Darlene Langford of Ocean Beach started out as a dance mom who “corrected” a flaw in her daughter\u2019s costume, which she described as a “disaster.”
\nLittle did she realize then that it would be the start of a brand new career.
\n“I rescued those costumes, and slowly over time, I started doing the studio teacher\u2019s costumes for her kids,” Langford said. “Then I started doing the whole studio, one-of-a-kind, made-to-order dancer\u2019s costumes, very fancy with lots of patterns.”
\nPointing out she “went to school for engineering and physics,” Langford said, when asked if she “fell” into dancewear, that it was more like, “It pulled me in, dragging (laughing). Every year (thereafter) I would say, \u2018I won\u2019t do it next year.\u2019 But once you build a reputation \u2014 you get phone calls and people want you to do their costumes.”
\nDuring that summer off-season, Langford converted lots of leftover fabric into boxes and boxes of finished dance costumes, which prompted her to open her Del Mar dancewear boutique, and later, a manufacturing center in the Rock and Roll San Diego building at 3360 Sports Arena Blvd., Suite A, in the Midway area.
\n“I just did everything (at first), all the sewing too,” said Langford, adding, “Then I couldn\u2019t keep up, and I had to start hiring people.”
\nBut there were two things Langford wanted out of her new enterprising dancewear venture: complete control, and no outsourcing of operations overseas.
\n“It\u2019s strictly family run and local \u2014 and it\u2019s going to stay that way,” Langford pledged about Details Dancewear, noting her core company comprised herself, her two daughters and a niece.
\n“It\u2019s just us four running this shop,” said Langford, who added, “I never foresee a time that I would send my stuff to China or Indonesia (to be manufactured). I wouldn\u2019t do it.”
\nNoting she\u2019s “not trying to compete” with the big boxes, Langford said, even though it would be cheaper to outsource labor overseas. She added, “all my people live in San Diego, not in China, and we can\u2019t live off $5 a day. I pay my people well even though it makes my profit margin smaller. How much profit do you really need as long as you can keep growing your business?”
\nBeing in control also means being able to personally guide her dancewear business.
\n“It\u2019s like steering a big ship,” explained Langford. “When you\u2019re smaller, you can change direction very quickly, come up with ideas faster, produce them and put them out there faster than anybody else.”
\nThe Langfords are branding Details Dancewear as “eye-catching costumes for the dancer and dance competitor which are designed and constructed in San Diego which transition easily from studio to stage.”
\nThe company\u2019s 2015 catalogue features eye-popping photography of young female dancers in action wearing dance costumes. The collection is being billed as “a glimpse into the fantasy world of light and dark through movement, traveling from the autumn woods to the summer beaches.”
\nDetails Dancewear designs, manufactures and distributes clothing for dancers of all ages. But the heart of the dancewear market is young women ages 9 to 14. Langford doled out special praise to her young models, like Chloe East from Orange County, who\u2019ve participated in her annual catalogue collection.
\n“Some of these girls are famous; they have followings of thousands,” noted Langford, adding, “People like her and my daughter doing social media are helping \u2018climb\u2019 the business. Every day, more and more people come, and our company becomes more popular.”
\nWhat\u2019s next for Langford and Details Dancewear? “It gets bigger,” answered Langford. “I want to be big \u2014 and local. I\u2019ll find a way to do it.”\u00a0
\nFor more information visit www.detailsdancewear.com.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Darlene Langford of Ocean Beach started out as a dance mom who “corrected” a flaw in her daughter\u2019s costume, which she described as a “disaster.” Little did she realize then that it would be the start of a brand new career. “I rescued those costumes, and slowly over time, I started doing the studio teacher\u2019s […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":268121,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11561","_seopress_titles_title":"Ocean Beach woman raises the barre for dancewear","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11551,11561],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-268120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-peninsula-beacon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=268120"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268120\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}