Jessica's Fashion Focus: A Transition From Retail to the Factory Floor

Many of you have met Jessica Montoya at some point during the past 4 years that she has worked at Bits & Pieces as a style consultant and online media coordinator. After working at the store full time for the first few years, she transitioned to working part time behind the scenes about a year and a half ago, as she has been busy building a business sewing for local fashion designers and custom apparel clients.

Her home-based sewing business is currently in the process of expanding into a full service sample sewing room and small volume production factory to serve the needs of emerging and established independent designers. This is no small undertaking, and thus she has decided to step down from her responsibilities at Bits & Pieces in order to focus her full attention on building her business.

Here’s what Jessica has to say about her concept:

I am building a network of skilled apparel industry professionals who are able to provide technical development and production services to emerging and established fashion & sewn product designers alike, while educating a new wave of apparel designers and technicians in the midst of a global shift in the fashion industry.

Plans are in the works for the creation of a fashion production facility in Denver that offers full service capabilities including consulting / pattern development / cutting / sample making / low or no minimum manufacturing / marketing / brand development and more in a way that is accessible to everyone from entry level to established designers and other design consumers.

This concept will increase the viability of local designers and apparel technicians in the form of jobs, business creation, and artistic development while building a sustainable creative economy in the Denver metro region, throughout Colorado, and beyond as this business model supports a Made in America fashion revolution.

One of my ultimate goals is to create a company where a younger generation can learn the skills required to produce quality clothing from experienced professionals so as to keep the art and craft of tailoring and dressmaking alive in America, so that we are poised to handle an increasing awareness and demand from consumers for ethically and domestically produced apparel.

A diversely skilled, experienced, and equipped team is essential to develop and produce sewn goods and apparel. I want to create a place for professional garment makers to collaborate and create quality sewn goods through shared knowledge and resources, while simultaneously providing accessible services to designers to help them produce and sell their lines.

If you are interested in keeping up with Jessica and her progress on building a sustainable local fashion factory, the best way to connect with her is on Facebook. Follow “Colorado Sewn: A Fashion Hub” for updates, and feel free to send Jessica a friend request if you want to stay in touch. Stay tuned - we hope Jessica will make some trunk show appearances at Bits & Pieces a little further down the road as she gets some of her own designs into production as well as showcases locally produced collections from other independent fashion designers!