Today we’d like to introduce you to Mandie Bee.
Mandie, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
Heart of Haute is a small, Mother-Daughter, Women-owned and operated fashion company, with all items manufactured locally in Los Angeles since 2005.
My mother, has been working in LA’s fashion industry since 1977. Where do I even start. I can go back to the womb- 1985, my mother was freelancing as a designer for companies sold in major stores like Macy’s and Nordstrom. Even after I was born, she would take me in a carrier to all of her design meetings….fast forward to the early 90’s, she had a children’s dress boutique in Downtown Covina called The Enchanted Child, where again, I would hang out and dress mannequins, organize displays, and eventually learn how to run the register.
The creative entrepreneurial life was always around me so long as I was in the presence of my mother. Her passion has always been in fashion, and she adapted her designs as her children grew up. I have to say, I didn’t mean to fall into the fashion world, it just happened rather naturally and I’ve had her help and support along the way. I will say, the business would be nothing if we didn’t have one another. I can’t do what she does- and she can’t do what I do.
As I grew into my teenage years, I started listening to ska, punk, and rockabilly music. I grew up in Covina, but I went to High School at the L.A. County H.S. of Arts (LACHSA) with my emphasis study in music. Because my school friends literally came from ALL OVER the county, I had to get clever with how I kept up with a social life. I found that in going to local shows and becoming part of those subculture scene communities. The vintage aesthetic was prevalent in my favorite music scenes and the older girls influenced my style in time. This eventually led me to buying and selling 50’s & 60’s vintage clothing on eBay and Etsy.
I went to Cal State Fullerton as a vocalist in the music department. I always had a full load of classes, which made holding a regular job rather difficult at times. In order to make extra money, I got creative. This is when I started trading in vintage clothing on eBay. Eventually, I started making my own relics of my favorite pieces. Almost every week, I would make a new dress, wear it out, and friends around me would ask, “Where did you get that dress?!” and next thing I knew, I had custom orders in the works… My problem? I can’t sew a zipper straight. This is where the business really starts. I go to my mother and say, “Okay, I’ve sewn everything but I keep screwing up this zipper and I need to get this order out—” and she looks at me and says “–order? Who are you selling to?” and I explain what I had been doing.
Her eyes light up. Every mother’s dream right? Her little girl following in her footsteps. That’s when she says, “You know, we can start a business doing this”. And so we did. With her expert skills and my marketing ability in the newly emerging online social media craze (because back then, everyone was on livejournal….remember that?) We started our little fashion brand.
It was first named Heartbreaker Fashion. The Heartbreaker was a whole play on the ‘pin up’ world with the idea of girls getting gussied up and breaking the hearts of men! Unfortunately, eight years later, we received a cease and desist from a ‘Heartbreaker’ retail store somewhere in the middle of the country. But by that time, we were ready to grow into the next phase of our business anyway and emerged with the new name, Heart of Haute.
We started with a small investment of $50 to buy material and develop three simple patterns. I took photos, made the eBay listings, and managed everything to do with the customer. Mom managed the development. We worked together in the back patio of my parent’s house for the first few years.
In time, I started soliciting to small shops. Our first vintage-style shop, My Baby Jo, placed their first wholesale order with us. A year later, we took on sales reps and the brand just grew and grew exponentially. By this point, I was in my 3rd year of college, still chipping away at a music degree. I thought I wanted to be an opera singer. I ended up in a band instead and singing in Jazz clubs with my friends instead.
We eventually moved into our first offices in 2007 and began hiring more employees. We soon became one of the tops known “retro” brands in the rockabilly/vintage scene next to our contemporaries Steady Clothing, Pinup Girl Clothing, and Queen of Heartz, to name a few. We have been carried on major retailer sites such as ModCloth, Unique Vintage, and Pinup Girl Clothing. We regularly exhibited events like Viva Las Vegas and Ink and Iron. Our brand was selling in boutiques around the globe with a huge following in Australia and Europe. At the peak of our business growth- around 2011- we had approximately 26 employees, most of them being female fashion students.
In true entrepreneurial spirit, I had to teach myself a lot about managing on online ecommerce store, the ever-changing social media sales tactics, how to network within my own niche, studio photography and editing in Photoshop.
The brand today looks a bit different than it did when it first started. Our vintage aesthetic is still apparent in our designs, but we truly feel like our garments fit in just fine with modern style.
Late March of this year, we had no other choice but to release our employees until further notice. We opted to begin manufacturing cotton face masks. The city recognized us as an essential business and allowed us to keep the lights on. With just my mother and I and one contract shop- we made THOUSANDS of face masks. All I did in the month of April was ship masks all around the country.- day in and day out. It was the only thing that kept us going.
Today, our loyal customers are keeping us going. We also have a solid group of boutiques that stock our products all around the world. We’re still producing and this week hired back one of our employees on a part-time basis.
But…my story doesn’t end with Heart of Haute. I am often bored and start more projects than I ought to….but these are the things that have stuck:
In 2016, I started a side business with a charity component. I call it “Kittees” (Ilovekittees.com) It’s….a cat-themed line of tshirts. It’s also a dad-approved joke. Cat shirts. Kit- Tees. Get it? My dad sure did. I’ve taken Kittees to the infamous CatCon the last several years and yes- we’ll be there in the virtual form as well for 2020! Kittees was in part a way for me to have another fun and creative outlet AND donate part of my sales to charity for cats. Because I love them. Cats are awesome.
I’m also one of the singers in a groovy little band called the Moan. We’re about to release our EP within the next few days of this article, actually. (instagram.com/themoanmusic)
And in addition to all of this, I gig on freelance graphic design and occasionally coach new entrepreneurs in their new endeavors.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Mostly smooth, yes.
The first obstacle we had to get past was the name change. Many of our customers weren’t in the loop and thought we fell off the face of the planet. It took about a year to get traction again.
Other struggles we’ve faced and still have to manage today is being knocked off. A few of our stockists would buy our product, analyze what did or didn’t sell well for them, and then make their own knock off of our design at a lesser cost.
Unfortunately, this is a practice many huge online retailers will do for the sake of pushing out competition. It makes it difficult for small brands like mine. Not only do we lose that business with the retailer, we lose the friendship we garnered with them for years.
We don’t get angry. We innovate and keep on going.
Please tell us about Heart of Haute.
We’re a design house and manufacturer of Ladies’ apparel.
We’re known for our fabulous fits, quality materials, unique prints, and excellent customer service and community with our customers.
What sets us apart is the fact that we manufacture in Los Angeles. All made in the USA!
We have a close community of fans, customers, and friends that have supported us through the years.
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
No regrets!
Contact Info:
- Website: http://heartofhaute.com
- Phone: 9095990715
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: http://instagram.com/heartofhaute
- Facebook: http://facebook.com/heartofhaute
- Twitter: http://twitter.com/heartofhaute
- Other: http://ilovekittees.com
Image Credit:
My Photo: TaraOPhotos.com, Band Photo- Mandie Bee, Chris Lane, Carina Vitolo. (someone’s camera phone), Models: Darling Dots, Kay Gull, Tammi Savoy, Teer Wayde, Ruby Roxx, Kiera Brady, Sofia Arvidson, Model Photography: Mandie Bee
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