October 14, 1998
NYC dress designer moves to TC
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
Rachele Hansen is jumping with both feet into a new life in Traverse City. Relocating here from New York City just six weeks ago, Hansen is settling into her city home and launching her fine dressmaking business, undaunted by knowing virtually nobody in town.
She is also quickly changing her status as a newcomer by networking with the local arts and business communities, starting market research and creating a business plan.
"I love New York but I started wanting the other side of life, craving grass and a little garden," said Hansen, a Lansing native, who decided to return to Michigan this year to be closer to her family. "When I came up here on vacation this summer, I said, 'This is it, I love it!' Traverse City is a small town but it is progressive."
A dressmaker for four years making theater costumes in New York, Hansen plans to focus her business here on creating heirloom-quality wedding gowns. Instead of the polyester, nylon and plastic beads of mass-produced wedding gowns, she will offer silk, satin and handmade fabric bows and flowers. Willing to experiment with non-traditional colors and styles, Hansen can also work from a picture or sketched design, a skill learned while sewing costumes for Broadway and off-Broadway shows.
"These will be gowns that daughters and granddaughters can wear," Hansen said. "My trademark is attention to detail, everything handmade."
Hansen searched for a month to find just the right atmosphere for her home-based business, determined that the home reflect her business philosophy: an old-fashioned dressmaker making quality, timeless pieces.
"I wanted something old-fashioned, hospitable and inviting," said Hansen, who rented her turn-of-the-century home barely two weeks ago.
Although she sometimes marvels at finding herself a dressmaker, Hansen was always drawn to the fashion industry. She moved to New York City after a few years at a community college to attend a small fashion school. After graduation, she started working in the industry on the business side of merchandising, marketing and management. After four years in this pressure-cooker industry, where she recalls bosses screaming at their employees and daily knots in her stomach, Hansen quit to return to school. As an admitted history fanatic, she decided to study history and enrolled in New York University to earn her bachelor's degree.
While in school, she started volunteering with some theaters, working in the costume department. When she graduated three years later, her love of and interest in historical costumes led her to work for a historical costume maker.
"I love fabrics and I never got sick of looking at costumes," Hansen said. "I decided to be a designer and dressmaker."
She admits to bluffing her way into the first job, where she soon stunned her new boss by not even knowing how to make a continuous lap placket. She quickly learned the art of dressmaking, however, and after a year she became the shop's first hand and later became the draper - or lead sewer - for the shop. After two years she went out on her own as a freelance dressmaker.
Over the years, Hansen has made costumes for shows such Chekov's The Seagull, The Scarlet Pimpernel and many off-Broadway productions featuring historical themes. She also made replacement costumes for The Phantom of the Opera. Some of the dresses used 14 yards of fabric; others had hand-pleated trim on the bodice or required the dressmaker to sew corsets and petticoats. Making a dress averaged 30-40 hours of work.
"Making these costumes was like sculpting fabric," said Hansen, who for the past two summers has sewed costumes for summer theater companies in Colorado and Massachusetts. "The dresses I make for brides will also be historically inspired but updated so they don't look like a costume."