Fashion designer Dara Page describes the impulse to launch her company Haus Page, what inspires her fashion design and collections, and how she gives back to her community. Haus Page is the brainchild of award-winning luxury tomboy designers Dara and Nash Page. They’re a husband-and-wife team that met at NC State and have carried their love of the craft forward with small batch, sustainable designs created in Raleigh, NC, and sourced in the Carolinas.

Note: Be on the lookout for the spring collection from Haus Page. The name of the collection is SUCCESS. You can hear Dara talk about it on her YouTube channel. Pretty inspiring, yes?

Dara Page grew up in the fashion apparel industry. Her family ran a specialty luxury womenswear store chain called Brownhills and remains connected to the apparel trade. In the past two decades she’s combined working for luxury high-end shops like Hertzberg Furs, Stitch Golf, and Techshop RDU with larger retail giants such as JC Penney, Belks, Stein Mart, Lc Industries, and the NFL. She now works as a fashion designer for Haus Page. You can find her most days creating new items or helping supervise small curated batches of high-end pieces inspired by Carolina masters. Her taste is a mix of contemporary ready-to-wear and unique art-to-wear pieces. She believes in creating and curating beautiful clothing people will feel good about wearing.

Check out Haus Page’s website here: www.hauspage.com

Dara’s youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/darahauspage

This episode is brought to you by the Soapboxers, the official patrons of the Artist Soapbox. If you like these episodes and want more, get on the Soapbox! This episode was recorded at the ASBX home studio. Artist Soapbox theme music by Bart Matthews.

Connect and Follow!

ASK THE SOAPBOX: Submit your question and get it answered on the Soapbox. Listeners are invited to submit anonymous questions to the podcast whether creative, personal, professional, or artistic. It’s like a quick version of Dear Abby, Dear Sugar, Ask Polly meets the Soapbox.

Artist Soapbox on social media:

Twitter =@artist_soapbox

Instagram = artistsoapbox

Facebook =https://www.facebook.com/artistsoapboxpodcast/

Time break-down:

[0:00] Episode intro and Dara’s bio.

[1:59] The experiences that inspired Dara to start Haus Page

[4:03] Five years in, how has Haus Page evolved as a company?

[5:13] Dara talks about taking the leap into creating her own company and the challenges along the way

[9:09] The aesthetic for Haus Page is “luxury tomboy”. What does that look like?

[11:18] Dara tells us what she is most proudest of

[13:12] What is sustainable fashion and how does Haus Page approach it?

[17:38] Where would Dara like Haus Page to go in the future?

[20:29] Why is giving back so important to Dara?

[25:40] Dara’s design inspirations

[27:44] “Women are Heroes”- Dara tells us about her collection

[32:16] How did the collection actually get into stores?

[33:53] The subject of selling

[35:32] Dara gives us a glimpse into her Spring collection and upcoming fashion trends

[38:02] How do people find Dara’s clothing? (Listen up, fellow designers!)

[41:33] What’s a major misconception about the work?

[42:26] Dara’s advice to her past self.

[44:07] Thanks and sign-off

Artist Soapbox podcast is a listener supported podcast. If you listen, please support the podcast by sharing episodes with friends and contributing via our Patreon campaign.

If you have feedback, questions, suggestions, please email artistsoapbox@gmail.com. FEEDBACK IS EVERYTHING TO ASBX.

Quotes:

• You make 100 designs and 99 of them don’t work, but the ones that do, they grow
• The [designs] that are meaningful, that do well, are the ones that reach across the table and talk to somebody else.
• Fashion touches you, physically touches you. You wear it for long periods of time, maybe years. I feel like that’s a very personal  and very deep art experience. It’s art to wear.