Indrea Gordon With Quad Clothing Company

Intro: [00:00:04] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX Studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for Atlanta Business Radio brought to you by onpay Atlanta’s new standard in payroll. Now here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:24] Lee Kantor here, another episode of Atlanta Business Radio, and this is going to be a fun one. But before we get started, it’s important to recognize our sponsor on pay. Without them, we couldn’t be sharing these important stories today on Atlanta Business Radio. We have Indrea Gordon with Quod Clothing Company. Welcome.

Indrea Gordon: [00:00:43] Thank you, thank you. How are you?

Lee Kantor: [00:00:45] I am doing well, I’m excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us a little bit about Quad. How are you serving, folks?

Indrea Gordon: [00:00:51] Yeah. Quad clothing company is actually a designer brand. My focus is on women and girls, and I design formal wear, so basically custom clothing for women and girls.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:01] So what’s your back story? How did you get involved in the fashion industry?

Indrea Gordon: [00:01:06] You know, I’ve known since I was about nine years old that I wanted to be a fashion designer. My first sketch was in the fourth grade. I redesigned a poster that my teacher had in her room of Mickey Mouse in a wizard gown, and I thought it was just much too plain for me. So I redesigned it. And ever since ninth, fourth grade, nine years old, I’ve always known this is what I would do.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:27] So now how did you kind of continue on that path? Like, what were some of the activities you were doing? Were you designing your own clothes and actually creating them or drawing them and then started creating them

Indrea Gordon: [00:01:38] In in high school is when the journey actually kind of came to fruition? I started sewing at in home EC in high school and went to college f IDM as a matter of fact in San Francisco, and that’s where I did all of my schooling at. And from there it just kind of took off. I went into the hair and fashion industry and so I would do complete looks for my customers and that’s what I continue to do for today.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:04] So now what advice would you give a young person that, you know, maybe is enamored with fashion and they see it? You know, maybe they’re watching some of the shows, maybe like the Project Runway type shows where it seems almost out of reach for a regular person. What advice would you give them to, you know, just start experimenting and playing and just, you know, testing the waters.

Indrea Gordon: [00:02:26] You do just that. You take the jump. This is a rough industry and you’ll get more no’s than you get yeses. You’ll get more negativity than you do encourage encouragement. And so for a young person, I would just say, take the jump and start kind of dabbling in what you love to do. And it just so happens that once you take that jump and you dabble into what you love to do by accident, it tends to develop itself and it becomes a reality. And once you see things actually become a reality when they’re taken from a thought to paper and then from paper to an actual reality, then something else evolves in that in that moment, and once it becomes a reality, then you realize this is achievable. And so once you realize it’s achievable, the rest is just execution. But you have to first be brave enough to just take that jump and just start.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:15] Now, when did you start having clues that you know, this isn’t just something that you like, but you’re good at it?

Indrea Gordon: [00:03:22] I think that kind of happened a little bit later on in my career, I didn’t realize how good I was at it. You know, I used to always say I was trying to be a designer. And then my son, ironically, in the fourth grade, he had to write a report and he did a report on me. And in that report, he said, My mother is a designer. And I thought, Whoa, he sees me as a designer. And so at that point, it was almost his words validated that, OK, I’m pretty good at this because of the way he sees me. I’m like, I’m pretty good at this, and I started to change the way I thought about myself. And then once I realized how good I was, then the rest was history. I was able to embrace it.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:07] Now do you find that people who are in a creative industry like you are struggle with that a little bit that confidence or that imposter syndrome that maybe they are not good enough and that they need some outside person to kind of give them that confidence that to believe in themselves, maybe they believe in them more than the person believes themselves.

Indrea Gordon: [00:04:27] Right? Absolutely. You, you know, as creatives, we all deal with that. We get a little cold feet sometimes. And, you know, the industry is really competitive. So you do kind of have those fears that revolve around your creativity, but you have to just like like in anything, you have to find your lane. You have to realize that sometimes for designers, we think when we create, Oh my god, this has never been created before. This is the best sleeve in the world. This is the best color in the world. And then you do your research and you’re like, Dang, this collar was like created in eighteen hundreds, you know, so nothing is brand new in this industry. It’s just finding your lane and where you’re comfortable and honing in on that and not necessarily reinventing the wheel, but just making it niche based and really focusing in on how you can serve as that particular niche and those particular people that enjoy that niche.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:22] Now, when you were starting out, were you working for someone else and then you went out on your own with your own designs? Or were you always kind of working on your own designs?

Indrea Gordon: [00:05:32] I have always been an independent designer, and looking back when I was in college, I had an offer to go and work for Levi, and I thought, You know, Oh, I’m going to do my own. Being Levi is so boring, nothing changes except the color, it’s just jeans, and I passed up on that opportunity, and till this day, I wish that was an opportunity that I had taken advantage of because the road has been extremely rough as an independent designer. I would advise anyone in this industry to get under the direction of someone who knows the industry and get all the training that you could get at ground level because I kind of had to learn everything along the way and I was an extremely tough route to take.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:14] So now how did you kind of land in the niche that you are in now?

