By Doreen Pitkeathly\u00a0Spectator Staff<\/p>\n
![\"picture,](\"https:\/\/thingsicanmakewithcloth.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/COPY20201001_124646.jpg\")
c. fall 1981 Hamilton design studio<\/p><\/div>\n
DESIGNER JANICE Colbert doesn\u2019t only believe Hamilton is as good a location as Toronto for designing\u2014she thinks it\u2019s better.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m better off here. Toronto is so big and all the manufacturers are there. The stores are just clogged with people trying to sell their clothing.”<\/p>\n
Janice moved her small designing business from Toronto to Hamilton in October of last year and, although the move was for personal reasons, she finds it hasn\u2019t hurt her work one bit.<\/p>\n
A graduate of the fashion course at St. Lawrence College in Kingston and a native of Ottawa, Janice has had her own business for about a year and a half.<\/p>\n
Instead of custom work, she operates a scaled-down version of what the big tIme designers do. Every season she designs a line of clothing and then goes out and searches for a buyer among the retail stores.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn my first season I sold 40 outfits. Last season, my second, I sold 250 garments, so I\u2019m happy with the way things are going.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Janice estimates that to be successful her seasonal production should total more than 1,000 garments but she\u2019s in no hurry to become that big.<\/p>\n
\u201cI figure about 250 garments is my limit, doing all the sewing. I\u2019m getting to the point now where I have to get other people to help me with the sewing.<\/p>\n
Janice\u2019s studio is located in the upper floor of her King Street East home. Like any other full-time job, she spends an entire day designing, cutting and sewing and finishing her garments. She has no problem disciplining herself, she says, and enjoys the job\u2019s freedom.<\/p>\n
\u201cI like being my own boss. I\u2019m disciplined enough and organized enough to do it. Some people don\u2019t understand how I can, but I enjoy scheduling my own time. I also like selling my ideas to stores and I like shopping for fabric. I think it\u2019s the independence that appeals to me mainly.\u201d<\/p>\n
Janice designs for the 18-to-40-year old woman who wants sophisticated, good-looking clothing. Her designs are essentially classic and she keeps her line small with good mix and match ability.<\/p>\n
![\"c.fall](\"https:\/\/thingsicanmakewithcloth.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/COPY20201001_141134.jpg\")
c. fall 1981, popular ethnic look, wool blend skirt with matching shawl<\/p><\/div>\n
Her fall line features feather corduroy in wine, gray, camel and green in two skirts styles, a walking short and a pant. To wear with the bottoms, Janice has designed a pullover bow blouse, available in natural-coloured raw silk or an elegant print polyester crepe de chine in colours of gray, brown, mauve and wine.<\/p>\n
She has also incorporated this fall\u2019s popular ethnic look into a wool blend divided skirt and regular skirt, each with matching shawl, in a brown or wine mixture.<\/p>\n
One of Janice\u2019s designing quirks is buttons\u2014she loves them and says they add a little extra to a garment when they\u2019re good quality. On her corduroy pieces all the buttons are real leather, on the blouses, they\u2019re mother of pearl.<\/p>\n
The retail price of Janice\u2019s designs is reasonable, ranging from about $55 to $80, depending too on the retailer. Currently her clothing is available at J. Jatel\u2019s in Stoney Creek and Designer Collections in Burlington, as well as Kingston and Gananoque.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t need a lot of accounts to keep going. I think I can make it, going by my increase in sales already. If it keeps increasing, I\u2019ll be fine. You need to get to a point where you have a few good stores that will buy from you on a regular basis.\u201d<\/p>\n
At this point, Janice is turning all of the money she makes back into her business, buying extra machinery and setting up an efficient studio. The financial rewards may not be great but she\u2019s much happier doing this that working in a design factory where most young designers have to get their start.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/thingsicanmakewithcloth.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/20201112_153637_resized-scaled-e1605218286727-300x225.jpg\")
Gray feather-weight corduroy walking short,<\/p>\n
front wrap conceals the front zipper, leather button with loop,<\/p>\n
front pleats, slash pockets<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
SEPTEMBER 17, 2020 We adopted a dog named Scamp! You will see him in the pictures for a feature on my work in the local paper, the\u00a0 Hamilton Spectator. Local designer enjoys job\u2019s independence By Doreen Pitkeathly\u00a0Spectator Staff DESIGNER JANICE Colbert doesn\u2019t only believe Hamilton is as good a location as Toronto for designing\u2014she thinks […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[34,42,37],"tags":[211,210,206,207,251,407,408,409,410,213,209,212,47,208],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thingsicanmakewithcloth.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/730"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thingsicanmakewithcloth.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thingsicanmakewithcloth.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thingsicanmakewithcloth.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thingsicanmakewithcloth.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=730"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/thingsicanmakewithcloth.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/730\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1133,"href":"https:\/\/thingsicanmakewithcloth.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/730\/revisions\/1133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thingsicanmakewithcloth.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thingsicanmakewithcloth.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thingsicanmakewithcloth.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}