Little Miss Moffatt



	Ready for their closeup: Designers Rob Pepin and Lauren Moffatt.

Lauren Moffatt’s women’s wear is a hit elsewhere. Now it’s finally sailing into her hometown.

by Fern Sternberg

When Lauren Moffatt first brought her women’s wear designs to the Charles Porter Boutique in Old City, things didn’t start off well. Porter, busy showing customers his current offerings, paid little attention to her. But while she was waiting, she started pulling out samples — a bright green strapless dress with a pink patch pocket, a yellow and white striped A-line skirt with pink leather trim, a green skirt with lime green lining and an orange antique button. The Candyland colors and simple lines drew the attention of customers — so much so that they abandoned Porter to investigate. And Porter was right behind them. When he saw how well the items were made and the reactions they caused, he was hooked. "My customers told me what to carry," he says.

Lauren Moffatt designs are the work of Abington native Lauren Moffatt, 24, and her boyfriend and partner Rob Pepin, 27. The fresh-faced blond couple met while studying fashion design at Philadelphia College of Textiles and Science. Pepin graduated in 1997 and moved to New York to work for a big-name fashion house; Moffatt transferred after her freshman year to earn a degree in fine art at Chestnut Hill College. After graduation she did graphic design for a Conshohocken firm that folded a year later. Meanwhile, in the big apple, Pepin was fed up with doing all the work with none of the credit for other designers, so he quit. The couple’s mutual joblessness in early 1999 led them to start their own business.



Between friends: Moffatt and models show off her fall line.

"There wasn’t much thought put into it. We just did it," says Pepin.

So how do two young designers make it in the big city? Lots of luck, says Moffatt. And they had it from the start. After deciding to design a women’s wear line, Moffatt began drawing with colored pencils. These colorful doodles are where most of her design inspiration comes from, she says. A few months later they bought some scrap fabric and started sewing. Once they’d completed a bunch of pieces, they thought they’d start small, show their line to some unintimidating boutiques they’d found in the back of a trade magazine. A few stores agreed to take a look. Just as they were about to pay a call on one, Hedra Prue on the Lower East Side, they came across an A-Z list of hot boutiques in Vogue. There, under H, was Hedra Prue. Fear shot through them both. They’d assumed this was some minor shop, not a high-end boutique. They contemplated skipping the appointment — for a moment —then pulled themselves together and went anyway. The folks at Prue ordered 100 pieces that same day.

The first two seasons Moffatt and Pepin sewed all the designs — several hundred pieces — out of their home. A big task for anyone, but especially for Pepin and Moffatt, both admittedly weak in the sewing department. An even bigger task since the two live on a 31-foot sailboat docked in New York Harbor. Pepin bought the boat when they started the business as a way of circumventing high Manhattan rents. It’s cheap, but such small quarters and the motion of the ocean aren’t exactly the ideal environment for sewing a straight line.

"It’s like camping 365 days of the year," says Moffatt of their rustic home.

Though they still live on the boat, success has afforded them a small office space in a mid-town sewing factory where their line is also manufactured. Moffatt designs and Pepin handles the manufacturing end; both do the marketing. As a result of their salesmanship, Lauren Moffatt is in 11 stores across the globe including locations as far as San Francisco and Tokyo. But it wasn’t until last week that the line made its way to Philadelphia.

"We tried Philly stores and they weren’t as receptive to the line," says Moffatt.

Until now. Charles Porter, the only boutique in the area currently carrying the line, has only a few spring pieces. But he’s planning to stock Moffatt’s fall line. It’s similar to the spring, but with heavier fabrics, buttery leathers and some sweaters.

Who knows? Maybe she’ll attract so much interest among Philly fashionistas that she and Pepin will have to dock that boat in the Delaware.