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#40DaysToGreatness

Why Custom? Why Dresses?

HelenJean wants to change the way women feel about themselves by creating custom fit, made to measure dresses that shift the focus away from their bodies (which are perfect by the way) and towards each woman's gifts and talents. Our goal is to create clothes for women to wear in their boldest moments, from landing jobs, to signing deals, to wowing on first dates. 

We launched last fall in Vancouver, Canada and have been hosting trunk shows for almost a year now. This summer, we're planning our Fall 2013 collection and we want to reach the women who can't make it out to a trunk show. With our experience from the past year and a growing team of designers, developers and fit specialists, we'll create a new interactive web platform that brings our latest collection (and the trunk show experience) to women everywhere. 

Where did we get this idea?

Have you ever picked out a bunch of items while shopping and then tried them all on, only to realize that nothing actually fit? Did you then wish that some part of you was smaller or bigger or just somehow better? That was founder Katie Jeanes' experience. Shopping trips with her friends resulted in changeroom therapy sessions and the final realization that perhaps, it wasn't her body at all. Perhaps it was the clothes. So, she decided to start her own line of dresses, where each dress is custom made for the wearer.

"What if, rather than trying to fit our bodies into pre-made clothes, we made clothes that were custom fit for our bodies?" - Katie Jeanes, HelenJean founder

Having had a custom suit made in Bali, Indonesia, Katie knew the amazing shift that could happen when women are able to forget about their flaws and focus on something greater. Coming home from Bali, she could only find custom options for men. Companies like Indochino and J. Hilburn were providing made to measure suits, but there was nothing for women. Yet. HelenJean aims to change that, basing our model on a blend of successful menswear brands.

What have we done so far?

In September, we launched our first collection with six dresses inspired by incredible women we look up to. Katie's mum Lori, her namesake Katharine Hepburn, as well as bloggers and authors Heather White, Danielle LaPorte, Marie Forleo and Gabrielle Bernstein were our muses for Fall 2012. We held our first trunk show to test out the concept with a small group of women and it was a huge success.

"I love my HelenJean dress! I love that it's made just for me and how the intention tag reminds me that I'm beautiful." - Lindsey, recruiter

The best part of the dress is the intention tag. Since we have no need for size numbers we ask women how they want to feel when they wear their dress and put that word into the back of each dress. Dubbed "intention tags", women can choose whatever word they like, and we've seen everything from beautiful to strong to really, really good looking. 

We launched our Spring/Summer 2013 collection in May and debuted another six dresses. Even with a late start to Spring, we hosted over 50 women at our Vancouver trunk show. We know the demand is out there, and we know we have the ability to create beautiful clothes, as well as the ability to help women gain the confidence to really go after what they want in life. Our Fall 2013 collection is scheduled to launch August 15th. We already have women signing up for trunk shows, but we need your help to get there. 

What happens at HelenJean?

We're all about helping women own their greatness. That includes the women that create each dress in Bali, Indonesia. We work with two village-owned tailoring cooperatives which provide jobs for both men and women in each village. When you order a dress, we send it over to Bali, they source just enough fabric as needed (waste not, want not), create a custom pattern, sew your dress, and then send it back over here so we can have a final look at it before we send it off to you. Our close relationship with our manufacturers means we get to know the team of people behind each dress, and make sure that they are all happy, healthy and owning their greatness as well. 

Each dress takes three weeks from the time of ordering to arriving at your front door. Just in case it's not a perfect fit, we include a $50 tailoring credit with each purchase, so you can go get it tailored locally, and then send us the bill.

"It is so amazing to put on a dress that fit you exactly and you know you look fabulous walking into any situation." - Lori, college professor

What will the funds be used for?

