Homemade

When Karen Matthews sees someone wearing a Nortique coat she doesn't shy away from going up to them and saying "I love your coat."

Matthews considers it good business. She wants to find out what people think of her products and, good or bad, she says the feedback is beneficial to her and her staff.

It's her good business sense that recently earned her the Newfoundland and Labrador Organization of Women Entrepreneurs' (NLOWE) entrepreneur of the year award for the western region.

Matthews started Nortique Fashions in the basement of her home in Summerside in 1989.

But the company actually started to take shape a few years before that.

Matthews, who describes herself as a self-taught seamstress and clothing designer, started sewing because she wanted to make her own clothes.

"I don't have any formal training," she says.

"I work well with my hands and my grandmothers, they were good sewers, good semstresses in their day. And I guess my training is probably something that I'm self-taught in my sewing skills.

"I think a lot of it was genetics."

Her creations drew lots of comments and people would asked her to sew things for them.

After starting with clothing, Matthews' interest turned to coats and she says the first one she ever made was for her son. From there she started sewing ladies coats which were soon in demand.

At the time Matthews was working full-time at Atlantic Gypsum.

This meant a lot of long hours, but she wouldn't have had it any other way.

"I'd be up to 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning . . . but I really enjoyed it and loved it."

As the demand and interest grew Matthews started to realize her little home-based business could grow into something more.

Before she took the leap, Matthews did some market research that included meeting with clothing and coat companies.

"The market research indicated to us that our product was well made, it was unique and different at the time and that yes they would probably buy that for the stores if we could produce the product for them.

"From there we said 'OK people like what we are making, companies, stores like what we're making and they gave us the indication that yes there's a possibility there could be a viable business.'

"And then I just went for it."

A year later she hired a seamstress to help with the sewing.

In its early years Nortique produced a lot of bridalwear and prom dresses on a more seasonal basis.

In 1996 the business was incorporated under the name Nortique Enterprises Inc. and today employs about eight people at peak production times.

Nortique has moved out of the basement and into its own production building in Summerside.

The primary products now are Nortique coats and outerwear and a cape collection which is very popular outside of the province.

"They're not worn that much in Newfoundland but we have a market right across Canada and into the U.S., and that's where a lot of our products are sold.

"In Newfoundland I can't sell enough for this to be a viable business, I have to go outside," says Matthews.

The items are all designed by Matthews and she puts out at least three collections a year - spring with a focus on jackets, fall is the time for the capes and winter features the outerwear, parkas and long swing coats.

Once she comes up with a design the next step is to draft the patterns and produce the item to make sure it is workable.

"When I get a design I have something in my mind and I say 'OK, yes, this is what I'm going to make' and I pull it all together and then the first items we discuss it with all of our sewers, we also maybe put it out in our shop and we get comments on it from other people.

"We don't put anything into full production until we've had some sort of a market analysis on it." Matthews says it's important to find out what people think of a new item and find out how it fits, is it something they'd wear and is the price too high or too low.

"We try to get a lot of that information before we go into production."

That also means keeping up on the trends in the industry and what people are buying.

"We will change our design definitely for every fall," she says introducing "new designs, new colours and new fabrics."

There are things that work year after year, like the long swing coat, "it's a classic," says Matthews, but she knows that in order to keep the customers coming back, "you have to give them something new."

Besides the production shop in Summerside, Nortique also operates a retail outlet, complete with a small sewing shop, on Confederation Drive in Corner Brook that is open year-round. This location is a show-room for Nortique's fashions and also carries a wide variety of other craft type items, many made by craftspeople from Newfoundland and Labrador.

"Our intention was never to have a store just with Nortique alone," says Matthews, "we felt we could help other people with sales of their product and by combining them with ours we feel that we're always presenting a mini craft show all the time within our store."

Nortique also operates a few seasonal shops, similar to the one in Corner Brook, in other areas during the summer.

And along with selling real estate - yes she still works two jobs - Matthews finds time to attend retail trade shows in St. John's and Mount Pearl and wholesale shows off the island.

Nortique's coats can be found in fashion boutiques and craft/gift shops in Toronto, Montreal and Edmonton.

They're even on display in the Deer Lake Airport and in shops in other airports.

When she looks at all she's accomplished over the years, Matthews hopes other women will think of her as an inspiration.

"I would just encourage them to go for it, whatever it is that their dream may be and they can certainly accomplish that. Anything is possible it certainly is."