TWEGGY TALKS <3

I recently interviewed Dominique Auxilly, who is a rising designer for my final piece for a class.

Here is the interview and please check out her stuff, very fashionable. http://dauxilly.com/

THE NEXT BIG THING

Edgy, striking, chic designs and an “It girls” fan club confirms this up-and-comer’s command to stardom.

Ask Dominique Auxilly how she intends for her women consumers to feel wearing her line full of vibrant, bold colored, form fitting garments and the Jamaican native laughs, “To feel like the baddest bitch,” she admits. “If you’re not planning on being the baddest thing in room then DON’T wear my clothes.”

You not only need a plethora of confidence to own one of the self-named D. Auxilly designs, but you also need to come into terms that this eponymous collection will not put a steep in your pockets. Just the opposite, her collection of ready- to-wear demands attention and is affordable on any budget.

In person, the budding designer is an unusual mixture of comfortable, casualness and elegance as well. Running around from fabric stores to fabric stores, dressed in moccasins and dark skinny jeans trolling her black, medium size cart filled with an overflow of materials, the not so glamorous side of this glamorous industry (which fell over a couple of times n the middle of the street) —Dominique looks convincing ordinary, her jet-black hair freshly brushed and pulled back. But when she speaks, her innocent tone of voice is overpowered by her candid, very humble intelligence.

Taking the occasional calls from her customers while we walked through the tiny dark alleys of the Fashion district, Dominique is fully immersed not only in her craft but her consumers as well. “They keeps me going,” she says. Dominique, who keeps in touch with her customers via email and telephone, knows the importance of having this one-on-one relationship with them to continue the success of her brand.

Although, D. Auxilly line has been featured in countless magazines like Complex Magazine, and on blogs—and worn by numerous singers, actress and “celebutons”, her favored and biggest customers are average women in their early 20’s through their mid-forties.
“I love getting emails from my customers telling me how amazing they felt wearing my clothes,” she said, eyes lighting up, with a Kool-Aid smile on. “Most of them don’t have time to get dressed up. I give them affordable high fashion—wearable art.”

The designer humble, down-to-earth- persona goes beyond the ordinary, taking time out of her busy days whenever she can to extend her courtesy by personally delivering to her customers—reaping the reward of the “omgosh” looks as their faces as they put on her pieces.

Dominique who always k new she wanted to do something in fashion, went the ever famous Fashion Industry High School and attended college for Fashion Marketing.

“Dressing up is a part of the Jamaican culture… I always saw my mother dressing up, like really dressing up not like these Americans who wear jeans and heels and think that’s dressing up.”

Dominque, credits her mother and family for keeping her grounded. Not only do they fully support her and her D.Auxilly line, they go beyond any PR team with their distinct styles and body shape by being somewhat of her dress up dolls—showcasing her work for review, like what works and what doesn’t—and reeling in potential customers .

Dominique, who isn’t particularly inspired by one individual, looks up to Oprah’s philanthropies work in hopes of one day getting to that status and giving as much as she does.

“I want to out give Oprah” she said with this determined “I’m going to do that one day” type attitude.

A long with Oprah, she is also a fan of mega- designers like Mcqueen and Versace. “ I love Mcqueen’s extreme detail and Versace’s sexiness”

With the recent trend of high fashion collaboration with department stores like the Versace and H&M collaboration in November, which has generated a lot of capital and buzz as well as divided the fashion community—Dominique’s appreciates the accessibility that these high end lines are giving consumers. “It’s about making yourself available to everyone.” “In this elite industry, people sometimes look down on consumers not realizing that stores like Walmart, Kmart and Old Navy make millions.”

As trendy as the designer may be on the outside, she tends try not to keep up with latest style, avoiding reading magazines and instead making up her own rules by the day.

Still, Dominique is a fan of the latest nature black girl movement—with the turbans, long “Public Justice” braids and chunky heels.

