Katy Dalrymple

Today Katy Dalrymple, the owner and creator of Katy Bloom, came to speak with us about her adventurous career in the fashion industry. She started out as a buyer for Saks Fifth Avenue and did a lot of traveling for Saks and moved every 6 months. After Saks, she worked for Anne Klein and taught them how to properly buy fabric and use the most of their resources. Katy learned a lot about manufacturing at this job. She received the job at Anne Klein because Donna Karan was fired to start her own brand. Katy also had a merchandising position at Perry Ellis for one year. After that, she became the second person on board for DKNY and later on was recruited as fashion director at Express. In 2008, Katy tried to turn around Fashion Bug, but it didn’t work out and is now closed. She was later recruited for Avenue and after that started her own business creating original and one-of-a-kind fascinators. Katy was inspired by Alexander McQueen and started making fascinators when she found an old headband and flowers and decided to put them together. She is also a flower designer that provides fresh flowers for parties, homes, and weddings.

I really enjoyed listening to Katy talk to us about her career. One really important retail tactic she told us was, “It’s about where the store is,” as in location rather than what’s in the store. It is still important to have good merchandise, but good location is everything. She also mentioned how creativity comes from your gut feeling and not thinking too hard with your head. She said to follow what you think will make you happiest instead of sticking with the plan in your head or overthinking a situation. She brought some of her fascinators and allowed us to try them on, which I thought was really cool. They were all so extravagant and original. I really enjoyed how her business came to be just from her experimenting with some leftover materials for her own self joy. Trying them on was a cool experience because I actually was in kind of a better mood than I was. Not that I was in a bad mood, but they made me excited.

Katy Dalrymple contributed a lot to the fashion industry. She was the fashion director for Express for many years and is responsible for it being so successful today. Her contribution to Anne Klein was also huge by showing them proper buying and manufacturing skills. Katy’s own fascinator business contributes to the fashion industry by being a one-of-a-kind designer. Fascinators are a huge trend in the United Kingdom and bringing them to America is a unique idea and concept. I might use this experience in my future career by going with my gut rather than with my head. Sometimes great things happen that aren’t planned and they are the best decisions in life. Doing what makes me happy should be the main priority rather than sticking to a guideline of how my career should be someday.