Indrea Gordon: [00:06:19] You know, I’ve always loved pretty dresses, right? And I actually was just critiquing all the gowns for the Met Gala. It was crazy, but I’ve always loved glam, old Hollywood glam, pretty dresses and all of that good stuff. But more so importantly, I love what feeling beautiful does for women and girls, and I’ve kind of taken that aspect of it and really developed how the garment makes makes a person feel. And so that’s what I specialize in. So although I love the pretty garments, it’s really about how it makes you feel when you’re wearing the garment. That’s what the empowerment piece takes place.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:01] And then once you kind of capture how you would like someone to feel, then you design towards that feeling or you design something and then you kind of work how they feel after you’ve got kind of a basic design, like how they how do you kind of marry those two concepts

Indrea Gordon: [00:07:18] In a consultation? Once you once I schedule a client, we have a consultation and I find out, of course, where the garment is going to be worn to ask questions like, What are you trying to achieve with this garment? How do you want to feel that night? Why? Why do you think this garment will be the garment that will help you achieve that feeling? So I kind of get to know my client and then I give them what they want, but I kind of tailor the design to what I know they really need. And you know, once you do that, once you understand your client and understand their desires and what they’re trying to achieve, the rest is just a matter of putting it to paper.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:55] Now you mentioned the Met second ago. How often are your designs kind of meant for an event like that?

Indrea Gordon: [00:08:06] That is what I specialize in. So if you have a special event for a clothing company, it’s definitely your go to person for that event. If you want to make a statement, you know, most of what I do is geared towards formal wear, the extravagant the make a statement without saying a word type pieces. So although we do have ready to wear things that you can wear to the office and transition into night where we really enjoy and tend to focus our efforts on Met Gala type designs.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:36] So now tell us about that. This upcoming fashion meets food experience.

Indrea Gordon: [00:08:42] I am super excited about that. Fashion meets food kind of came about because those are two essential elements. Everyone wears clothes, everyone eats food. So we figured for National Food Day, what an awesome way to bring those two industries together, but to create an event that caters to both. So I have a private chef and her name is Kendra Bates from Honey Sole. And what we did was we collaborated her dishes with my garments or else my garments with her dishes. So at fashion meets food, it’s going to be a full experience of those two, those two essential elements. So one could expect to come in and have have a gallery showing up all of the gowns and how the gowns relate to the food. So if she has, I don’t know, these chefs have all these fancy names, and so I can’t even pronounce the fancy names. But let’s just say we have, I don’t know, shrimp cocktail for lack of a better word that shrimp cocktail will match with my red gown and my red gown will have some elements of the of the shrimp, whether it be the cut of the garment or the color of the garment. Somehow they will translate and you’ll be able to merge the two together to see how they resemble each other. So it’s going to be really, really fun and really interesting to see.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:00] And when is that event

Indrea Gordon: [00:10:01] That is October 24th, which is National Food Day? It is a Sunday, October twenty four.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:09] Are there tickets left? Are there tickets available?

Indrea Gordon: [00:10:11] There are a few tickets left, and you can find those by logging into Quad Kumu Ayda’s and David Clothing Company. And you can purchase your tickets there now.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:22] If they go to the website, there’s other things to find like is your fashion without limit limitations program there as well.

Indrea Gordon: [00:10:29] There is. We actually always incorporate. I am really big on really including my special needs babies, and I always include someone who has some form of special need in whatever I do. And so on that night, I’ll have a couple of my babies who live with autism. I’ll have them walking for me that night. They come from a program called Autumn’s Gift, and that’s Autumn’s Gift Dawg. And so I’ll have a few of them modeling that night, and it’s going to be really fun for them and I’m excited to have them a part of it as well. But yes, there is information on the website about them as well.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:05] So now is the website the place like for everything, quod clothing. They can find any upcoming events they can find, maybe some some of your looks, just everything they. You’re up to is is found on that website.

Indrea Gordon: [00:11:22] Absolutely.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:23] And then and then the ideal person for you as a client is somebody that goes to events, big events that wants to make that wow statement.

Indrea Gordon: [00:11:33] Absolutely. But more importantly, someone who wants to discover their inner and outer beauty. You know, especially mothers. You know, we have a tendency to care for everyone, and we’re the last ones to to get taken care of. And so really, if you want to discover that that new you and really make a statement, that would be me.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:57] So it might be the person that’s never kind of work with the designer before they wants to, you know, kind of break out of their shell and just really stand out.

Indrea Gordon: [00:12:07] Absolutely.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:09] Well, congratulations on all the success and the story is amazing. And the way that you’re helping so many folks around you in your community is really outstanding. And kudos to you.

Indrea Gordon: [00:12:22] Thank you so much. Thank you for having me.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:24] And then that website again is quad colored clothing company. Thank you for sharing your story. You’re doing such important work, and we appreciate you.

Indrea Gordon: [00:12:34] No problem. Thank you for having me.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:36] All right, this is Lee Kantor. We will sail next time on that land of Business RadioX.