The First Rare Trunk Show

In the fashion industry, a trunk show is when a designer displays his/her new collection for the first time. When I advertised as having a trunk show, my fellow Donauschwaben were a little confused and were wondering what a trunk had to to with anything. But when I explained to my American friends that I was having a trunk show at the annual Landesverbant Meeting at the Vereinigung der Donauschwaben in Des Plaines, I received just as many strange looks. Needless to say I had no idea how successful my trunk show would be... since, as my dad pointed out to me, I had no trunks to sell.



On friday, I worked diligently to make sure that every wrinkle was steamed from my garments, that they all had tags, they all looked presentable, and I had everything I needed. I made a trip to office max for a sales book, just in case I sold something and I went to Party City frantically trying to find shopping bags (again for the unlikely event that I might sell a headband or t-shirt). At 11:30 I had a wonderful lunch with my cousins wife, Teresa and their sons, Nicholas and Anthony... nothing like some 4yr old spunk and Superdawg to brighten the day! Unfortunately when they left that meant, back to work.

I enlisted the help of my regular "on call minion", Jamie Mazur, for a little help on friday. She came over at 3:30 and started to load the car, just as it began raining... perfect. So we started throwing all my freshly pressed garments into the car as soon as possible and were on our way.



Once at the Donau Hall we started bringing everything in and I received a very warm welcome from everyone and they were excited to see what I brought. Once I set up everything, a very spunky older woman came over and said, "now I vant vone of dose t-shirts. I know its says "its not your Oma's dirndl" on da back, but I don't care... i vant it!" My first sale!!! For the rest of the weekend I gave out lots of catalogs and business cards and I hope I'll get a few more orders once the online store is ready.


The rest of the weekend went very well. I had a total of 10 orders and that more that double what I said I would be happy with. Hopefully with the help of some of my other friends in the German community, I can sell a few more which will fund the next 2011 collection.

Thanks to everyone at the Chicago Donau for giving me the opportunity and for everyone who supported me that weekend. It has inspired me to keep going... I think I'm doing something right.