Tracy Bromley understands how difficult it is to put together a fashionable wardrobe that doesn't implode your wallet. That quest inspired her to create Bethesda-based Bespokery, which offers a platform for designers and sewists (not sewers) to connect with each other, and with customers looking for unique, affordable style.
"I grew up sewing, my whole family in Tennessee sews," Bromley said in an interview with DC Inno. "Bespokery combines that artisanal quality with tech."
Bromley has experience with tech as well as fashion, having worked at Microstrategy and other tech firms. Although Bromley adeptly describes Bespokery with the tech cliche of "the Uber for sewists," the startup arguably takes that platform model a few steps further. Rather than simply connecting people who want to buy the clothes with people who have the clothes, Bespokery offers people the choice of buying a kit with everything they need to sew the clothes themselves. If the customer would rather just have the clothes, Bespokery will assign one of the certified sewists on the platform to make it, with the option of custom tailoring. The first designs are from Moriah Carlson, Bespokery's fashion director and former co-owener of the Feral Childe label.
"There are 40 million people in the U.S. who spend some time sewing," Bromley said. "I see what we do as serving the maker community."
Many small fashion houses have a lot of trouble making any headway against the bigger fashion companies. Bromley said that she designed Bespokery to overcome that issue by making the small-scale creation a feature.
"The problem is you can't patent these designs," Bromley said. "A lot of them get pinched by fast fashion companies. But smaller designers can get their orders filled by our network, with less of the problems of off-shore manufacturing."
For those who aren't making the clothes on their own, the sewists certified by Bespokery can do the job quickly and relatively cheaply, Bromley said. Bespokery, which has been mainly bootstrapped, takes a cut of the money paid to the sewists and designers. The certified sewists can set their own prices on the platform.
"This kind of artisan business wouldn't be possible without tech," Bromley said. "But our message really resonates with people even as we compete in a world of gorgeous clothing."
