Read Letarte's CoutureCast Interview | All CoutureCast interviews are copyrighted and property of CoutureCandy.com 2007

Jill Johnson: Hi and welcome to the Couture Candy Couture Cast. This is Jill Johnson, CEO of Couture Candy. Today we will explore the Tropical Lux brand Letarte. I'll be talking with the fabulous sister duo behind the brand which is Michele Ross, CEO and Lisa Cabrinha, the designer. Hi Michele and Lisa!

Michele and Lisa: Hi Jill!

Jill Johnson: How is Hawaii?

Lisa Cabrinha: Beautiful! Sunny and breezy!

Jill Johnson: Gorgeous! Good. I know a lot of our listeners are so interested in hearing what inspired you, how you got your start. So I'd like to first ask you, how did you did you start your business together?

Lisa Cabrinha: I was living in Hawaii, this Lisa speaking, and I was wind surfing competitively. Everyday you train and you're out in the waves in the ocean wearing a bikini and a lot of the bikinis that I saw -- they were just a little bit too sporty looking for me. I love funky fashion and I love the whole fashion part of the swim wear business. And so, I started designing my own suits and it was history from there.

Jill Johnson:Had you been designing other things before that?

Lisa Cabrinha: Not really. I just dabble a little bit making some jewelry and that was it.

Jill Johnson: Oh, very cool. And then, how long ago was that?

Lisa Cabrinha: Seven years ago.

Jill Johnson: And then Michele your sister, you came in as the business one?

Lisa Cabrinha: Yes, I was terrible at the business so I needed my sister to help me with that and she's a great business girl.

Jill Johnson: So from there, how do you work together on different sides sides of the universe, so to speak?

Michele Ross: We use work from my email quite a bit. That helps us communicate. We talk several times a day and we also have a video cam or web cam. So Lisa and I can share ideas and samples and things like that through that camera going on to our desktops.

Jill Johnson: Oh that's a great idea. So then, once Lisa's designed the suits and Michele do you step in and you share ideas back and forth?

Michele Ross: Absolutely. We really collaborate on a lot of the projects. Sometimes Lisa's influence from traveling will spill over to something that may have seen on the streets of New York city and we get to work together and try and find maybe a print or a trim or something that would emulate a feel or a trend that we see that's going on.

Jill Johnson: Do you get a lot of your fabric and trims in New York? Or all over the place?

Lisa Cabrinha: Some come from my travels but that I do. My husband is a pro-surfer so we get to travel to a lot of exotic places.

Jill Johnson: Oh, how nice.

Lisa Cabrinha: Yes, we find a lot of interesting trends.

Jill Johnson: And that makes you want to go on a fabulous vacation or feel like you're on one. It's so tropical and beautiful and you can definitely tell that your influence lies in beautiful places.

Lisa Cabrinha: Well Maui is a great place too. It's kind of a melting pot. We have a lot of European influence, Asian influence here, American. It's a real melting pot of people jet setting around the world and come here to enjoy the surf and the sand, basically.

Jill Johnson: Yeah, I love how your line has so many different covers-up and so many different pieces to it. You'll do a matching skirt that goes with the bikini, that goes with a top. I love having so many options like that. Did you always do so many pieces in the collection or was it mainly focused on swim wear in the beginning?

Lisa Cabrinha: In the beginning it was mostly swim wear and it we did some beach towels and added a couple of new cover-ups and now the cover up part of company has really grown.

Jill Johnson: I bet. We saw a lot of cover ups. People love them and you can wear them with trousers, as a dress over your bikini so they are very multi-functional.

Michele Ross: What's great about that position of our company, Jill is that our account base is not just the door locations but we have fantastic stores such Stoop and Intermix that purchase our covers of sportswear pieces the The July sales is translated into a year round look-and-feel.

Jill Johnson: I love that swim wear goes in that direction too because I remember a long time ago it was also so divided and there were not a lot of clothing boutiques even like ours selling a lifestyle brand of swim wear and the cover-ups. So it's nice that you are in stores like that that can represent more of your brand too.

