TUTUS Designer hopes her quirky skirts will dance onto the fashion stage

She started making the nostalgic garments when she was in college.
SCRIPPS HOWARD
Beneath a high-pitched white tent, the who's who of North Carolina area fashion designers gathered to celebrate their new creations and drum up a little business.
Handbag designers mingled with jewelers. Makeup artists painted faces. Children's clothing experts talked shop with home decor mavens, and a florist displayed his skills next to a wedding dress designer. The wine flowed, and the women shopped.
A trio of college students, each one dressed in a bright, flowing tutu, moved among the crowd. People stared. Some broke into wide grins. The girls twirled, showing off the airy fabric and the delicate rose petals sewn into the tulle hems.
Testing the waters
Designer Sallie Hedrick, 21, introduced these dreamy skirts -- a pink one wrapped around her own waist -- at the neighborhood retail bash sponsored by the shesheme.com shopping Web site.
Like her colleagues, Hedrick was on hand to test the retail waters. But while women snapped up handbags and necklaces and hats, fewer reached for tutus. Those who did, however, reached with glowing faces.
"It takes me back to my ballet days," said Meg Sutton, 28, of her frothy, beribboned garment.
It's this nostalgic, fanciful association that has made Hedrick's new adult tutus a big hit at North Carolina stores where they've been on sale since March and on the shesheme.com Web site.
Now as the young designer aims for a larger audience, she knows she must market her unusual garment strategically. Twirling onto the national fashion stage may prove a daunting dance.
"It could hit really big. It could die on the vine. It's impossible to predict," said Kurt Barnard, president and CEO of Barnard's Retail Consulting Group in Montclair, N.J. "It has to resonate with enough customers to become a fad. It's certainly encouraging that it's attractive locally, but is it attractive for a larger audience?"
Company background
Hedrick started her tutu company, now dubbed Tulle Time, when she was in college. With a friend's help, she cranked out children's tutus in her dorm room. Then she took the garments to area children's boutiques.
While finishing her senior year and forging an acting career, Hedrick has cranked out about 100 of the adult skirts since March. The tutus come in three lengths: 18 inches, 27 inches and 36 inches. They retail at $65.50 to $89.50 for adults and $39.95 for the children's version.
Chris Royer, president of CRC, a New York-based fashion consulting company, says it won't be easy to get such a quirky item off the ground.
"It's for a narrow audience. It's more of a warm climate type of thing. She needs to think of marketing this geographically," Royer said.
Finding a market
Underground niche items do sometimes spawn wider trends. In recent years, the super baggy pants introduced by rappers inspired the craze for low-riding hip-huggers. And today's ubiquitous cargo pants are a descendant of the styles first found in military surplus stores.
Still, wearing a tutu in public requires daring and a certain stylish panache many people neither have nor care to cultivate. Earlier this year viewers cringed at the baggy, bizarre version that actress Lara Flynn Boyle wore to the Golden Globe awards.
Because of their sheerness, Hedrick's skirts are really accessories that need to be layered over another garment. Hedrick may rework the design to create a skirt that could be worn alone, possibly of a heavier material decorated with tulle flourishes.
She's also in discussions with Henri Bendel, the exclusive New York City boutique, and she's planning to display the tutus at the Atlanta International Gift & amp; Home Furnishings Market in Atlanta this July.
Royer believes children may be the key to the garment's future. Her advice for Hedrick: Play it safe. Concentrate on the children's market and make the adult skirts only as custom orders.
"It could be a mommy-and-daughter type of thing, which would be wonderful at parties," Royer said.
Either way, Hedrick is committed to continuing her children's line.
She has faith the mini tutus will keep selling as long as little girls dream of becoming ballerinas.