Kitchen couture: Wear and Ware | Features

FEATURES

Profiles

Apr 24, 2010

Kitchen couture: Wear and Ware

By Carl Ng, Photo by Jun Pinzon

from Entrepreneur Philippines Magazine, September 2009

Girl friends do a unique business designing custom-made kitchen items

In 2008, four friends—the twins Carina and Clarisse Ong, Katrina Chua, and Christine Herrin—started looking for a business that they could all do together.

The Ongs had just graduated from college and were starting their careers, Chua was about to graduate, and Herrin was in-between jobs.

“All of us were at a point in our lives when we thought it would be timely to start a business even if only for the short term,” recalls Clarisse.

Bringing their different interests and temperaments into their business brainstorming sessions, they finally came up with the idea for Kitchen Couture.

“It was the culmination of our love for food and fashion,” she says. “Like us, the Filipino woman has a flair for fashion, is hospitable, and loves to entertain and cook for her family. So we chose to create a line of fashionable aprons to capitalize on the Filipina’s daily traditions. We decided to make it more special.”

Their concept took the form of custom-made aprons for Filipinos—female and male alike—who want to look stylish while cooking up a storm in the kitchen.

Explains Clarisse: “We make each apron from scratch, so the fabrics and styles we choose have a lot to do not only with what’s trendy in fashion but also what’s practical in the kitchen. We also take into consideration the different personalities of our clients. So our aprons come in different colors, shapes, and sizes to cater to personal preferences.”

Digging into their savings and getting some help from their parents, the partners were able to pool P80,000 in capital. They then started making the custom-made Kitchen Couture aprons in August 2008, initially selling them through bazaars.

“Bazaars cater to our target market,” she says. “Since our aprons are a specialty and novelty product, they are usually purchased as gift items and do well in holiday bazaars.”

Kitchen Couture has since participated in the St. James Bazaar, Karl Edwards Bazaar, Rockwell’s Urban Bazaar, the Global Pinoy Bazaar, and other club bazaars in Metro Manila.

In four months of participating in bazaars during the 2008 holiday season, the four partners managed to break even on their initial investment.

This inspired them to expand into kitchenware, making and selling accessories like mixing bowls, mitts, potholders, recipe journals, and, more recently, doing customized orders for caterers, bakeries, and shops. They have continued expanding their offerings in preparation for the forthcoming 2009 holiday season.

Alongside their Kitchen Couture business, though, the partners have to cope with their respective professional commitments as well. Carina Ong works as a manager for Pet One Inc., twin

Clarisse is an analyst for McKinsey & Co., Herrin is an associate creative editor at Summit Publishing (publisher of Entrepreneur), and Chua is involved in her family’s business. They therefore have to divide the work for Kitchen Couture and assign a regular routine for themselves, particularly when it is bazaar season during the peak holiday months.

Clarisse Ong explains their division of labor: “Although we’re all part of the design process in one way or another, whether it’s discussing the fabric combination or giving inputs on the samples we get, running the day-to-day business is really more Carina and Katrina’s forte.”

She herself handles the finances, while Herrin is in charge of the posters, the graphics, and the Kitchen Couture website through which they also sell their products online.

Page 2: Selling tips