Geek Fashion Icon, Catherine Elhoffer, of Elhoffer Designs talked to us about how she became one of the most popular fashion designers in the geek community. She has dressed celebrities, cosplayers and all manner of fan girls! She creates high-end Geek Bounding Apparel and is based out of Los Angeles, CA. Geek bounding is a subtle way to celebrate your fandom. Her designs are inspired by geek and pop culture. Her designs are high-end, align with modern styles and are made to last. Filling a much-needed void in the geek fashion world! Her design collections have been featured on Temple Of Geek Chic multiple times because we simply can not get enough of her style!
How long have you been interested in fashion/design and how did you get started?
I actually have hated fashion for most of my life, I got into design via costuming! I started in my local RenFaire when I was 15 and started making fae costumes for myself and friends. Then in college I took a fashion design course that I hated because it moved very slowly and the other students were not to my liking, but I loved because the professors loved me because I completely projects early if not on time (which was apparently something kids in the program didn’t do which was so odd to me). One of the professors pulled me aside and told me I needed to hit up the Theatrical Costume Shop because I was too smart for the Fashion program. So I went to the costume shop, got a job, started enrolling in the costume design courses (and it was a small program, pretty much me and at most two other students in other years the entire time I was in school), and then really honed my costume design and construction skills. It’s been almost a decade since I graduated, and I’ve been sewing and designing ever since!
What inspired you to create Elhoffer Design?
Well the company is named after my surname, Elhoffer, which a lot of people don’t seem to get. They think my first name is El, which is funny to me. But I’ve been using the name ‘Elhoffer Design’ since I moved to LA to pursue costume design. It just made sense to get the URL and to put all my portfolio work onto that site to start getting work. Then I moved into working in geek fashion, due to working on a lot of geek parody film/web shoots and making some clothes to blend in (like a khaleesi inspired tunic that I’d wear on sets when I just needed to feel like a badass). I started working with some big companies that have a lot of licenses, and then when the last one fired me and kinda blacklisted me from other geek fashion companies, I decided to just form my own damn company and go at it solo, because I really loved designing geek apparel and had started to make a name for myself as a designer that created for women, not juniors, and who cared about shape and quality. I started hand-making pieces first, and then as that picked up I filed the LLC paperwork to make it a legit business.
What do you feel sets Elhoffer Design apart from the rest of the crowd?
I was told early on in the life of my business that my designs are pretty distinctive, which I didn’t understand for a while. I was just like ‘well, yeah, that’s just my aesthetic, so of course it’s unique’. But it’s a combination of using fabrics that drape really well with colors and lines that tend to flatter the body. I don’t put colors together that clash, I often won’t use more than 3 colors in a single design (though that’s a rule I’ll certainly break if necessary, but I feel anything more than three colors gets to be too garish. Again, in most cases. I have plenty of sweaters that use four colors!). I also put pockets in every flared skirt I make, whether it’s a skirt or dress. Often wand pockets, too. And I also design for curvy women; my fit models are all well endowed, because those with less cleavage can always get things taken in, but rarely can modern apparel be let out or recut to accommodate boobs. That’s apparently unique, because not many apparel companies are designing for curves.
What has the reaction to your designs been like?
Well I’ve been able to expand from hand-making each piece myself to having a small staff of employees, a handful of factories that work with me, and a rather large stock of product on my site! So reaction has been pretty amazing! It actually shocks me how much people seem to love my pieces and work, because I am just so focused on the next piece or doing better and fixing my mistakes that I wasn’t really watching the growth happen in real-time. I was focused on prepping for the next convention or getting a production finished and shipped out that I wasn’t looking as much at the hashtags or the sales numbers! I’m thrilled, of course! And incredibly lucky that so many have been so kind and supportive!
We understand that it is important for you, that as a business, you are minimizing your carbon footprint. Can you let our readers know a little bit about why that means so much to you and what you do to be environmentally responsible.
The fashion industry, and any industry that is mass-making things (so, every industry, really) is incredibly destructive on the environment. Between product being made cheaply overseas and then shipped over, put onto semis to be driven to a warehouse just to go back on a semi to be shipped to a brick and mortar store, and the lack of environmental regulations overseas (and now here in the US apparently), it’s just important to me to try to make a smaller footprint if possible. I’m not perfect; lots of my fabric used in my cut and sew dresses is still imported from overseas because the US just doesn’t mill textiles like we used to. But I do all my custom knitting in Los Angeles as well as the cutting and sewing of all my apparel. It lets me control more aspects of my designs, but it also means I know that there pieces aren’t moving around too much to make the final product. Besides electricity, I’m not doing too much damage on the environment. I’ve even been collecting scrap cuts from my factories to turn into gloves or other random things to try to reduce physical waste, too. We only have one planet, and I’m just trying to do what I can even as a business who’s mass producing and shipping things worldwide. By the very nature of my business I’m going to leave a footprint on the world: I ship out hundreds of packages a month and they go all over. I use plastic shipping supplies. Like, there are certain things that are just incredibly difficult to get around being an e-commerce site. But I do what I can.
What has been the most satisfying and the most difficult about your journey in fashion design?
By far the most satisfying thing is all the women who message me with pics or tag me on social media saying how they’ve never felt pretty or how they’ve never felt this confident in a piece of clothing. That’s why I do this. The most difficult thing has been dealing with social media and the trolls, nasty comments, the like. Sometimes people feel the need to say I’m a rip off or I’m too expensive, and I feel the need to educate them to help explain why I don’t have Walmart level prices; sometimes by educating they actually start to see the value in my prices, and sometimes they’re just there to troll and complain. So to that, I can’t help them. But I naturally want to help people, so I can get lured into replying to people who don’t deserve my time or energy because I always hope they’re there with the best intentions…
Do you have a favorite designs, or one that is special to you?
It’s so hard to pick a favorite, because I really do love everything I design. I can’t make something I don’t love. And I also tend to love most the latest thing I’ve done as it’s fresh on my mind. I think my Scavenger dress, being one of my first pieces when I was hand making as well as when I started producing, is probably the most special. It kinda started everything for me.
Do you have any highlights from your adventures in Fashion?
I kinda want to brag for a second about pockets. I was at a company that sold to Think Geek and other major geek-clothing retailers, and I was designing a Jedi dress that TG was ordering. This dress was the first dress I was working on there, and I worked with the pattern room to put pockets in it. My boss hated that it made the dress more expensive, but I told her that we just had to do it. We’d be launching the dress at San Diego Comic Con through the company’s booth and I felt it was crucial to have pockets. Well, it became an instant best seller on the company’s site and at SDCC, because pockets. And at Think Geek all the comments were on how amazing it was that the dress had pockets (on top of the stretch of the fabric). So, within a year we have other companies that also sold to Think Geek putting pockets in their pieces. I like to think it’s because I pushed it so hard. Without those comments would other retailers care about pockets?? Probably not.
What can we look forward to from you in the future?
More (hopefully) great designs! I’m working on holiday season ideas right now and waiting on new samples that I’m excited about. I’m always trying to mix it up and try new styles and new things, so I’m very excited for some upcoming dresses and sweaters, as always.
Just for fun: What is your all time favorite Fandom and why?
Oh god. This is difficult. I guess Harry Potter, but only because I have a particular ship that is just full of really great people who I’ve bonded with over the years. And the fanfic is just so well done. Potter has provided me a lot of comfort over the years and helped me grow in so many ways. Yeah, Potter.
To shop Elhoffer visit https://elhofferdesign.com
You can also check out our Temple Of Geek Features for Elhoffer Designs here:
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