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Curated Fashion Brand Profile: Dear Creatures

Bianca Benitez is the talented creative behind Dear Creatures, a lovely LA-based line for women. Whimsical and feminine, these pieces are incredibly well-constructed and thoroughly conceptualized. Delicate cuts, trims, and ornamental accents are updated with modern fabrics and colors to create a line of truly unique classics. At Art In The Age, we are totally in love with Dear Creatures Rompers and bow-accented blouses. They can be dressed up or down and most definitely worn all over town. Ms. Benitez shared her thoughts on the business side of fashion, and why Zooey Deschanel frequently sports the line. Read on to find out more…

Peep the Edie One-Piece Romper hanging in the store…

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Brand Essence Statement:
Dear Creatures is for vibrant individuals who desire unique clothing that reflects their personal freshness and charm. Harmonizing traditional elements with a modern sensibility, Dear Creatures offers a women’s collection of blouses, dresses, bottoms, and jackets, as well as an array of novelty t-shirts for both women and men. With an understanding of decades past and how classic details translate to modern culture, we interpret each season with an eye for visual optimism. We design for those who inspire us, as we draw daily inspiration from one another.

Pick 3 words to describe Dear Creatures:
Optimistic, Fresh, Charming

How Dear Creatures began:
The line started at the end of 2007. I was working as a designer for another brand. The owner and I were pretty close, and it was actually his idea for me to start a clothing line. At first I was really intimidated at the thought, but I finally realized that it was better to do it now while I had the support and network willing to help me! I only had 2 months to get a small collection together before it was time to showcase the season at the same time as other brands. So I brought my first collection, which was Fall 2008 (since you design a year in advance from when it hits retailers) to a trade show convention in Las Vegas, introduced the line for the first time, and was able to get it into some really amazing stores. Now I’m in my third season, which came by so fast!  

Criteria for materials selection: 
When looking for fabrics and trims I try to stray away from anything really chaotic on the eyes. I don’t like fabric with too much going on pattern/color-wise. I’m really drawn to brown, mustard, navy, and rust for some reason, but I always design each piece to come in two opposite colors, one warm tone and one cool tone, so the customer has an option depending on their skin tone. My fabric vendors know that when I’m shopping for fabrics to only show me the simplest stripes, polka dots, plaids, and patterns. I love geometric shapes, too. My first season we had actually designed our own fabric for the lining inside the dresses and jackets. It was a very simple one. It was hand-illustrated, and inspired by The “it’s A Small World” ride at Disneyland. 

A challenge that you/the line overcame:
My second season, Spring 2009, started the same time the media publicized the economy is going into a recession. It was really scary because a lot of brands were going out of business and retail was the worst it had ever been in years. I think what helped me overcome this was the ability, as a small brand, to not have as much overhead as larger companies. Because when retail sales are doing poorly, it affects everyone, big and small, only the small brands don’t have as many assets.  Not saying I didn’t struggle a little, because I did, too. I had a couple stores that ordered Dear Creatures not be able to afford the goods I produced specifically for their order because of the slow sales in their store. So when I was left with a surplus of inventory, my sales rep and I had to think fast and get the goods into new stores. Someone once told me that business is all about problem solving, and that there is always a solution to every problem. I really believe that.

Favorite part about your job: 
There are a lot of things I like about my job, but one of them is being able to meet celebrities I admire, such as Zooey Deschanel, and seeing her wear Dear Creatures to events. Zooey really embodies the Dear Creatures’ aesthetic so perfectly, while also making it her own. 

Tell us one secret or “little-known-fact” about you or Dear Creatures.
My concept was initially to do a “sister brand” to my boyfriend’s clothing line for men called Brown Sound. He helps with the graphic tees, so you can see a resemblance between the two brands. I do all the blouses, jackets, dresses, etc with the same aesthetic in mind but for women. It’s great for the stores who carried Brown Sound and wanted a women’s line to compliment each other on the floor and it was a good way to introduce Dear Creatures.

How would YOU wear/pair your pieces?
I usually wear it with a simple ballet flat shoes or loafers. I’m a big fan of Jeffrey Campbell shoes, and they let us use their shoes to pair with Dear Creatures clothes for our photo shoots. I just basically like to keep it simple and classic. But I’ve seen girls wear it more fashion forward, too, and it looks great! So I think the line can be very versatile depending on each girl.

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Dear Creatures/Ms. Benitez,

Thank you so much for taking the time to let us pick your brain. We would live our entire lives in your rompers and blouses and have a fabulous time doing so.

Love,

Art In The Age