Super Lucky Cat, a company started by Crystal Butler and FIDM Alumnus Michael Baffic is one of the few companies still around that brings vintage clothing to life by reinventing pieces into dresses, tops, and other great silhouettes for women.
All the designs are created in their loft in the heart of Downtown Los Angeles, only a couple miles from the FIDM campus. With bags and racks full of clothing galore, they are getting ready to ship out to different buyers across the nation.
FC: What is Super Lucky Cat and how did it get started?
"Crystal and I met in New York in 1998. She was a buyer for Urban Outffiters, I was a merchandiser and sales manager at a company; we met and started dating and we had the opportunity to move to Los Angeles. It didn't work out for her position, and I kept telling her to start her own company--she's liked remaking vintage since she was a kid...so she started a company. She began remaking vintage and sent some things to Urban Outfitters and Nordstrom and they really liked it, so they bought it. I would work all day at my job, and then I would come home and help her cut orders, pack orders, do whatever until late at night and then go back to work the next morning. This went on for many years. When it was finally a big enough company, I quit my job and did Super Lucky Cat full-time."
FC: Tell us what the whole process is for Super Lucky Cat compared to a massive factory?
"Our materials are all recycled, so everything is one-of-a-kind. Our process is: order vintage, (we get it in by the thousands of pounds), then we have to pay people to sort through the vintage and remove all the damaged items. Then we have to wash all the vintage and then we have to sort all the vintage by size and color. Then we have to start worrying about what we want to make.
If we make something out of scarves, each garment has to be hand matched so our staff has to find all the scarves in a certain color that look good together. They have to lay them all out and then reinspect them for damage. After that they get pressed and stacked and the pattern gets put on top to get cut. Once all that is finished, it goes for sale. It takes us 4 or 5 times as long to make one garment; it also requires 4 times the staff."
FC: What is it specifically that you do in the company?
"I do all of the banking, the finances, book keeping, order entry, answering phones, production managing, shipping, and I also play assistant designer."
FC: Is Super Lucky Cat considered eco-friendly?
"We consider all of our lines eco-friendly because they are made from recycled clothing...we don't go out and buy bamboo--that's eco-friendly for the New York Times! We take people's garbage and turn it into new clothes and sell it to stores, and people buy it. The way we see it, we're directly taking garbage and taking things that people don't want and making it into something people want; which is a lot better than saying I only buy fabric that is organically grown. We actually use trash, we think we are a much more eco-friendly company than some others."
FC: What was your major at FIDM?
"I studied Fashion Design. I studied in San Franciso for a year and then went on to Los Angeles to finish my second year."
FC: Why FIDM?
"I think it was because it was a trade school--I was going to learn how to get a job and be prepared, instead of learning the 'arty-ness' of being a designer. I wanted to go to school and get a job.
FC: Why is school so important?
"If you don't have a degree, nobody is going to talk to you, period. The one thing that I like is that when you get someone from FIDM, you know they've had the opportunity to learn what they need to learn to get an entry level job. Whether someone takes advantage of that knowledge or not is a different story, but you know the education was there. We've hired two FIDM Graduates...actually our first assistant was finishing up her degree at FIDM while working for us part time. We hire them because we know they have the basic training.
I always made sure to take the hardest instructors, and the only reason I took them was because they stressed how important it was in your presentation, your follow through, and your attention to detail; they kept reminding us how competitive it was and how hard it was. I was very organized, I knew how to present my work and I think more than anything that's what really helped me get a job. They stressed real world skills and qualities that you needed to get a job."
FC: What is your advice to students who want to start their own company?
"I really really think that nobody should bother starting their company for at least 10-15 years. I have friends that have tried it right after school and it was just a money pit. FIDM is a great place to get a basic education. Work for someone smart and for different companies for ten years, get to be the boss' friend, be the boss' most trusted employee, be the boss' right hand person and learn how the boss runs the business and makes money.
If you can design, you have 1/10th of the formula, you need to know how to make patterns, fit patterns, production, quality control, you need to know how to pack your own boxes...unless someone gives you a million dollars to hire people to do all these things. You have to know how to do everything yourself and the only way to learn that is to work for somebody who already knows it and take every opportunity to go help out. I use to go help pack boxes in my spare time and I learned to pack boxes and label them so when I had my own company I didn't have to hire a shipper; all the other sales people thought I was crazy because they were too important to pack boxes. That's why it's important you get a basic education so that you can get your foot in the door."
Make sure to support Super Lucky Cat by finding them at any Urban Outfitters in your area. To find more retailers, visit superluckycat.com!
