Architect Designs Blueprint For Fashionable Online Shop

This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.

Today is a special moment in side hustle school history, at least in terms of the stories that we feature. To my knowledge, and I'm pretty sure I'm right, we did some research, it's the first time we have featured a second sister, or a second sibling even, in a set of twins where each one of them has a totally different side hustle. Now, I was working on the notes for this one, and as I got about halfway through I was like, "You know, something seems familiar here." So it was more of a discovery than something we intended, or at least for me, I can speak for myself. And when I was reading the notes, I was like, "Hmm." So I sent a note to Whitney, our content manager, who confirmed that Adeze Kadeh, who I'll tell you about today, is indeed the twin of Akilah Kadeh, who we featured in episode 781 just over a month ago. So pretty cool, and as I said, a completely different project, and not something that I intended.

So fun fact, any other sibling stories out there let me know, especially twins. We've definitely featured some other stories of siblings, and families, and couples, and parents and their kids. But I think this is our first time to do twins. All right, now this story in particular is about a childhood love of sewing that comes in handy for an architect's goals later in life. So stay tuned for Architect Designs Blueprint for Fashionable Online Shop.

Adeze Kadeh learned to sew when she was a little girl. Most afternoons, evenings, and weekends were spent with a needle and thread in her hands, learning how to make different pieces of clothing from scratch. It was more than just a childhood hobby, it was her first true passion. As she grew older, however, sewing fell by the wayside. It was replaced by studies, her social life, and a burning desire to become an architect.

By the time she'd graduated and begun her first real job, sewing was just a distant memory. About a few years later, Adeze relocated to join her company's Los Angeles office, where she learned that they took part in a yearly charity event. The top firms in LA come together to put on a fashion show with garments made by their employees. The money generated from the sale goes to the cause Free Arts for Abused Children. Seeing an opportunity to do some good and get to know her new colleagues, Adeze volunteered to be on the team.

They worked together for months, and the project reignited her passion for sewing and making clothes. After the event, she invested in a sewing machine and started making clothes for herself and her friends. She'd create tops and skirts and dresses and accessories, then give them away as presents for birthdays and Christmas. Over time, she began receiving requests to make different garments for her friends, and then even friends of friends. She had her own unique style, and people loved that the clothes were handmade.

Adeze seemed like a prime testing ground for a business. It also had the added bonus of helping her keep costs down. She could refer any of the requests she received to one central hub, where they would see the garments in place orders. Adeze called her new store "House of LVA." The LVA stands for "Levrea Deze," or "The Real Adeze." The name comes from the freedom she feels when she's making clothes and running her own business. Her day job is filled with rules, regulations, and restrictions, such as the life of an architect, but with clothes, she can be as free and creative as she wants.

For inspiration, she spends a lot of time reading magazines or blogs and examining people's garments when she's out and about. She wants to see how they're made and what she would do differently to add her own twist to a piece. Speaking of restrictions, there's no hard and fast rule for where she sources her fabrics. It really depends on the design she has in mind and the inspiration behind it. However, she leans toward the highest quality materials she can get while keeping her prices affordable.

But setting those prices in the beginning posed a bit of a challenge. Attempting to be highly competitive, Adeze priced her items lower than other sellers. But after taking into consideration the cost of her materials and the time she was putting into making the clothes, it just wasn't a good fit. So she started looking more at her customer base, thinking about her ideal customer. Who was she trying to sell to?

What could they feasibly afford? What Adeze found is that her styles definitely attracted a more adult audience. Most of her customers appreciated classic, but stylish designs and silhouettes. And more importantly, they were willing to spend a little extra, at least if the outfit was right. She discovered something else too.

Price communicates the value of your product to your customers. So they're not always looking for the lowest cost option. While she doesn't shoot for a specific profit margin, she does price her items so that she can essentially recreate that same item with the money she takes away in profit. Since all of the clothes Adeze makes for House of LVA are made to order, she saves money by modeling them herself on the website. They can then be replicated in the customer's size when they place an order.

Using a made-to-order system enables her to better manage her inventory and only invest time in products which are in demand. Another challenge she faced was sizing, especially in the beginning. When she was creating clothes for herself or her friends, she had the freedom to measure and tweak the garments to make them a perfect fit. But of course, when selling online to strangers, she needed to find a more uniform way of doing things. So after some research, education, and practice, all of her clothes can now be made in American Standard sizing, from extra small to extra large.

For marketing, Adeze has taken advantage of the visual aspect of this business. She primarily uses Instagram, where she can share images of her modeling the clothes to attract attention, and she's built up a large following of more than 25,000 fans. She combines this with interacting with prominent bloggers and influencers, especially those that have audiences that fit her demographic. House of LVA is still very much a boutique operation, with profits of around $6,000 a year. Because this is a side hustle, she's had the freedom to let it grow organically, before taking larger steps that could potentially occupy more of her time.

Adeze's goal is to grow the income while still keeping it manageable enough to work around her job as an architect. She loves the idea of spending her days designing timeless hotels, and her evenings creating timeless garments. Adeze is sewing up her ideal future. Awesome, congratulations to Adeze. I love the style of the clothes, which I'll comment on briefly in a moment.

Hopefully I won't embarrass myself too much. And of course, it's super cool to feature twin sister side hustles that are completely different. So speaking of clothes, I went to look at her Instagram, which she just does a fantastic job with, as I would expect. She's got really good management of the Instagram grid, which is something that I think people who pay a lot of attention to that platform are good at, in terms of synchronicity, in terms of everything kind of lining up when you look at it in whole or in full. I'm not very good with that myself, but I do notice when other people do it.

And in terms of the clothing style, I noticed she's got this minimal color palette, really stark, really stark and specific, featuring black and white for the most part, often contrasted with denim or contrasted with a nice accessory, like a watch or similar, specific lines throughout with a clear message and some statement pieces. And also, as mentioned in the story, she figured out to not price at a budget. She figured out that her customers are going to value quality, they're going to value style. They might not buy a ton of clothes all the time, or they might. But if they don't, they're going to really want to invest in those statement pieces with options that are both versatile and stylish.

So I agree with her. If you want to look like everybody else, you should go to H&M. If you want to support, you know, mass manufacturers of the same clothes, then you can go to the Gap or wherever else. And that's not necessarily a criticism of those places. I mean, like a lot of people go there and that's fine.

Again, if you're interested in something that's more stylish or just unique, like your own identity, then what you're looking for is something like what she's doing. So with that, I will sign off for the day. Hope you enjoy this story. Inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is better. What are you working on?

What are you building? What are you dreaming about? Let's make that dream a reality. Today's show notes are at sidehustleschool.com/819. That's 819, episode 819.

I'll include links to everything mentioned here and also the sister story, which is at episode 781. So thanks so much. Three cheers to the Cadet sisters, and I will be back tomorrow with the weekly recap. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School.

From the Onward Project.