courtney courtney? if you follow my facebook, you've probably noticed some courtney courtney posts recently. that's because i love and support her product. i have basically told her that i'll help her any way i can.

i've been wanting to blog about her for a while now and decided that it would be fun if i asked her some questions and let her speak for herself. so here we go. introducing the fabulous owner and designer of courtney courtney...

name: Courtney Anne Chu location: Chicago, IL age: 28

have you always loved to design and sew? No, but I have always loved making things. Especially jewelry when I was little up until high school, then I began experimenting with textiles and silkscreens one summer in high school. My only experience with sewing was home economics (is it still called that?) in 7th grade. I got my first sewing machine after my first year of college. Slowly I began experimenting with knits and got my serger which changed everything!

do you work alone or do you have a staff that assists you? No staff! My mom and friend help me cut fabric sometimes (but they don’t live here) and my dad also enjoys hitting up the thrift stores :D I guess I’m just fast. And I guess I’m a quick decision maker.

did you formally study fashion design? if not, what did you study and where? Another no here, I studied Industrial Design at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. I did a summer pre-college program at Rhode Island School of Design, for textile design, so I think most of my interest in dyeing fabrics and silkscreening came from that.

how did you get started in designing upscaled children's clothing? It was more of a reaction to my full-time job. As a designer you rarely get to see your designs 100% through to production. My sewing allowed me to do that. As my friends might know about me, I don’t really like to plan or set goals. So the sewing at first was just a feeling of, I want to make this and I want to see a complete little dress. Every little dress I try new things. With my full-time job also in children’s fashion, I know what else is out there and what I like. I am able to make what I do not see.

what is your inspiration, in designing your dresses? what inspires you in general? Everything can be inspiration. It’s kind of funny to think that when I see boring dresses I am inspired. I do look at range of fashion, so that surely inspires me. The fabrics of course play a huge part. Knits have a little bit of wiggle room but you have to know how they behave.

I like a challenge, it seems lately that I like to see how I can pair fabrics and patterns that no one expects to see together.

I like to think the person who is buying the dress, the child who will wear the dress, will have something no one else will have. Of course they will be comfortable cause it’s knit and it’s like wearing a tshirt, but they have on a special dress that no one else has, which is ready for any adventure.

have you thought of expanding into a physical or online store? I used to want a physical store, but then when would I sew!

I did the online store thing, but I spent so much time listing items only to be bought up immediately.

have you ever considered doing boy's or adult clothing? The issue here seems to be that I save my ‘boy’ fabrics for the girls.

And women are so picky about their bodies!

what does courtney courtney look like in five years? in 10 years? Ha! Someone asked me this before, and my response is the same. Ask me in 5 years, ask me in 10.

how can someone go about purchasing one of your dresses? Right now I offer my dresses through email. So every other day or so, an email will go out to the sizes offered that day. http://eepurl.com/cgS2P Sign up here and make sure to select your size(s).

please share one thing you want everyone to know about you or you or your work. I never want my work to be anything but one-of-a-kind.

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i've tried to convince courtney that i'm not picky about my body, but she's not buying it and still not making adult clothing. DARN!!

seriously though, i can't say enough about courtney and the clothing she designs and sews. sky owns a number of dresses now and i've seriously considered dumping all of sky's clothes and just stocking up on nothing but courtney courtney.