Debby Trabelsy’s family likes to joke that she and friend Cristina Shaffer have teamed up to become a pint-sized business team.
The two women “” both under five feet tall with daughters in the fourth grade “” stumbled upon the idea last March for their own line of positive-message T-shirts, dubbed Look Within Clothing, as they were helping their youngsters with an art project.
“My whole life, any kind of creative family project that was going on, I was involved in it,” said Trabelsy, a New Jersey native who moved to La Jolla eight years ago. “Everyone would always say, ‘You’re so talented and you’re just wasting it.'”
That was until she met Shaffer, who swears the stars were aligned on that fateful day four years ago. The women’s daughters, Rachel and Sabina, were in the same kindergarten class at La Jolla Country Day and the two moms both volunteered to help with school projects and events.
Four years later, while sitting around a kitchen table with paint supplies in hand and daughters at their sides, the friends began to brainstorm about how they could put their talents to good use.
As their youngsters started to experience some of the pulls of peer pressure and social cliques, Shaffer and Trabelsy decided it was important to provide constant reinforcement to support the girls’ self-confidence “” and to do the same for teens, young adults and women of all ages. That’s where their clothing line comes in.
Recently, at a UTC teashop, Shaffer and Trabelsy recounted the story of their newborn business, both still giddy with disbelief and sporting their handiwork.
The partners handcraft clothing for women and girls, and the tank tops they were wearing this day read “Love” and “Hope.” The shirts are painted with the words and folded in half, imprinting an intricate reflective design “” hence the name Look Within, which has a double meaning, Shaffer said.
“We meant look within the design but also look within the person,” she said, explaining that they hoped the clothing would spark positive conversations and inspire others.
Embellishing T-shirts and jeans is nothing new for Shaffer “” it was something the California native had been dabbling in for many years but had never thought to further pursue, she said.
Little did she know that over the course of three months, she’d make the transition from crafty house-mom and part-time photographer to fashion and marketing guru.
But as the shirt designs began to take shape, the women realized the venture wasn’t about big business. They wanted to center the company around making a positive difference at the local ” and eventually ” global level.
“We wanted to make sure ” when we started the business ” we wanted it to be a positive thing,” Shaffer said. “We wanted to give a certain percentage back.”
At the business’s inception, Trabelsy’s cousin had been working to raise money for Sudanese refugees, which inspired the women to donate 4 percent of proceeds from their May trunk show ” for which they produced 450 shirts ” to benefit San Diego’s Southern Sudanese Community Center.
Their next trunk show, planned for October, will feature yoga pants, long-sleeve T’s and scarves with signature designs. A portion of the proceeds will go to Angels Foster Family Agency, a nonprofit San Diego organization focused on caring for at-risk infants and toddlers until they can be placed with appropriate foster parents.
Although giving back is important, staying stress-free and having fun is imperative to the business partners as well, they said.
That’s why they’ve decided to keep production on a small scale “” so small that Trabelsy’s bedroom has become a stock room, garment racks and all. And by only selling merchandise through trunk shows and online, they have a hand in every aspect of the process. Shaffer excels technologically, building the Web site and photographing all the clothing, while Trabelsy keeps her eye on details, such as monitoring material quality and perfecting design patterns.
Not hiring a staff or depending on others to help them with odd jobs also helps them save more money that can be donated to charities, they said.
Looking to the future, the pair said they aren’t completely opposed to having their lines snatched up by department stores or smaller boutiques, but that such a move would change the personalization that the company has prided itself on.
A great amount of thought goes into every detail ” right down to the shirt tags elucidating the company’s objectives “” but the women don’t want to get too far away from their ultimate goal: being the best possible moms that they can.
“We want it all,” Trabelsy said. “To be great moms, but we still want to volunteer and be active, yet paint all day and do our thing as well.”
In a perfect world, the two would open their very own shop full of inspirational books for young women and an expanded Look Within clothing selection, complete with a room dedicated to yoga and other relaxation classes.
All dreaming aside, while the two might be small in stature, there is no question that their drive and love for creating both beautiful and meaningful clothing is great. And their efforts to help others are genuine.
“Deep down inside I’ve always wanted to do something creative,” Shaffer said. “Right now we want to keep it small, focus on the charities, and if something big happens we’ll just ride that wave.”
Trabelsy added: “We are just doing it because we love it.”
For more information, visit www.lookwithinclothing.com or contact Shaffer, (858) 829-4276.