Q: Now Modest by Design. I have to know whose idea was it to come up with a clothing company which headlines modesty? Eddie, was it your idea?

A: It was kind of my idea, but I have to say Heather came up with the name, because I had been interested in fashion for a long time and then as we started to try and figure out a name for our business, I thought of everything but that name. So she came up she said, “How about Modest by Design?” And I thought we could use clothing your father would approve of.

Q: Umm Hmm. Which has its own kind of innuendo in there that we are going to talk a little bit about that. Now Heather, when you say, Modest by Design, in other words this is clothing that intentionally is reflecting a sense of modesty for young girls and for women?

A: Exactly. Clothing that has been designed to be modest. As we know most clothing out in the world kind of goes by the ‘skin is in’ philosophy. And our philosophy is absolutely the opposite. You can be absolutely beautiful and covered. There’s no reason why they shouldn’t be covered.

Q: Well when the business started and it sounds like, Eddie, you have had a passion for design for many years—we’ll talk a little bit about that—but when your business started back in 2000 and 2001, it was not popular to be talking about modesty in fashions. So as you were conceptualizing this idea, Eddie, were you getting naysayers?

A: Oh yes, very much so. We actually left New York to move to Utah to start the business. And as we told people what we were going to do, it was: Oh you shouldn’t do it; it’s not going to work. It’s not going to work. Don’t even waste your time. You’re going to go out there and you’re going to lose your money. Don’t do it.

Q: Okay so you were living in New York. At that time were you working in the design business?

A: Eddie: No actually I was working just retail for a sporting goods store. I was hired out of college to work for this retail company, but all along I knew that one day I would have my own clothing line or my own business.

Q: And so were there whisperings, or when did Modest Clothing become the concept for you Heather?

A: Well, I think a lot of it came about when we were in New York. I had grown up in Utah and I always worn clothes with sleeves and a little bit longer shorts and just tried to be a little bit more covered up. And when we moved to New York it became really hard to find. And it seems like the market here was a tiny bit better served, but they still really struggled. I had a young woman in my church group out there who was trying everything to find a modest prom dress—she went to probably five major malls within—you know New York is a big place. She went to five major malls and could not find a dress with a sleeve on it. So she finally called in tears knowing that Eddie was a tailor and asked if he would be willing to put sleeves on a dress for her. So that was kind of the first rumblings of how it started.

Q: Well and Eddie as you got the rumblings, you moved to Utah, you began the business. Were you thinking all along that you would be focusing on the elegant dresses and the gowns which your company is very well known for?

A: No. When we first started our business we actually started with casual clothes. The first thing that we were actually able to design was a pair of knee-length shorts. And back in 2000, nobody really ever heard of knee-length shorts.

Q: Right. They were half way up. At the most.

A: Heather: At least. That was the Britney Spears and her heyday days. So they were really short shorts then for a little bit.

Q: All right. So you began in that direction and then take us from there. What movement did you have? Did you find that knee-length shorts were becoming more accepted as you produced them or give me an idea?

A: No. It was just a way of expanding our product mix. So we started out with knee-length shorts and we really got into casual wear. And that was really our first sense of our business: is people wanted modest, casual clothes. So we did that for awhile and then we had people asking for dresses for prom and things like that. So basically we found a couple of dresses that would work, that were modest and we kind of went from there. So we took three dresses at the time and we shipped them all over the world. It was amazing for us. That was like okay wait a minute. The casual stuff is good, we like doing it, you can find it a little bit everywhere, but when it comes to a modest prom gown or a gown for someone that’s modest, you can’t really find it. So that was our clue: there’s another market out there for us. Let’s try and move that way a little bit and see how it does.

Q: And when you say all over the world, you actually aren’t exaggerating. So you found that you became the center point for people around the nation, around the world who were looking for beautiful gowns that were covering a little bit of the neckline, the arms, etc. And is it the mothers who are shopping for their daughters, or is it the fathers shopping for the daughters, or do you find young women just as eager to buy these dresses as their parents want them to?

A: Heather: I think the young women are just as eager. In fact, if you look and we keep a part of our inbox of our emails for just thank you notes, and I would say they are at least half and half of young women and then their parents that are writing to thank us for having an option.

Q: And rather than feeling like you go back to the days of New York when someone had to go to five or six different malls and still came back empty handed. Give us an idea now in terms of the response you are getting from your buyers. Now because we have as an industry, or at least as a design industry, it seems that there is an even bigger push now that less is more. That clothing is diminishing more and more?

A: Heather: It’s been an interesting conversation as we’ve gone through with our manufacturers and how that first year we looked at probably hundreds and hundreds of gown styles and found those three that we could carry. And as we talked to manufacturers and said, “Well can we add a couple to your line that have a sleeve?” And they just thought that they would never sell. We kept telling them, “No we can sell them. If you make them, we will be able to sell them. I promise.” And as we’ve grown as a company it’s been really interesting to see the different reactions as we go to markets and as the bridal companies now and different companies that are approaching us and saying, “Okay. What do we need to do with the sleeve and how high do you need a neckline for us to be able to help you guys out? And it’s really a funny, it’s a different thing.

