It's All About the Pants
POSTED BY FRANNE GOLDE · FEBRUARY 28, 2020
When I was writing songs, I never imagined I’d be designing clothes and have an online brand.
It all started with the pants.
Plato was right when he said, “Necessity is the mother of invention.” I could never find the perfect black pants, so I decided to make them on my own.
I wanted a long, lean-looking pant that came to my waist, had no zipper, was cut higher in the back, so when I sat down I didn’t feel like they were slipping; no side seams, so they would be smooth throughout the hip and thigh; would hug my body, move with my body and be comfortably snug, i.e. super figure-flattering and hold me in all the right places! Kind of like shapewear that was outerwear! A tall order, but those are the most fun!
I love a challenge and became obsessed with finding the right fabric. That took almost 3 years! After dozens of samples I was convinced we were on the way to making my dream pant come true. I took a deep breath, swallowed hard, ordered the minimum amount (a thousand yards!!) of fabric and crossed my fingers. Several weeks later two men with a truckload of fabric arrived at my front door. I have to admit I was a bit overwhelmed, but excited!
My friend and I placed blankets on my off-white carpet and roll after roll was laid on top of each other until there was a huge pyramid of fabric in my house! Who knew what a thousand yards of fabric looked like? Yikes!
Now that I had the fabric, I began the numerous tweaks with several patternmakers, cutters, and sewers until the pants were exactly as I’d envisioned them.
I took the nine hundred plus yards of fabric, that was left, and placed my initial order with my manufacturer in downtown Los Angeles. At the time, I had no idea who was going to buy all those pants, but as Kerry Washington says, “Hope is leaving room for magic bigger than you.”
A couple of months later Adam Glassman, from O, The Oprah Magazine, dubbed them “Magic”!
