Publication:Orange City News; Date:Aug. 3, 2006; Section:News; Page Number:4 BUSINESS PROFILE Apron company brings back ’50s flair
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Business: Heavenly Hostess
Owner: Cindy Wadell
Start date: October 2005
Describe your business: I make cocktail aprons for people to wear when hosting a party or when they have company over. I wanted to bring back the elegance and gracefulness of the 1950s. I wear my vintage cocktail aprons, but they were so beat up that I wanted to make my own.
These aprons aren’t to cook in – they can be highly flammable – but they are for afterwards as you serve your guests. I also sell cotton aprons for cooking. But they aren’t the square aprons that slide to the left and right no matter how small you are.
I designed them so they hug your body and look good too. I have a mommy-and-me line of them. I also have a male line of aprons. They are half-chef aprons that guys can wear when they grill.
Where did you get the idea for your business? I just remember my grandmother wearing these aprons – how graceful and elegant she looked. I loved cooking and I began buying vintage aprons through eBay about five or six years ago.
I have always been a fabric junkie collecting all different types of fabric. I knew I always wanted to do the business but I was working in corporate America.
Finally, I quit with the encouragement of my husband. But it took me a lot longer to start the business because I just got married and had to merge our families together. I finally started focusing on the business last September.
Since then, I have made about 40 apron patterns for my line.
What have you done to get your business started? I really had to learn a lot about the industry but not so much in the sense of how to do a business. I do the same things now like I did when I worked in corporate America – I did the marketing, the outsourcing and the handling the customers.
See, I needed to learn more about the terminology and acronyms that are used. For example, I had to know what the lining and the contrast part of an apron is so that I can communicate with patternmakers and assembly line workers.
What is the one thing you wish you had known before starting your business? I pretty much knew what I was getting into but I don’t think I realized how difficult it could be as a one-man show.
I don’t have a staff working under me like I did when I was working for a corporation. I’m doing it all plus my children, my husband and a dog.
But my mantra is “Do it with grace.”