May 15, 2017

Meet Sarah Dauterman of Volterre in Hollywood and Mid-Wilshire

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Sarah Dauterman.

In 1749, Renaissance writer Voltaire brought attention to Paris’ imminent problem – despite its magnificent monuments, its poor infrastructure would not sustain the city’s beauty for long. The city needed a holistic redesign. Centuries later, Sarah Dauterman exited Paris’ Voltaire metro stop to discover a city whose history, energy, and beauty would captivate her and inspire an eight-month journey around the world. She happened to arrive with a need to replace a missing pair of beloved vintage sunglasses – regrettably lost just after being repaired – but left with a vision for eyewear that aligned with Voltaire’s mandate.

Inspired by the global journey and the significance behind its commencing “Voltaire” gateway, Sarah created Volterre with a mission to convert fashion eyewear from impermanent investments to travel-friendly, collectible keepsakes. Volterre – the combination of the French words ‘vol,’ meaning flight, and ‘terre,’ meaning earth – encapsulates vintage silhouettes in modern, durable, frames that fit easily in your pocket. By combining elevated style with down-to-earth functionality, Volterre is ready for all of life’s adventures – wherever they may lead.

Since her tweens, 24-year-old Dallas native Sarah Dauterman dreamt of being a fashion designer, but always considered it a far-fetched dream. Studying at USC, she worked towards a career as a consultant in the financial industry-but it was her much-anticipated semester abroad in Paris in 2013 that changed everything.

Seeing the designers, small business owners, and beauty throughout Paris propelled Sarah to follow her passion to create. Developing an obsession for eyewear while shopping the city to replace a lost pair of one-of-a-kind vintage sunglasses, she became frustrated with being reduced to “boring and practical” from fear of\ losing another pair on her journey. She dreamt of creating glasses that felt personalized, collectible, and long-lasting.

Carrying this inspiration with her through travels to an eventual 28 countries, Sarah left her consulting job in 2015 to spend three months learning the manufacturing process and developing her idea with suppliers in China. As the 23-year-old navigated through Chinese factory towns on her own, she quickly learned that she’d taken on one of the most challenging product categories in fashion (as evidenced by the fact that over 75% of brands license their name to eyewear conglomerates rather than create their lines in-house). Nonetheless, staying true to her strong vision for Volterre, Sarah developed Volterre’s first collection over the next year from Los Angeles, where she currently lives.

I started out with zero ties to the eyewear industry or fashion industry, really. I was working as a financial consultant after graduating. However, I always had a lifelong passion for creating and designing and loved fashion. I even applied and got admitted to RISD, but just never really considered fashion design as a real career – it almost seemed like a mythical job reserved for, I don’t know, special Europeans who were born into it? Anyway, I finally started considering it as a real thing to pursue when I traveled abroad and developed an obsession with eyewear. Seeing all of the small businesses and artists in Paris really showed me that there was more to life than just becoming a consultant or investment banker or accountant, and that there really WERE people out there who made their passion into their career. Meanwhile, I had lost a very precious, irreplaceable pair of vintage French sunglasses and was hoping to replace them in France.

However, nothing was quite the same – anything that even came close to as cool was 500 Euros, but I needed something I could travel with and not worry about losing or breaking and just couldn’t justify that. I wanted something unique, expressive, worth cherishing for years – but also practical and justifiable in price. I found my golden opportunity to move to China and figure out how to actually create a line after I reached my year anniversary at work, had saved enough cash, and coincidentally had a family wedding in Korea. I learned so much about the materials, tools, processes, and had to adjust all of my designs accordingly. It still took a year to develop the line after I came back from China, and now I’ve finally launched!

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Oh gosh, not at all. For one, I learned that eyewear is an extremely hard business to get into, especially if you are doing custom designs and using metal (a lot of brands out there just choose from a pre-made mold, license it and add their logos). Unlike fashion, you can’t test the market with samples easily, and you have to produce in large quantities. It’s extremely hard to test a new design or construction method out, and if you do, it will take months. Not to mention there are quality issues I never dreamed of seeing. It makes complete sense to me now why the industry is so monopolized.

When I was developing the product, I would master plan and toil away to solve one issue and communicate it to the people in China. And just when that was worked out, a new problem would come up, or an old one would resurface. You never know what you’re gonna get… and that’s always scary when you’re trusting other people with your dreams and your funds!

So, as you know, we’re impressed with Volterre – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
Volterre is a sunglasses brand that’s deeply rooted in travel and designed for the modern jetsetter. The glasses merge fashion-forward design with practicality – they’re made of lightweight stainless steel, fold flat into a super-portable flat case (which has a keyring so you can keep them close at all times!), and are flexible and strong enough that you can sit on them, bend them, or throw them in the bottom of your suitcase. Meanwhile, they’re each designed after a different place around the world and are expressive and unique.

With how on-the-go yet aesthetically-conscious my age group has become, I think combining beauty and practicality is something many people can appreciate. My message with Volterre goes beyond selling sunglasses – I have a corresponding travel blog, am creating travel guides to the travel destinations, and donate to a foundation that helps send underprivileged students on educational trips around the world (FLYTE). I really want to share the truly empowering feeling I gained when I traveled. Ultimately, I’d love to create a community where people can share their discoveries as they adventure with Volterre.

So, what’s next? Any big plans?
I would love to add other products – apparel or other accessories.

Pricing: