Louisville Magazine is Louisville's city magazine, covering Louisville people, lifestyles, politics, sports, restaurants, entertainment and homes. Includes a monthly calendar of events.
Issue link: https://loumag.epubxp.com/i/604902
88 LOUISVILLE MAGAZINE 12.15 STUDIO SHOT By Mary Chellis Austin Photos by Aaron Kingsbury Slow Fashion Handmade timeless is the look these three dressmakers are going for. "If nobody's here, might as well make a dress," Amanda Dougherty says in the back of her store on Frankfort Avenue in Crescent Hill. Earlier this year, she and her business partners, Kristin Truelove and Ok- sana Kusyo (right and center, respectively, in photo), started a little-black-dress company called The New Blak. Designer/seamstress Dougherty makes organic-cotton dresses in a space shared with Art & Soul Beads. The three women, all in their 20s, had worked at mall stores they describe as "fast fashion" — low on quality and high on waste because trends change rapidly. "Calling something 'the new black' is saying it's trendy," Dough- erty says, "so we're turning it on its head. Our dresses are timeless, minimalist. We take out the waste where it's not needed — why not take out the c?" Dougherty is teaching Truelove and Kusyo to iron, cut and sew the dresses, which come in four styles that can be cus- tomized for length and sleeve cut. They're also in the middle of renovating an old bus to use as a mobile boutique next spring. This month, the women are headed back to the mall — this time to Oxmoor to sell their dresses and T-shirts alongside other local businesses in a pop-up store across from Old Navy.