Today we’d like to introduce you to Annamarie von Firley.
Hi Annamarie, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today.
At 51 years old, I have been a toy maker, fashion and furniture designer, perfumer, as well as profession dancer, and flying trapeze artist. I have lived all over the U.S. moving 8 times before I was 22 years old. Most of my childhood was in Missouri, but I left when I was 18 to get my first degree in Wooden Toy Design and Construction from Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts. I moved to NYC, then to the Hudson Valley. I moved to San Francisco when I was 23 to get my second degree in Furniture Design from California College of the Arts. Once I graduated, I entered my furniture designs in competitions around the country and discovered that my work was too functional for art galleries and too sculptural for furniture stores. I worked for an all-natural perfume company based in Berkeley and eventually became their Chief of Operations until it sold to a company in Minnesota. Since I didn’t want to move with the company, I was between jobs. That is when I accidentally became a fashion designer for 20 years.
I was swing dancing with my best friend on the USS Jeremiah O’Brien in 1998. We were lamenting at how poorly everyone was dressed when she proposed that we start a fashion company that made reproduction vintage clothing. I said no because I had worked for a start-up and saw how my boss never got paid. Eventually, she wore me down. We started reVamp when I was 27 years old. We made fine reproduction vintage clothing for men and women from 1910-1957. Originally, we focused on swing dancers, but soon that changed. After the first year, we separated as business partners, and I moved reVamp to Los Angeles in April of 2001 just as the dot com bubble burst.
Over its 20 years, reVamp garments have been seen on the stage, screen, and red carpet worn by celebrities like Alex Borstein and Dita Von Teese. Our handiwork was featured in major motion pictures, like The Hateful Eight and Baby Driver, as well as televisions shows like American Horror Story, Big Love, True Blood, and Saturday Night Live. Celebrities who have worn reVamp’s handiwork include Selma Hayek, John Travolta, James Gandolfini, Bryce Dallas Howard, Jennifer Lopez, Lily James, and Amy Poehler. reVamp’s work has been also been used in commercials, national and region theaters including Broadway productions and for Cirque du Soleil, as well as international operas. In addition, we made costumes for the docents of living history museums and national parks like the Henry Ford Museum and Scotty’s Castle. reVamp has worked with the California Science Center and has garments in LACMA, the Autry, and Smithsonian Museums.
This is quite an achievement considering that I didn’t even know how to sew when I started my company, but I knew how to operate a bandsaw. It turns out that they require the same eye-hand coordination. In the beginning, I hired professionals and learned from them. Now I am a master of my trade. But 18 years in, I felt like I was living someone else’s dream. I wondered when I was going to get to do what I wanted to do. So, I returned to my roots by successfully crowdfunding an online toy store called Adventuretown Toy Emporium in 2016. For 2 years, I ran both companies. But at the 20-year mark for reVamp, I decided that I was only going to focus on the my first love, toys. I am not sure what the next 20 years will bring, but I hope that it will still involve working with children and toys.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Being a business owner means that you will struggle. Either there will be not enough work or too much. You either have not enough employees or too many. If you manage to find that sweet spot where everything is in equilibrium, it doesn’t last long.
The fashion business is particularly grueling when you provide garments for the entertainment industry. The window of time that you are given for a project is never enough and changes by the day. When I am first approached by a costume designer, I will have been given, let’s say, 3 weeks to make 200 pieces in 4 sizes. Two days later, I get a call that they need 250 pieces, but they need them in 2 weeks instead of 3. By the end of the week, I get another call that they need 150 of them by Monday. So much for weekend plans and sleeping the next 3 days.
I remember when we built garments for Saturday Night Live. They called on a Thursday to ask if I could make 2 custom garments for the show on Saturday. I said yes as long as I received the package with fabric and measurements by 8:30 am on Friday because I would need to ship it back to them by 5:30 pm for delivery Saturday morning. This would give me and my staff 8 hours to draft 2 patterns from scratch, cut, and sew 2 dresses. On Friday morning, 8:30 came and went. Then 9 am. 10 am. 10:30 am. Still no package. The package was finally delivered at 11 am. We had 6 hours. As I drafted the pattern pieces, staff traced and cut the out of fabric. Stitchers were handled pieces as they were cut. We finished the 2 garments at 5:15 pm and I dashed to get it to Fed Ex before the 5:30 pm cut-off. I arrived at the counter at 5:29 pm. I barely made it. But that is par for the course. Imagine 20 years of that.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Adventuretown Toy Emporium?