Q: Well, let’s talk about that, because I think modesty for one person versus another might be hard to define. What—when you look and you’re doing your either designing or your buying to be able to produce—what are you looking at? How do you equate to what is really modest and what might not be?

A: Well in our store everything has to have a sleeve. And I just got off the phone with a manufacturer who had sent me a catalog and nothing in their catalog had a sleeve. So I hadn’t replied to them and they wanted to know, “Every single thing in your store has a sleeve?” I said, “Yes, every single dress in our store has a sleeve.”

Q: Whether it is a cap sleeve or a short sleeve or a long sleeve, there needs to be some portion of a sleeve?

A: Everything has to have a sleeve. And ours go by LDS standards. So we have at least a short sleeve and it has a regular neckline so that it is not too low in the front or the back. So those are kind of our main…

Q: The main push. And you continue then to have a new generation of buyers that feel like they have an option versus what they might be seeing in magazines?

A: Exactly.

Q: What about the industry itself? Do you find—there are a lot of other companies that have seen your success and their eyes have lit up—do you find yourself now, Eddie, as a change agent?

A: Eddie: You know on a smaller scale yes. Because when you look at the fashion industry itself, it’s never going to go modest. But you’ve got these little markets that are popping up that are looking for modest. So when we go to the big market we continue to see all the things that are coming out that are immodest with all the bright colors and all the right fabrics. And for us, our take is if we see that, then it gives us a sense of colors and fabrics that are coming in style and we just basically go and say, “Okay, these are the hot colors. These are the fabrics. And we basically need to tailor our business that way. Because there are more people starting to carry a little more modest stuff, but they are also still carrying a majority of their products that are immodest. And so it really gives a lot of girls and parents the mixed message of: do I go into this store, because we need to make sure we’re shopping for modest but this store offers more of one than the other.

Q: Well, you’ve also had some fun and I think for a new generation of people who are shopping for modest clothing you’ve added a hip element whether it be the colors or something stylish. And two of them that has really kind of caught the buzz is the fact that there is an annual fashion show? So you are now equating the word with modesty and fashion and you call it modesty in motion? Tell us a little bit about it. You’ve just had one recently in Utah. Tell us about how that spin has affected your audience or your clientele?

A: Well I think it’s fun, because a lot of people don’t know what to expect. Or they think in their mind, “A modest fashion show, that’s going to be kind of more low-key and quiet and it’s going to be very relaxed and honestly our fashion show last weekend had way more like a rock concert than a boring relaxed and calm thing. They are really, really fun and it’s showing you that you can be updated, you can be fun, you can have a great time and that you don’t have to lose all of your values to do those things.

Q: I’ve heard it described as a celebration of women’s beauty all over—the entire woman rather than just…

A: Just her body.

Q: Just her body. Hmm Hmm. Now something else, Eddie, I think that has really caught the eye since you had the love and the desire to be a designer in your early years, is you opened up the opportunity for girls to design their own prom dresses and you’ve had some missions from around the world.

A: Yes. It’s been amazing. I know this was our seventh year of the contest that people can actually, girls from all around the world can design a modest prom dress, write a short essay on why it’s important to dress modest and send it to us. In the whole process we actually get a panel together, they judge them on essay as well as the design and we pick a winner. And the winner actually has the dress made for them. And so we actually fly them in if they are out-of-state, which they have been mostly. We fly them in for the weekend, and by the time they get here they’re dress is half-made, they do a fitting and after the fitting we take them shopping for the shoes, the jewelry, the gloves, the petticoats, if they need one, and we actually take them in a limo. So it’s really exciting for these girls, because they come out here not knowing what to expect and then they get to see their dress that they designed and then they get to go shopping in a limo. For most girls that’s a chance of a lifetime. That’s something that we do to try to make sure that they understand how important modesty is to us and then it is something that they will remember for their lifetime.

Q: And for all you know, Eddie and Heather, you just might be actually creating future generations of designers just from that experience in itself. Before I let you go, I want to ask each of you: what’s been the most satisfying part of your business? Because anyone who’s run their own business knows that it has its own challenges, especially when it’s a family run business. But what has been the most satisfying part for you, Eddie?

A: For me I think it’s when you get a girl coming in that really is on that edge of whether or not she should really stick to her values and dress modestly. And when they come in and they try that dress on and you see that light go on in their head like, “Oh, I can do both. I can be modest. I can be beautiful. I can be myself and I don’t have to go with what the crowd is doing. I can be myself and that’s the thing that really hits us is that when a girl is in the dressing room and she has found the dress she wants. Her mom comes like, “You’re a lifesaver. We really struggled to find her a modest dress. Thank you for having your store, because this is something that she’s really going to take and really, really enjoy.”

Q: And I can confirm that it is not just the young girls. There are even middle agers like me that love to get in the dressing room and try on the dresses as well. And Heather, I’m assuming you get to do that too, but as a co-owner of the business what is most satisfying to you?

A: You know Eddie really mostly stole my answer. Thanks Honey. But yeah, kind of the same thing. I just love to see the girls’ faces light up when they walk in the door and see that they can put on any dress in our store and they’re gorgeous and they are not going to have to worry about whether it is too low, or whether it doesn’t have a sleeve, or what they might have to adjust. I really enjoy working with the young women and seeing them enjoy it.