Arlington Small Business Spotlight: CYPRIANA Fashion

ARLINGTON, MA — You may know Jaime Joseph from her days as choreographer at the Arlington Children's Theater, but she is also the founder of a tiny fashion start up online here in town.

CYPRIANA Fashion, pronounced See pre-Ah Na, just hatched says proud founder Joseph, who has an equally proud husband and 8-year-old son. The Arlington resident works out of her home office or can be found bouncing around coffee shops. For a year, she’s been designing and sketching fashion apparel and researching Made in America manufacturers and production houses before her fashion line became a reality in September.

And for someone that's just launched she's already starting to get noticed. She's been featured in the Next On Scene podcast.

This is part of an ongoing feature: As Small Business Saturday approaches, the Arlington Patch is featuring a number of Q&A's about small business owners in the city. If you know someone we should talk to send us an email at Jenna.Fisher@Patch.com

Will you do anything special or have any special promotions on Small Biz Saturday?
Unfortunately, not this year as I am focusing my efforts on my Pop Up Collaboration Trunk Show event on Dec. 8 at Goorin Bros. Hat Shop from 6 p.m.-8 p.m.

When did the business open?
2015

How many people work there?
Self

Who do you cater to?
Women

Most frequent question you get from customers:
How did you get into the fashion world?

What made you decide to go into this type of business? And why here?
I’ve always been into fashion since I was a Barbie girl growing up. My mother also had a big influence as she used to order our clothes from catalogs such as Spiegel and JC Penny and Sears until I was about 13. When I entered High School, the movie Clueless had a big influence on my fashion style so I shopped at Contempo Casuals (formerly known as Wet Seal), Baker’s Shoes, The Wild Pair (another awesome shoe store). I studied Interior Design in college so I dealt with textiles, sketching and creating on CAD so it just seemed right that I would eventually end up in the fashion arena.

What's your fashion line all about?

CYPRIANA Fashion’s is about being unconventional, having freedom of expression, versatility and personal independence. Inspired by Annie Hall's style, her clothes started a conversation without her ever having to speak. Starting conversations with women is CYPRIANA Fashion's goal. Quality products, Made in America and comfort without sacrificing style equals individualism. "Be Unconventional!"Be Heard!"

What do you like best about it?
I love designing my own outfits, patterns and the freedom of being my own Girlboss!

Biggest struggle?
My biggest struggle has been staying on the path for 2 years without income because when you create your own line it’s such a process. To start you have to create your Brand and Brand story. If you already have sketches, you have to bring them to life, to do that you have to source fabrics and make sure that you are getting a good price as well as quality, so you have to find a reputable fabric sales rep. The next step is to find a patternmaker that can put the sketch together and once you have the pattern then you send the pattern to a manufacturer. Long story short, the path is arduous and tedious but if you stay on it you will eventually reap the rewards. Any dream worth doing has lots and lots of steps, so the end product has lots of little successes!

What do you see for the future?
What I see for the future is that CYPRIANA Fashion will launch CYPRIANA’S Kids and CYPRIANA’S Home Décor as well as become a known Brand Globally.

Politics and business - how does it affect yours?
Good question! So far it hasn’t affected the business, I guess because I’m still in the start-up phase they haven’t intersected yet but when the company grows I’m sure they will meet.

Name another (specific) local business you’d send customers to:
Playtime-great crafters store. That never disappoints

Favorite spot in town:
Barismo (I need my daily lattes)

Something you've always wondered about Arlington:
I’ve always wondered why we constantly open pizza shops or coffee shops as new business

For more info?

Cyprianafashion.com

If you know someone we should talk to send us an email at Jenna.Fisher@Patch.com

Photo of Joseph at work, courtesy of Jaime Joseph.