The Interview

Styleforfree:  Your site name is inspired by Hollywood superstar, Fred Astaire. How does his personality and career influence your business?

Chris:  There’s just something about Fred Astaire and old Technicolor musicals in general that is so joyful and exuberant that you can’t help but smile. Essentially, the work we do at fredflare.com has that same goal. We just want to make people happy! We hope fredflare.com reflects this idea with a sparkling pop presentation of some of our favorite things as well as some fun interviews and other content. We've also just launched a video podcast and there’s pretty much always a dance sequence in every episode!

Styleforfree:  How did you and Keith first get involved in the fashion industry?

Chris:  When we first arrived in NYC, my partner Keith had dreams of becoming a fashion designer and took a couple classes at FIT. But school wasn’t for him – he’s a total college dropout – and we decided it would be more fun to just learn our own way by starting a company. We began with stationery and home products but always approached them as though we were designing a fashion collection. Little by little we just tried other categories and it’s grown from there. We’re still learning as we go.

SFF:  Since 1998, you guys have come such a long way! What do you attribute your success to?

Chris:   Certainly, the press has been really kind to us and we’re so grateful for all the new customers we’ve met as a result of being featured in print and on the web. But we also work really, really hard. We LOVE what we do, we have an AMAZING staff and, basically, we’ve just tried to be extra nice to people. We have no budget for advertising, for example, so we just hope that if we keep doing an awesome job – keep finding super cute things our customers will enjoy and keep giving those same customers great, reliable service – then, hopefully, they’ll tell their friends about us.

SFF: How did moving from Chicago to New York help advance your fashion career? Do you think it's necessary for up and coming fashion designers to move to New York to get noticed?

Chris:  I love that you keep saying I have a “fashion career”. I actually studied architecture and Keith studied graphic design and we really have NO idea what we’re doing! Glad to hear it looks like a real job from the outside. Anyway, when we moved to NYC in the late nineties, it did seem to us to be a great place to be creative, certainly more so than our hometown of Chicago, but everything’s so different now. We’ve met tons of awesome creative folk now based in the Windy City, for example. I do think now, thanks to the internet, you really can be anywhere. You can set up your blog and your own online store and work really hard and totally develop your own community and you can be really successful and still live in Des Moines if you want to.

SFF:  What do you look for in a designer that would like to sell their creations at FredFlare?

Chris:  Mostly, if the product is super fun, cute, colorful and reasonably-priced, then it's for us! But we do especially enjoy working with young companies who are just starting out. We love their energy and enthusiasm! Essentially, we want to work with people who are as passionate about design – and service – as we are.

SFF:  Tell us more about the Fred Flare Show Podcast. Will it give us a taste of your busy lives? When will it be available for download on itunes?

Chris:  We’re aiming to be a variety show with Keith and I as the hosts. We discuss design, fashion, travel, music and other fun stuff but we’ll also be goofing off a lot. We really have fun doing what we do! There will also be lots of great behind-the-scenes scoop on running fredflare.com and you’ll get to meet all the people that make up our fred family. Our first episode features a candid look at our first-ever photo shoot on location in Las Vegas. We're really excited to offer free downloads on iTunes and here's a link to our Episode Guide.

SFF:  We love the diary archives at FredFlare, they represent the company's identity in such a charming way. Why is it so important to connect with your customers on a personal level?

Chris:  I just know, for me, when I see something super cute in a store I want to know all about the person who made it. I guess it started like that, doing designer interviews and stuff. And then we did other features written by or highlighting employees and our customers really enjoyed it. It’s fun for everyone to get to know each other! We definitely believe the internet can connect people in such unexpected and profound ways.

SFF:  Any new releases in the near future that we can look forward to?

Chris:  This year we have an amazing in-house designer who’s working on tons of AMAZING exclusive fred flare products rolling out in the 06. Like we’re working on some crazy cute shoes! We also just launched our Summer print catalog and have lots more planned with our video podcast. And we're really excited to announce the winners of our NEXT BIG THING Call For Entries contest. We had over a thousand entries!

Chris:  Styleforfree readers please drop a note and say Hi, we LOVE hearing from people!