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05/01/2004
By RaeAnne Marsh/ Photograph by Jeff Newton
 Patterns
for Success
PHOENIX, AZ - The designers shaping Phoenix’s fashion
industry are as varied as the wardrobes of the customers they serve. And as
business owners in a young, growing market, their strategies and business
decisions are equally diverse.
Jane Ryan, 41, jumped right in with mass manufacturing
when she began her Trashy Cat line of bike-riding clothing in 2002. But to find
the large-scale manufacturing capability she wanted, she had to go outside the
Phoenix area. She contacted companies in California and Italy that were making
similar clothing, and they were willing to work with her ideas. "The Italian
firm made a lot of Adidas’ wear, so my line—a private label line for women—was a
good fit with them," she explains. She landed her first sale in September 2003;
six months later, business has zoomed up to six figures. And she has outgrown
her garage as a distribution center, moving office and warehouse to its own
quarters in North Scottsdale.
http://www.bizaz.com/features/articles.cms/itemid=fashion_mj04
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