I founded Adventuretown Toy Emporium to cultivate children’s curiosity by learning through play with hands-on activities that I curated from 35 countries selected for their uniqueness, innovation, and educational value.
When I got my first degree in the early 1990s, there wasn’t a market for education toys in the U.S. All of the toys at the time were plastic and broke days after they were purchased. Parents now understand the value of play and how hands-on activities help kids to learn and build important skills. I have really enjoyed curating the most unique and inventive toys from 35 countries. I have over 3200 toys on the website and have another 200 more to add before the holiday season.
I always planned on opening a bricks and mortar experiential toy store in DTLA. While working towards that goal, we hosted over 300 pop-up stores in the LA area. That all stopped on March 20, 2020, when nationwide pandemic lockdown took effect. Then in August of 2020 when the 2nd wave of Covid hit, I knew that the youngest children were going to be profoundly affected by pandemic-related isolation. You can’t lock a kid in house for 2 years and not expect developmental delays. So my team of experts and I created an app and customized subscription box called Fledglings’ Flight.
Fledglings’ Flight is an app and customized subscription box that helps parents of children 0-3 years old optimize their child’s development with daily play-based exercises created by specialists in pediatric occupational therapy, developmental optometry, and speech pathology. The free app also provides a library boasting over 1200 articles on child development and self-care as reference materials for parents. Basic members can track the 812 milestones that their child should achieve by their child’s 4th birthday.
In addition, we created the world’s first monthly subscription box that tailors the toys to each child’s unique developmental needs for Premium members. The Fledglings’ Flight app collects parent-provided data about milestones and exercises completed along with feedback from parents about their child’s experience with the toys in each “Toolbox” to create a developmental profile that looks for lags or acceleration. Unlike other toy subscription boxes who send every child the same box of toys several times a year, Fledglings’ Flight’s Toolbox is customized to each child’s developmental needs whether they are delayed, on-track, advanced, or asynchronous. The Toolboxes features one or two developmental toys curated from 35 countries and chosen for their educational value, as well as supplies needed for the daily exercises such as balloons, pipe cleaners, pompoms, straws that may not be found in the parent’s home. The limited number of toys is intentional. We don’t want to overwhelm parents with having to store a bunch of toys every time they receive a box. Since we ship new toys each month, the toys are always relevant to each child’s needs. If a child’s fine motor skills, their ability to pick up and use objects, is delayed, we will ship toys that focus on building these skills so that they match their peers. If they are advanced, we provide toys that will keep them challenged and moving forward at their own pace.
It is important that parents of children under 3 years focus on their child’s development by tracking, at the very least, their milestones. Early intervention is incredibly important to mitigate any delays. You won’t know if your child is delayed if you don’t know whether or not they are meeting their milestones. Eighty percent of the brain is developed in the first 3 years of life or 1000 days from birth. Children who were born on March 20, 2020, the day that the U.S. nationwide pandemic lockdown began, it is day 922.”
Where do you see things going in the next 5-10 years?
The toy industry has been in flux for a long time. The bankruptcy of Toy R’Us wiped out a lot of small, innovative toy brands. In addition, supply chain issues kept most toy brands from being able to fulfill holiday orders during the pandemic creating financial stress.
But the good news is that there are many brand-new innovative brands who are coming on the market. These new brands not only are creating amazing new products, they are manufacturing with sustainability as their focus. There have never been more toy brands taking on social impact as a part of their mission. I am happy to introduce these products to Adventuretown’s customers.
Pricing:
- Fledgings’ Flight Basic Membership $2/month
- Fledgling Flight Premium Membership & Customized Subscription Box $60/month
Contact Info:
- Website: www.fledglingsflight.com & www.adventuretowntoys.com
- Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/fledglingsflight & http://www.instagram.com/adventuretowntoys
- Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/fledglingsflight & http://www.facebook.com/adventuretowntoys
- Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/fledglingsflight & http://www.twitter.com/adventuretowntoys
Image Credits
Samuel Primero
John Lile
David Rocha
Ashleigh Bostic
