Street Couture for Every Day
MEET MADISON BUYER DESIGNER: MARY SPENCER & JON WATSON
What inspired you to jump into fashion?
I’ve always enjoyed fashion from the time I was a little girl. I loved vintage fashions as a teen and young adult and was a big thrifter before it was ever fashionable. For most of my career I’ve been in product development for the social expression and puzzle/board game industry, so going into fashion was a pleasant surprise. I always thought you had to go to school for fashion design to be involved in fashion.
Jon (co-owner, Jon Watson) is mostly a t-shirt and Dickies kind of guy, and follows his own fashion sense. In fact it was his whole classic motorcycle gettup that attracted me to him in the first place. Now, his biggest fashion statement is his hair. He’s always changing it up and of course his long braided beard has become his most noted accessory besides his buckles. I told him he can never shave it. It’s his trademark.
It was really by accident that we got into fashion. Jon made a buckle for himself one day and I jumped on it and said, “hey, let’s make a whole line of those”. From there we developed our line.
What makes WATTO different than other brands?
We are fusing art with fashion so that it becomes wearable art. Each item is handmade in the USA and is it’s own little piece of affordable art. Jon is interested in the craft of the fashion as much as the fashion itself. We are a unique merge of art and consumer goods. Many artists don’t want to repeat their designs and are not into marketing it to the masses. We are not only about good quality craftsmanship, love of metal and great design, but we are also about branding ourselves.
As a designer, what are your most difficult challenges?
Balancing creativity with production. We are both artists, but I’ve had to take the business and marketing role on and Jon has had to give up some of his more creative metal endeavors in order to fill orders. Although we love what we do, we wish we had more time to create for the sake of creation.
What do you find most rewarding?
Working for ourselves and having our own business is by far the most rewarding aspect of being a designer. The great thing about being a creative designer with a business and marketing sense is that there are always new things to create. If the popularity of our items dies down, we can always come up with other ideas of things to make whether it be in metal or other medium. And, although we love fashion, we also design home goods such as lighting and sculpture, so the opportunities are endless.
Who is your primary target audience?
Wow, that’s a tough one. We originally aimed for the 18-30 year old market, but due to the economy and the fact that our items are not mass market pricing, we have actually picked up an older audience than we expected. More of the 30-50 year olds. I think our target market is more of a mindset. We like to say it’s for the “rocker” in all of us! We also originally aimed our lines more to appeal to guys since there are not a ton of accessories for them, but we’ve added womens buckles which has been great for our business.
What’s in store for WATTO customers in the near future?
We’ve added a lot more accessories besides buckles. We are also targeting some lower price points in items such as chains and key chains so that our mini art pieces can be more affordable for everyone to enjoy.
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