Erin Cole, couture bridal accessories designer and owner of Erin Cole bridal shop on 17th Street in Costa Mesa, now is the county’s exclusive seller of Oscar de la Renta wedding dresses.
Erin Cole also sells other designer bridal gowns, including Monique Lhuillier and Vera Wang, both exclusives to the county.
“It’s important to us to never overlap with another store,” Cole said.
The dresses start at $3,500 and go up to $30,000.
Each bride is fitted, and dresses are made to order.
Cole, who doesn’t disclose sales, said she sells quite a few dresses—about 70 a month for each designer she carries.
She runs the business with longtime friend and partner, Karin Schroeder.
The start of the year is busiest as brides get ready for spring weddings and others later in the year.
This past year was Erin Cole’s best, she said.
Cole has been designing for 16 years. She makes tiaras, brooches, belts, bracelets, hairpins and other items.
All of the pieces are done from Cole’s imagination. She doesn’t do sketches. Instead, Cole works directly with silk and other raw materials.
“I love regular fashion,” she said. “If it’s happening in regular fashion, I’ll tweak it to carry over to bridal.”
Her factory in Costa Mesa makes her accessories. It employs about 12 people who help with the design.
Cole’s mother and grandmother both were seamstresses and were inspiration for her fashion career. Her grandmother made all of her clothes when she was a girl.
Cole started making accessories after a stint at Costa Mesa’s Mon Amie Bridal Salon.
The store didn’t have upscale accessories that matched the dresses, Cole said. When she left, Mon Amie was her first customer.
“They purchased everything,” she said.
Business took off after Erin Cole accessories landed in Saks Fifth Avenue.
Cole has plans to expand, possibly this year. She wants to move to a space double the size of her current 1,500-square-foot store at 17th Street Promenade. She wants six dressing rooms and dedicated space for alterations.
The store gets pretty packed on a busy Saturday when brides and family and friends come in all at once.
Cole said she knows exactly where she wants the store to move. She wants to keep the store in the same area, which is right off the Costa Mesa (55) Freeway.
“This is a very busy area,” she said.
Auto Rebound
Last year marked a rebound for auto dealers. This year, Newport Beach-based Orange County Automobile Dealers Association expects sales to keep growing.
Last year’s new auto registrations—a barometer of sales—were up 14% to 109,834 vehicles. This year’s registrations are forecast to rise nearly 13% to 124,000 autos.
Dealers still have a ways to get back to 2004 when 197,041 autos were sold.
Old vehicles that need to be replaced are hindering a full comeback in sales. What’s holding buyers back? Household debt. Consumers still are working on paying down debt, which is eating up their disposable income, according to the association’s recent outlook report for 2011.
Toyota/Scion, Honda, Ford, Mercedes-Benz and Nissan finished 2010 as the top five brands in the county, according to the association.
Auto Tech Contest
San Clemente High School won the Orange County Automobile Dealers Association’s 18th Annual Automotive Technology Competition, held at Hyundai Motor America’s training center in Fountain Valley.
Teams from Orange County high schools competed in an auto repair contest. The competition is a way to encourage students to become auto technicians, who are in demand at auto dealers.
The teams will share $80,000 in scholarships provided by the dealers association and others.
The San Clemente team is set to compete in the National Automotive Technology Competition in New York in April.
Other Dealer News
The dealers association said it saw a 10% increase in attendance at the Orange County Auto Show held in October at the Anaheim Convention Center. The dealer group doesn’t disclose the number of attendees.
The group also recently chose a new board president, Jon Gray, owner of Costa Mesa’s Orange Coast Chrysler Jeep Dodge.
Gray replaced John Patterson, owner of Tustin Mazda, Huntington Beach Mazda and OC Hyundai in Santa Ana.
