Community Highlights: Meet Dana Davidson and Itay Barash of Davi&Bar

Today we’d like to introduce you to Dana Davidson and Itay Barash.

Hi Dana and Itay, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Our names are Dana Davidson and Itay Barash and we are the founders of Davi&Bar. We are both in our twenties and share the same love for fitness and fashion. We moved to Los Angeles from different parts of the world, Itay from Israel and Dana from Miami, FL. We met in this big city through mutual friends and had an immediate click. Neither of us knew many people here, and we became each other’s support system. We are both very active in our daily life, exercising is something that plays a huge role in keeping ourselves feeling healthy and positive. Along with that, we both love fashion and keeping up with the latest trends. As frequent athleisure wear customers, we agreed that finding the right workout clothes was not easy. We were constantly on the search for leggings and tops from several different brands because the fit was never right. Instead, we decided to join forces and create a brand that incorporates fitness, fashion and workout wear that is comfortable but also flattering. Mindfully crafted, our pieces sit between style and comfort, taking you from the plane to the gym, to a meeting and everywhere in between. The form and function of each piece support the “on the go woman” which features comfortable, flexible leggings and tops that flatter and embrace the female form.

Our business and life mantra is that hard work pays off, and consistency is key. We started this business with little to no knowledge about the industry. We worked side jobs to earn money in order to start our company. The day after, we decided to start Davi&Bar. We got in the car and drove to downtown LA. We googled some places where we might be able to find pattern makers and seamstresses, and we just started knocking on people’s doors

I remember going door to door in this random building in DT LA and just being so confused, not knowing where to start. Too much information was being thrown at us and we definitely did not understand the terminology they were using. We ended up doing some patterns with one of the pattern makers we found in that building. Long story short, we are not working with her today.

We made several mistakes, lost a few thousand dollars and worked with different factories until we found our team. Looking back at that day and seeing where are now is crazy, the progress we have made would not have happened without our consistency and will to succeed. And don’t get us wrong, we are still learning every day and we are still encountering challenges but we definitely have the tools to cope with them more successfully now.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It has been the opposite of a smooth road. We are extremely particular and had a specific vision about how we wanted our products to look and fit. In the beginning, finding fabrics was tough, we searched through 70-80 fabric samples until we found the ones to our liking.

Once we got the fabric down, we started sewing samples with many different factories and none of them sewed them to our liking. There was always something wrong whether it was the fit or the stitching that looked bad. We wanted it to be perfect. I think we sewed like 15 samples of each style in the beginning until we found the factory that did it right. Meanwhile, every sample takes a few weeks to sew so you can imagine how much time that took.

We started the brand in the beginning of 2019 and basically, that whole year was just trial and error. We were so happy that we had finally found the factory we wanted to work with, and then COVID19 hit and they shut down for 8 months. So that pushed us back even more.

Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Davi&Bar?
A few major things differentiate us from other athleisure brands. The quality of our product will always be first priority. All of our pieces are made with high-quality fabrics and thoughtful design. We went through roughly 80 different fabrics until we found the ones we loved. Our fabrics are all made in Los Angeles at the highest quality. We made sure there was enough stretch but also enough compression so that women would feel amazing wearing our clothes. Another thing that differentiates us from other brands is our designs. We have tops with minimal coverage to tops that are full coverage. Some women like a more relaxed feel and others like a more fit-forming feel. We have all of it. We also designed our pieces in a way that would flatter. They hug you in the right places.

We aren’t embarrassed to say that we think about your body a lot. We spend hours considering how our clothes should fit you so that you feel amazing conquering the world. We are at our best when you feel at yours. Our target audience is the on the go woman. Whether you’re at the gym, going out, or just on the go — we have your back.

Lastly, The inspiration behind our brand is the strength of women, and we donate 10% of our sales from every new launch to organizations that support women’s health. We are a women-owned brand and we want to give back to the community. There are a lot of women’s health non-profit organizations that work hard for us women, so we want to support them.

Do you have any advice for those looking to network or find a mentor?
Having a mentor is very important. Especially someone who is familiar with the clothing and fashion industry that can guide you throughout the process. We were very fortunate to have met our mentor a few months into starting our brand who definitely made the process easier. We would ask him questions and ask for his advice before making certain decisions. He also helped us with people he knew in the industry so that we wouldn’t have to search for them (like we did in the beginning with factories which took a tremendous amount of time). So yes, we always recommend having a mentor.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.daviandbar.com
• Instagram: @daviandbar