Smitten! Aims to Dress You Up!

June 1, 2010 in Designers - Leave a reply

MEET MADISON BUYER DESIGNER:  SUMMER SHEREE JETER

What inspired you to jump into fashion?

My grandmother inspired me, as she was so good with sewing.  I used to watch her do interesting things like put a zipper in by hand.  As a result, I started sewing at the age of 13 and fell in love with it.  Naturally, I then started looking at other garments and coming up with different ideas.  For awhile I used to make very artistic clothes which were more works of art than wearable. It was fun creating and being off the wall with ideas as a teenager. I even used to wear some of the items to school. I was fair game with the comments but it was fun expressing myself. Once I became an adult I just evolved into fashion design.

What makes Smitten! different from other collections?

Our collection is different because the designs solely focus on dresses embodying sophistication, comfort, and femininity.  Many dress designers focus on formal wear and high end dresses.  We are working to carve a niche in the market of social wear.  We want our customers to get comfortable knowing we provide apparel for their fun nights out on the town and other occasions requiring real fashion.

As a designer, what are your most difficult challenges?

Our company resides in Atlanta, Georgia and often the challenges lie in obtaining resources.  Only our samples and small production runs are done locally.  Since we are a small, independent label, the costs of outsourcing can get high. Working hard to keep our costs down to present favorable price points to the customers is a daily challenge, but we love combating it to meet our customers’ needs.

What do you find most rewarding?

It is so rewarding when someone buys and wears our dresses. If we only sold one dress a season, we would be happy just knowing someone embraced our style.  When we sell something, it feels like we made a design connection with someone.

Who is your primary target audience?

We target our brand Smitten! to women ages 18 to 35 who are looking for affordable, quality dresses to make a fashionable statement.

What’s in store for Smitten! customers in the near future?

We will be in more stores by the end of 2010.  We reorganized our company and launched our brand name, Smitten! within the last year.  Prior to Smitten! we did not exclusively design dresses, but now dresses are our sole focus. Things are progressing nicely and we look forward to presenting our dresses in more locations.  Of course we have started with our hometown, Atlanta, Georgia, but plan on hitting more cities soon, as our sales rep is working hard. Visit us at www.summersheree.com to see our stores list.

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