beginning new locations and ventures.

And the best part of running your store? The best part of having 3 boutiques and a successful online shop is that I have the freedom to design and manufacture whatever I think will best suit my customers without any real worry about how it will be received by the rest of the 'fashion world'. I'm not depending on someone else to believe in my vision to buy into it every season. I do sell to other boutiques around the world, but I don't have to in order to financially make it work. We at Trashy Diva are perfectly capable of selling all of our inventory and keeping the clothing line running for many decades to come. I do of course hope everything I make is well received and that mainstream boutiques everywhere will want it, but this is not my driving force.

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