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Pacific Palisades resident Elizabeth Wiatt (above) is the co-owner of a new clothing boutique, Fashionology, which opened in Beverly Hills on June 14. At left, Santa Monica resident Parker James, 7, and her mother Mimi James design a tank top at the touch-computer screen.
Photo by Rich Schmitt, Staff Photographer
The words “Dream it” are painted in bright orange bubble letters inside Fashionology, a new fashion boutique in Beverly Hills for ‘tweens’ and teens.
The familiar phrase captures the philosophy of the store created by Pacific Palisades resident Elizabeth Wiatt and her business partner, Jamie Tisch. The women ask girls to use their imagination to make and design their own clothing rather than simply buy it. The concept is similar to the popular store Build-A-Bear (where kids make their own bear) except with clothing.
“We believe in creative empowerment,” Wiatt said in an interview at her boutique. “We want girls to feel like they can express themselves.”
The women opened their boutique at 342 N. Canon Dr. on June 14 after working on the concept for nearly two years.
It all started because “Jamie and I wanted to teach our children to sew,” Wiatt said. The mothers, who met 15 years ago through their husbands, figured it would be a great idea to make fashion a creative, collaborative activity.
They hired Big Buddha Baba, a Los Angeles firm that creates interactive media experiences for theme parks, museums and retail destinations, to develop an environment for girls ages 6 to 14 to create fashion. They soon realized that it would be too difficult to teach a young girl to sew in a few hours, so they developed a simpler design experience.
A girl selects a solid-colored tunic, hoodie, tee or skirt and then uses a design pad or touch-computer screen to choose from five different looks: Malibu, Rock, Peace, Pop and Juku.
If a girl selects Malibu, for example, she can decide what graphics she would like on her apparel, such as an ocean wave, dolphin or a seashell. She can add a charm, pin, stud, clip or patch that match the surfer theme. When she finishes designing her outfit, the total cost is displayed on screen. The average price is $42, but it depends on how much “bling” is added, Tisch said, laughing. One girl walked out with a $100 dress.
“It’s a really chatty, social experience,” Wiatt said, adding that a group of girls will gather around one screen to give one another suggestions.
The girl then prints out her design for one of the eight fashionologists (retail workers) who heat-transfer the graphic onto the clothing. The girl receives a tray of her embellishments (pins, charms and patches) to take to the Make-it table.
The fashionologist will teach her to sew on a patch using a string and needle as well as how to put on the studs. The entire process takes 20 minutes to two hours depending on how much thought the girl puts into her creation. At the end, the girl’s photo is taken.
“It’s a congratulations moment,” Wiatt said. “The photo is not about how she looks in the design; it’s about memorializing her creative process.”
It’s an activity where parents can also help out, Tisch said. “We’ve found that mothers even like to make their own.”
While developing the concept, Wiatt and Tisch received feedback from their daughters — the target demographic. Wiatt’s daughters (Caroline, 7, and Isabel, 8) and Tisch’s daughters (Elizabeth, 10, and Holden, 8) acted as fit models for the clothing and helped choose the colors for the apparel. At one point, the mothers almost discarded a graphic of a girl with a tree growing out of her head, but their daughters loved it and the image has since become one of their best sellers. Elizabeth even thought of the name for the store.
“They helped so much that I think they were going to unionize at one point,” Wiatt said with a laugh.
Wiatt, 41, and Tisch, 39, also brought their own fashion expertise to the venture. After graduating from Columbia University in New York with a degree in literature, Wiatt became an editorial assistant for Vanity Fair and Vogue in New York. She moved to Los Angeles in 1992 to work as a writers’ agent and later became the West Coast editor for Marie Claire.
“I knew I wanted to somehow be involved with fashion, and I was exploring it through magazines,” Wiatt said. “It was so creative and fun.”
She worked at Marie Claire for five years before deciding to stay at home with her daughters. Wiatt, whose husband is Jim Wiatt, CEO of the William Morris Agency, also focused her energies on nonprofit work, mainly in the environmental field. She is a member of the Natural Resources Defense Council.
Wiatt incorporated her commitment to the environment into Fashionology. The carpet inside the boutique is made of recycled materials and the clothing tags are made of post-consumer recycled paper printed with soy ink. “We are very conscious about the environment,” she said.
Tisch, who lived in Pacific Palisades for a several years, worked for five years as the national sales manager of PG Collections, a clothing manufacturer in Los Angeles. She earlier earned a degree in business marketing from the University of Alabama.
“I have always been into fashion as a consumer, and I moved to L.A. because that is what I wanted to do,” Tisch said.
She left her job in 1996 to marry her former husband Steve Tisch, film producer and co-owner of the New York Giants, and raise their three children (Holden has a twin brother Zachary). Tisch also became dedicated to charity and co-founded the Entertainment Industry’s Women’s Cancer Research Fund.
She and Wiatt are excited by the success of their store. Since opening, celebrities have shopped there, including actress Emily Osment from the television show Hannah Montana, and Sabrina Bryan from The Cheetah Girls.
Fashionology’s three birthday-party packages ranging from $60 to $300 plus tax/per guest are also a hit, accounting for a third of their business. By the end of 2008, the moms plan to expand their Web site (www.fashionologyla.com), so that girls can design clothing at home.
“We can empower girls across the country to make their own designs,” Wiatt said.
