Laidback was my answer to the lack of fun culturally relevant textiles in the design market. It was also my first foray as a founder and where I honed my skills of building partnerships and keyed in on how improving operation strategies improves the bottom line.

I was the lead designer and created original prints that were sold in boutiques here and abroad with a huge following in Japan. I designed the prints, sourced fabric, manufacturing and built a local production team. I was able to build a following utilizing social media, twittter specifically as it was not a mainstream platform yet but early adopters were also key influencers when it came to fashion and pop culture. I curated content using a blog, created a Laidback TV channel along with curating mobile pop up shops to increase brand recognition and within a year social media had Laidback popping.

The strategic branding I developed using social put Laidback in dozens of boutiques around the country, on sets of tv shows and in museum shops. The social media infused branding strategy was very new for fashion at the time and led to me developing classes and curriculum for the Fashion Institute of Technology where one student who owned several manufacturing companies later partnered with me for production and also led to the revolution of Fashion 2.0.

I started doing speaking engagements on Fashion 2.o everywhere from SXSW, Saks 5th Ave, BBC and throughout fashion and design publications.