The Hat Makes The Woman

Two summer hat styles by Pandemonium Hats

It is a series of happy coincidences that has brought Leigh Young to her current place in life as a successful entrepreneur of handmade hats, made under her Pandemonium Hats label.  Currently based out of her home studio in Burien, Washington, she has experienced the strange phenomenon of having her business explode during these recession years.  So, how did it all happen?  Let's find out!

"Grace" hat

I asked Leigh when she started sewing.  She said, "I don't completely remember.  However, my mom once showed me a rather hideous-looking doll which she said I made when I was 7.  I made a few things back then, but was mostly messing around.  I'd lay down on a piece of fabric and cut it out around me.  Then drape it together and sew it up.  None of it was any good."

Unable to get a class she wanted in high school, she ended up in a sewing class.  Happily, she liked it enough that after graduation, Leigh went on to design school at Seattle Central Community College.  Their program is quite excellent.  "I really developed excellent technical skills there."  After graduating in the early 90s, she developed a line of 1920s-inspired clothing with an edgy feel, and thus was born the Pandemonium label.  She sold these at retail shows and fund-raisers, but it was tough going at the beginning, so Leigh held down three other jobs to make ends meet, including loading trucks for UPS.

Acrylic "patterns" for various
hat styles

One day, she got a call from the owner of We Hats, an independent hat maker in Seattle, who was looking for help making hats, and started working there.  And thus, another happy coincidence occurred.  When that owner retired, Leigh took over the label and continued making and selling the line.  At this time she was still working on her clothing line on the side, but getting buried by the costs.  She noticed how much fewer capital costs were involved in making hats, and gradually switched her focus to this.  By 1998, it was all hats.

Bolts of fabric waiting to become
hats, scarves and handbags

Happy coincidence #3 happened here, when she did the large wholesale clothing trade show in Las Vegas.  While the show itself didn't go so well, she got her first sales rep - which led to other reps, and ultimately sales to boutiques all across the US and Canada.  And then, just a few years into it, came 9/11.  Like so many other small businesses, her sales plummeted.  But she just hung in there and kept at it.  Business grew ever so slowly, but followed an upward trajectory.  As things grew, she gradually added scarves and handbags to the line.

Leigh Young herself
in a new product for 2012,
the fur collar!

So now here we are in 2012, and still feeling the effects of an economic recession.  Yet for Leigh Young, the past two years have seen explosive growth in her business.  Why?  The luxurious faux fur fabrics she added to her line back in 2000 suddenly took off.  "The demand for these faux fur products is just crazy", she says.  The orders have come rolling in so fast!  With more orders coming in than she could possibly make by herself, she had to suddenly become an employer.  Finding workers with the necessary technical skills to get the quality results for which she was known proved frustrating.  For the 2011 winter season, she had thirteen sewers working hard at the peak.

Two women hard at work in May, sewing the
faux fur products in preparation for
the many orders soon to come in for winter.

In preparation for this third winter with many and large orders for the faux fur, Leigh is preparing well in advance.  Rather than waiting for an order to come in, and then begin making it, she is looking at order history to determine top sellers.  Many of her sewers are hard at work creating a nice back stock supply!

Faux Fur finished back-stock

Leigh's spring/summer hats are also quite wonderful.  With lovely fabrics and easy-to-wear styles, she describes her customer as a woman between 18 - 50 who has a little more confidence and style than the masses.  She's not afraid to stand out a bit.

Leigh is looking forward to continued business growth, but wants to stay with small stores and boutiques.  No big box stores for her; she prefers working with small independent business-owners like herself.  She loves the freedom of working for herself, despite the many hard knocks along the way!  I think we'll be able to enjoy many more years of casual yet fun hats from Pandemonium.

Enjoy this video of Leigh herself, showing the variety of ways to wear another new product this winter - a 3-button scarf!  And then, look forward to getting one for yourself this coming winter!  Click on the link below...

Demonstration: the 3-button scarf

Join us Thursday, May 17, 2012 for a trunk show featuring Leigh Young's Pandemonium Hats for spring and summer!  We hope to see you that evening from 5 - 8 pm.

Cheers,

Manya Vee

www.ManyaVeeSelects.com