Our goal is to raise enough money to fund the next 6 months of growing HelenJean across Canada and the US. We have the costs of creating our Fall 2013 collection, as well as building our new interactive website and doing outreach for the next 6 months. Some of the expenses include:

• pattern making
• sample sewing
• design tools and supplies
• Fall trunk show venue rental
• packaging and printing
• website development
• website hosting
• accounting and legal services
• software: CRM, finance, presentation

How can you help?

First and foremost, we welcome your dollars! There are hard costs associated both with growing a fruitful, long-term venture like this. We've got some great perks to say thank you. (Did we mention we were thinking big? We know women wear more than dresses and we want to make some suits, skirts and jackets too)

Perks

$10 - Intention Tag Wall Paper

Five Sets of Inspiring Phone and Laptop Wall Paper Tailored To Your Intention

$25 - Girl Power Playlist (curated from the best women in the business)

$50 - Limited Edition HelenJean Scarf (options may vary depending on availability)

$100 - Limited Edition HelenJean Silver Bracelet (options may vary depending on availability)

$150 - Any Existing HelenJean Dress at 25% Off

$250 - Custom Designed HelenJean Dress (sample design)

$500 - HelenJean Power Outfit

Scarf, Bracelet, Custom Designed Dress, AND a Pair of Sunnies

$1000 - Fall Collection Sponsor

All Six Styles From The Fall Collection at a Special Pre-Sale Price

Second, we'd love your help getting the word out about HelenJean—both this fundraiser and the project in general. We can't be everywhere and we don't know everyone who'll want to be involved—yet, anyway—so we really need your help. Sharing on Facebook, Twitter, G+ or your favorite online or real-life networks of choice increases our chances of getting more women in HelenJean, chasing down their dream like its the last bus of the night. 

To facilitate this, we created a few pre-rolled some <140-character messages for your tweeting convenience:

Can you always find the perfect thing to wear? Don't click here: http://ow.ly/mBJCm

Think women+fashion=vapid & materialistic? Think again! http://ow.ly/mBJCm

Help women own their greatness! #leaningin http://ow.ly/mBJCm

Wish the women in your life knew how beautiful they are? Put your $ where your heart is: http://ow.ly/mBJCm

Changing the face of fashion, one dress at a time: http://ow.ly/mBJCm

Women+fashion+custom fit= a better world. Support @HelenJeanCo http://ow.ly/mBJCm

Our thanks...

... to you for supporting our campaign and spreading the word, and to many fine people who have helped us get this far:

Lori Becker and Emily Key: for helping get HelenJean off the ground last Fall!

Our colleagues have very generously jumped in to support, making it possible for us to focus time and attention to the project. We are lucky to work with such great people:
- Rachel McHollister of SocialModPr
- Stacelynn Caughn of The Idea Lounge
- Lisa Hemingway of Backyard Creative

Darrell Kopke, Bix Bickson and Aaron Vidas of instituteB provide us much wise advice.

Meredith Powell at U Can't Buy Cool stepped in to help us navigate the colliding worlds of fashion and tech, sharing her deep experience and expertise in everything from public relations to fundraising.

Joanna Waterfall of Waterfall Creative designed our awesome logo and business cards; she makes us look good. Also Andrea Shillington of Brands for the People for hooking us up with Joanna.

Bre DiGiammarino offered indispensable support and generously shared the expertise she gained from coaching many an Indiegogo campaign.

Jason Carvalho, Alex Shipillo, Mike Rowlands, Cory LePage and Matt Quetton, who have fielded many a frantic question over the past year and have always made time in their busy schedule for emails, walks, coffee and pep talks.

Abid Virani, Asha Suppiah, Athena Theny, Corey Cook, Graham Anderson, Kelly Lovell, Patrick Shannon, Saksham Uppal, Scott Oldford, Simon Pickup, Sonam Swarup, Linda Liu, Olivia Khalili, April Dutheil, Smita Satiani, Elisha Muskat and everyone else at Ashoka & American Express Emerging Innovators Bootcamp: without your fire, support and stunning example, there's a good chance this wouldn't be happening!