One of my biggest goals with this blog, is to expose companies to the public in ways not usually done. Especially small companies that are still growing and often aren't given the voice of larger companies. With so many of the little guys around I think its important to differentiate between them.
In conjunction with this I recently had the opportunity to interview Annie Le, the CEO and Creative Director of RedLotus Clothing. Your can visit the RedLotus Web Site here, and I encourage you to read the following interview to get some insight into them as a company!
What is the meaning behind the name Red Lotus?
Well when I was in the planning stages of the company it
was really important to me to have a name that has a significant meaning, not only to me but ideals that I would encompass what I wanted the line to stand for…really difficult right? The Red Lotus is the Buddhist flower of the heart; it stands for love, passion, compassion, loyalty and purity. I chose this because it I felt that those are the things that I felt for the clothing line and those are the things that I feel are important in my life overall.
It's clear that one of your main objectives is to offer fashion conscious, as well as environmentally conscious clothing. What is the biggest challenge with meshing the two?
It’s actually a lot more difficult than you would think. Because the organic
(eco-friendly movement) is still new in fashion it’s difficult to make clothes are don’t look organic or earthy but fashion conscious. The challenge was to be able to break out of that mold and make the organic clothing fashionable meaning cuts, color and feel. Feel was probably the most difficult…it was really my biggest concern to make organic clothing that looks like all the other pieces in the line.
What is your personal favorite item in your lineup? Why?
Oh that’s a difficult question…I have a lot of favorites or really I’m so close
to the line all the pieces are like my babies…ha ha. But if pressed I would say that the Lotus Flower Sheer Crew is my favorite women’s shirt, the Lotus Flower Logo Hoodie is my favorite women’s Hoodie, the Dreamcatcher Ribbed Crew is my favorite Men’s Shirt and the Flash Hoodie is my favorite Men’s Hoodie. I love the designs…I think they really stand out and are in consistent rotation in my wardrobe.
When the people behind Red Lotus aren't making cool tees and hoodies what are you guys doing?
Oh I think the thing we love doing the most is relaxing…I personally like to just hang out with my friends have a good glass of wine and talk. Doesn’t really matter where we are at…I think we all have fun whenever we are together and be ourselves.
Red Lotus has been around for a little less than a year, how have things changed since day one for you?
For me things have changed a lot…instead of thinking what can we do it’s more like ok what are we going to do next. Other ideas come into the mix as more and more people learn about the brand. Between the collections, we work hard to bring the clothes directly to the people through events and promotions which is one of the fun parts of being in this
business. Which is why we have the events section because I want everyone to know where we are going, come out, meet us and possibly get some free clothes…wink wink? The first day all that I was thinking about was ok what am I going to design and how will I produce it then it moved into how are we going to let everyone know that a new brand is out there then focus on the customer to process order promptly and with the best service possible and then we start the process all over again.
Has it been a struggle convincing buyers that organic is the way to go in the clothing industry?
It is hard because it’s a new concept…up till now most conventional store haven’t’ really focused a lot on organic products. But I think as buyers find that this is something their customers will want in their stores it will get easier. But at the same time, some buyers can’t tell that the clothes are organic until we tell them then it’s a shock ha ha…I love that part.
What plans do you have to expand your product lineup for this year? Anything big we should look out for?
Expanding the line is always something in the back of my mind and I
would ideally like to bring in at least one or two new products to the line with each collection. I want this line to evolve into a complete street wear line so I have plans to move into more outerwear, swimwear, underwear, pants, dresses…you name it I want to eventually have it in the line. Jeans will probably be the final frontier for me but when I get there I’ll feel like the line is complete. The company and line is a work in progress and you never know what we will come up with next.
Many of my readers are overseas, any plans for international shipping?
I definitely have plans to ship internationally. It’s basically a logistics things at this point…just getting all the pieces together to make it all happen. So far my international shipping are friends from other countries so visit, end up buying clothes for their friends to take it home. But I doubt that will work on the global scale. But yes definitely in the near future I want to be able to ship internationally.
Thank you for your time, anything you would like to add?
Thanks for the interview…I want to add that this is something that I have wanted to do since I was little I’m just happy to be able to do something that I love and it’s always my goal that the people who were RedLotus love it as much as I have loved creating it for them.
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As you can see, RedLotus is a chill group of friends that are trying , and succeeding, in the clothing industry. Buying organic fabrics is important, more important than I think anyone truly realizes right now, and its growing companies like RedLotus that are necessary in the market to get organics to be taken seriously eventually by larger corporations. Its a long process, but you got to save the world one step at a time. Help RedLotus save the world and buy their clothes!