Recently, the actress and singer, Adrienne Bailon, was seen rocking a bright red structured dress by D. Auxilly at the 2011 Latin Grammys after party. And for her 28^th birthday at Vanity Nightclub in Las Vegas, Bailon wore the electrifying contrasting mixture of bright neon and black “Cali Girl” dress that retails for 220-dollars.

With a host of celebrities like Kelly Rowland, Trina, Angela Simmons showcasing Dominique’s designs, she was featured in Essence Magazine as a rising upcoming Black designer—which created a whirlwind of buzz. But like they say along with the good comes the bad and with all the attention to the D. Auxilly line comes the critics but Dominique has become accustomed to the haters and doesn’t allow it to fade her instead to push her further towards long loved dream of being a legend.

“From I was about 18 to 24 years old, I was into the partying and you know the Jamaican Uptown party scene has its own celebrities, so I always had to deal with criticism. If you can’t deal with it then go hide in a cave because everyone wants to criticize greatness.”

Her thick skin maybe one of the reasons her loved ones admires her and thinks of her as a fighter. “Not fist fight but sticks to what I believe in, being a defender. I pick my battles very wisely and I’m very observant.”

As these words flow from Dominique’s mouth, you realize that there’s something touching about her—she may have the tough exterior, she is very approachable and a woman of God. While she began to explain her transition from her custom design line to her full-fledged D. Auxilly line, you can’t help but respect her passion for her work as well as her faith.

“I had a store on 5^th avenue for two years, and then I got offered to share a store front with two other designers in Soho. The main owner sold the store from underneath us without us knowing, and I didn’t get along with the new manager so I walked away.” Just weeks before leaving the store, Dominique created a site for her designs but it didn’t kick off immediately. “God spoke to me to get the site… and after I walked away from both stores I no longer had anything. It made me realize that everything you have today, you can lose tomorrow.” Faced with the question of what to do next, Dominique looked to her God. “God will take everything away from you to bring you closer to him. You can’t let anything be your identity because when you lose it, what do you have then?”

She may no longer have a store front or her once fifth avenue home but God heard Dominique’s prayer and her site eventually kicked off—getting thousands of requests for orders.

One of the first biggest celebrities who wore her designs was rapper, Nicki Minaj, who she named the exact dress after. “At first she didn’t like any of my stuff, she didn’t even want to try it on but her stylist pulled a bunch of my things and kept telling to try them, and when she eventually tried on the “Nicki dress” which wasn’t even her size but she was happy,” imitating Nicki Minaj’s voice, Dominique swayed her hands and snapped her fingers, showcasing Nicki’s sassy response after putting on the dress.

Now Dominique works from her Long Island home, where a typical day in her life starts with a prayer, then mediations. After that she cleans, answers emails and phone calls, sew, run to the post office, do more sewing then head to the city for materials.
Even with her newfound fame it’s clear that she no interest in letting her success sway her from being the faithful person she intends to be.

Dominique’s hard work has been paying off tremendously. This year she launched her Bridal Collection, which landed her a small role on the E! Television reality show Ice loves Coco. “I don’t know how they do it,” exclaimed Dominique, who described her three day ordeal being bombarded by constant cameras in her face for re-takes. She jokes, “I really couldn’t do it… but they make about $30,000 an episode so maybe if I was getting that amount of money, I would.”

Her Bridal garments are just has sophisticated as her ready-to-wear collection with flowing chiffons and neatly crafted ruching gowns. Dominique admits that the Bridal collection demands more attention because of the great details and luxurious fabric.

Before departing, Dominique had some words of wisdom to aspiring designers. “Find what your thing is and figure out how to make money from it.” She emphasizes the importance of monopolizing on trends. “Its 10-percent innovator and 90-percent of what you can monopolize.” Still, Dominique believes that natural born talent is the first step then it’s a matter of finding your consumer and design for them. “Everyone is not going to like your things but they’re not suppose to.”