With that said, are you thinking about adding other things to the collection or expanding into different areas such as decor or something?

Michele Ross: Absolutely and we have several different divisions in the work right now.

Jill Johnson: Are you guys making beach towels? Or will you be?

Michele Ross: We've made them in the past. We're continuing to bring them in for this year.

Jill Johnson: That would be great to see beach towel again or hammocks. I'm sure you can do tons of fabulous things. So let's talk a little bit about the growing of the business and some of the attributes that lead to success of Letarte. I know that it has quite a celebrity following.

Michele Ross: Yes.

Jill Johnson: And I'm wondering if you have any specific stories of maybe the first time you saw a celebrity in one of your suits or how it impacted the business.

Lisa Cabrinha: We'll I think one of the big impacts is that we did the suits for Charlie's Angels with Cameron Diaz.

Jill Johnson: Oh yeah and then tell me what transpired after that.

Lisa Cabrinha: It was kind just kind of snowballed that people would see that suit and there's a lot of talk about that movie.

Jill Johnson: Right.

Lisa Cabrinha: Being seen from there was great for us because a lot of it was very Hawaii-looking, [Laughs]

Jill Johnson: Yeah.

Lisa Cabrinha: A lot of people said, oh they want that suit. Where do they come from? So, that was a really good opportunity for us.

Jill Johnson: Yeah, movies and celebrities they really pump up the brand awareness because of so much media involved around them.

Lisa Cabrinha: And also there one particular issue of Sports Illustrated. You know Heidi Klum?

Jill Johnson: Oh, I love Heidi Klum!

Lisa Cabrinha: That generated a log of influence in the press. I mean of course we got the cover of Sports Illustrated that was the main thing and I think that having, you know, having that one beautiful shot of Heidi. That was great. We had the cover of Bergdorf Goodman's catalogue in that was a big deal for us and got a lot of hits on the web site after that.

Jill Johnson: That's awesome. So unless you really find you guys working as sisters together, collaborating and also enjoying all the success. What kind of impact does it have on your sisterhood, your relationship?

Lisa Cabrinha: We're still the same. [Laughter]. Who else would you love to see your first day on the morning on an iPod camera.

Jill Johnson: Yeah. I'm glad I don't have one. Do you find each other taking over each other's roles sometimes?

Lisa Cabrinha: Not too much. We pretty much stick to our roles.

Jill Johnson: Now Michele you have a retail and business background, right?

Michele Ross: Yes.

Jill Johnson: How do you think that's helped your business, having a your retail experience? Does it help you pick the stores that you want to be in or merchandising?

Michele Ross: Well it works in several ways. At trade shows, I'm usually the person working the collections. You know, relaying to the potential customer what we are all about. I'm pretty savvy when it comes to making sure that people have the right products from us in their stores and what things work in what retail. And I also have a huge ball of time all over the production.

I mean I'm in there checking people that come in daily and the steps I work practically on something sitting. I am on the East Coast so I'm a little bit more of the city person. I wear a lot of black. And we both live in this beautiful environment, location and so she has always got the nice, softer, dual tones, pastels.

Jill Johnson: Well, it's definitely a winning combination.

Michele Ross: It's a winning combination.

Jill Johnson: That's wonderful. Is there anything else that you want to talk about or tell your customers and fans.

Lisa Cabrinha: Well, we also have a girl that's works in the outfit panties, and she is my right-hand person there in the design center and also a surfer and she goes every morning surfing regardless of the...

Jill Johnson: How nice.

Lisa Cabrinha: She is a good customer of a lot of the suits for us.

Jill Johnson: I saw the pictures of you two. Do you both do some of your fit modeling or trying it on yourself to see how it all fits.

Michele and Lisa: Absolutely. We are the fit models.

Jill Johnson: Good. That's the best way to do it. I used to design clothing too and I wasn't formally trained so I would design a dress and make my pattern and put it on and then throw it back on the floor, cut it up a little more, put it back on. And so I would have to try on things several times in the beginning which made it really fit really well. You are in control of it that way.

Lisa Cabrinha: You'd have somebody come in. I said my work would be a lot slower if I didn't just put it on myself.

Jill Johnson: Yeah, I'm sure. Well, it's very lucky that you can do all that. At the end of every interview sometimes I like to close with a few questions. We'll start with Lisa. Who is your muse?

Lisa Cabrinha: I couldn't say I have one in particular but I have a lot of jet set friends and I have bohemian style friends that travel the world and I'm always looking to that when I design something. I would think of that person. Would they wear this? Would they buy this?

Jill Johnson: Yeah.

Lisa Cabrinha: That's kind of the way I'm always thinking.

Jill Johnson: That's nice. And then Michele. What is your favorite era in fashion history? Or you can both answer this if you want.

Michele Ross: I think we both love the 60's. The 60's for sure.

Jill Johnson: It comes across in your lines. I do too. Don't you love all the old surf movies and stuff?

Lisa Cabrinha: They are just classic. Even when you go back to windsurfing, you have the jet setters in St. Moritz and they were so polished and put together. We love that.

Jill Johnson: Yeah, I do too.

Lisa Cabrinha: Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised you applied to it.

Jill Johnson: Yeah, it's definitely fun and it has such a light heartedness to it and it's still put together. I even like some of the Linda Doris Day movies too. That whole era was really was fun. Lisa, what would you never be caught dead in?

Lisa Cabrinha: A suit?

Jill Johnson: Would you say a suit?

Lisa: Just a skirt, black with a blazer. Never!

Michele Ross: That was something Lisa and I laughed about when we were looking at your clips and that was hysterical.

Jill Johnson: Yeah, she wasn't right on one either. But then, I'm in Santa Barbara too. What is your favorite item in your closet?

Lisa Cabrinha: My favorite item I'd say is not a swim suit kind of thing. They have a pair of these pants made by a designer in New York called Lost Art.

Jill Johnson: Uh uh.

Lisa Cabrinha: That a friend of mine, Victoria d' Arco gave me a pair of those and I can't wait to go to New York so I can wear them.

Jill Johnson: Awesome! What about you Michele?

Michele Ross: I don't have a favorite item. I have at home some broken jars, that I just adore and...

Jill Johnson: And you couldn't think of that immediately?

Michele Ross: Well, that is alright. I guess that is an item.

Jill Johnson: Yeah, it is. It's quite an item.

Lisa Cabrinha: It was hanging in her closet. It's hanging on her arm all the time.

Jill Johnson: Yeah, your seriously out of the closet. Yeah. Either you two think of something that you don't have that you wished you did in your wardrobe?

Lisa Cabrinha: Not really.

Jill Johnson: That's a nice place to be in. Okay for my closing question. If you could go anywhere in the world tomorrow, where would it be?

Lisa Cabrinha: Gosh, there's a lot of places I wanted go. I'm dying to go safari and I always to go to Marrakech.

Jill Johnson: To Marrakech! Oh my gosh, you would get so much great inspiration there, I'm sure.

Lisa Cabrinha: It would really be fun. My daughter loves animals, so...And my husband also. So I'd really do that someday.

Jill Johnson: That would really be cool. Oh and my one last question is what is the future of Letarte?

Michele Ross: Let me look into the crystal ball. [Laughter] I think the future of Letarte is definitely expanding the line and the representation globally. We are now starting to distribute into the Asian market and I'll probably represent our next 2 to 3 years of expanding globally with our Clark line and also bring in other divisions to the label.

Jill Johnson: Well, you've certainly done so well so far and I'm sure there is nothing but great things in the future with the line and expanding it. We'd all love to see that. So thank you so much for for talking to us today girls and I want to tell all the listeners out there, some of you who have shopped Letarte before. Thank you so much for the support. And those of you who haven't, check out the line at couturecandy.com. Thanks so much girls!

Lisa Cabrinha: Thank you Jill!

Michele Ross: Thanks a lot!

Michele and Lisa: Aloha!

Jill Johnson: Bye!

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