There is only one first time for everything, and the best of those moments tend to stick with us throughout our lives, like a first kiss or a first love. It was this very feeling I had the first time I put on a dress designed and made by Stone Cold Fox (SCF): a clothing line established in 2009 that takes inspiration from vintage clothes to create their own whimsical and unique look. I found one of their magical dresses hanging in a friend’s closet, and it spoke to me. I wore the dress out that night and seemed to sparkle. Was the moon bigger? Were my teeth whiter? I was in love. To my delight Stone Cold Fox is an Orange County based company with a lovely little warehouse right here in Costa Mesa. The girls of SCF invited me over one afternoon to get a firsthand look at how they make their magic. Their graceful look and laidback vibe was everything I was hoping to find in the creators of my Cinderella dress. The girls and I spent the afternoon talking fabrics, futures and the finer things in life.
Locale Magazine: I want to start by thanking you girls for having us over. We adore your line. Could you introduce yourself to our readers?
Cydney Morris: I am Cydney Morris, 25, and I am the Designer and Marketing Coordinator of Stone Cold Fox.
Dallas Wand: I am Dallas Wand, 25, and I am the Production and Order Manager of Stone Cold Fox.
LM: How did the two of you meet? You seem like sisters.
Wand: We met in this father-daughter program called Indian Princesses. I think we were in about second grade. Our dads became really close and pretty much from then on we have been best friends. It’s really nice because now our families are pretty much family, so we go on a lot of vacations together. Every summer growing up we would all spend it in Mexico. It was like a second home to us. Our families spend Thanksgiving and Christmas together as well. We love looking back at photos from our awkward teenage phases.
LM: I would love to see some of those photos! So, from awkward teenage phases to now: how did you girls find yourselves here today?
Morris: I went to school at California College of the Arts in San Francisco. I got my Bachelor’s in fine arts and majored in Fashion Design. My senior project was a fashion show, and I had an entire collection that actually is SCF’s first collection, Foreign Cinema. So, I took my senior collection after we both graduated, we made a blog, worked in my parents’ extra room downstairs, and tried to sell it by word of mouth. From then on it grew into our careers.
Wand: I went to school at FIDM in Los Angeles, and Majored in Merchandise marketing. I have a Bachelor’s in business. I originally went to school to be a buyer. I have always wanted to own my own boutique, and I had intentions of doing that. We started SCF as a fun side project. Sometimes I think back to cutting out orders on a kitchen table and laugh. Like, I don’t know how we did it back in the day.LM: Everyone starts somewhere. I love the name Stone Cold Fox, what’s the story behind that?
Morris: We love Sophia Coppola’s film Virgin Suicides, and it just came to us one day when we were watching it. Josh Hartnett puts his arm around Kirsten Dunst and says, “You’re a… stone cold fox.” It just fits perfectly with the aesthetic of our clothes.
Wand: We like to think that when you put one of our items on you turn into a fox. It’s like a babe. We definitely notice that men are very attracted to girls in SCF; they compliment it all the time.
LM: This is a pretty incredible operation. What does a “normal” workday look like for you?
Morris: I am the designer and marketing side of the business. I spend a lot of time doing the pattern work for each item. I sketch a lot, and do a lot of work in Photoshop and Illustrator. I spend a lot of time picking out fabrics; getting them made and really putting the whole creative look of Stone Cold Fox together. I have to keep thinking of new fresh ideas and silhouettes. I try to blog and really get our name out there. We both wear many hats, but the design and marketing is my skill.
Wand: I am the one who does production, filling all of our store orders and making sure that we have enough of each item and getting it to our retailers. I am constantly running back and fourth to our production team, making sure things are done correctly and on time. We get personal orders in all day, so besides retailers we still do custom orders on the side. It’s quite busy.
LM: What is your favorite part about your job?
Morris: I love that I get to fulfill my passion and actually make a living off of it. I get super excited when I’m designing new items, and that I get to use the creative side of my brain every day. It’s very rewarding just seeing women feel really good in clothes that I have made, so that’s my absolute favorite part. When I get a nice email about how great of a night they had in SCF, or how special they felt, or they got engaged wearing SCF, I cheesily just melt. Makes it all worthwhile.
Wand: I absolutely love doing the photo shoots. It is so fun to get a whole team together to photograph the clothes for our look book. I love being able to make beautiful clothes, meeting new people in the industry and getting creative minds together. I definitely love being my own boss.
LM: Let’s talk inspiration. What is your fashion muse?
Morris: I probably get my greatest inspiration from vintage lingerie. When I was living in San Francisco I used to collect a lot of things from the great stores they have there. Lingerie has such beautiful detailing, it’s delicate and soft and the laces that they use are so unique. So, you can probably tell that SCF has a very lingerie-inspired aesthetic. I just tried to make it something that you wear outside of your home and every day. Yet we still use silks and laces. I also get really inspired by fabrics, texture details, the way it flows on the body, and showing off the best parts of a woman’s body.
Wand: I get really inspired by the places that I have traveled. I think that SCF is effortlessly beautiful, and we want it to be something that when you wear it, you feel like you’re on vacation. It’s not tight and constraining, it’s flowy, sexy and comfortable. You literally could probably sleep in SCF it feels so good on. Easy living and a gypsy-style-life inspire me, so we try to incorporate comfort into beautiful fancy clothing.
LM: You girls have mentioned travels to Mexico. How does that play into what you’re doing here in California?
Wand: We both have traveled a lot of places together, and we have been places and found things that are so special to us. We like to think that having an SCF item, feels special like that. We change the fabrics often, and not every piece is the same, so the items feel really unique, like your own special gem. You are not going to walk into a bar and see ten different girls in the same top.
LM: What do you think was the greatest era for fashion?
Morris: We both love the 70s and the 20s. What do you hope your clothes are saying for you?
Wand: That they are timeless pieces that you will have in your closet forever. That they are special and unique garments that make you feel sexy.
LM: Tell me about your fabrics. This is clearly something that sets you apart from the rest. These pieces are heavenly. What are your favorites?
Morris: Sand washed silks, Guipure laces and Burnout velvets.
LM: What is burnout velvet? Morris: It’s a mix of silk chiffon and velvet, and it’s when they burn out a print into the velvet. Part of it is sheer. The other part is velvet.
LM: How do you sand wash silks?
Wand: Our silk man does it for us, but
it’s a process they do when making the silk, it’s a wash with a million little rock type things that make it super soft.
LM: What type of hand dying process do you use?
Wand: When we first started we used to color remove and dye fabrics to get that perfect shade of blush or ivory, but thank god we now have a man that gets the perfect color for us, so we don’t have to do it in our bath tub any more.
LM: Where do you source your fabrics from? Are they American made?
Wand: We get all of our fabrics in LA, and we have a company that makes our silks and gets the prints made that we design. All our clothes are made right down the street from our Head Quarters as well.
LM: How often do you put out a new collection?
Morris: We do two per year, and one SCF home collection a year.
LM: How does a new line get dreamed up?
Morris: It starts very organically. We fall in love with a fabric or a style and design around that. It is all sketched out and we make the pieces slowly. At the end we eliminate and add to get an entire collection look together. It takes quite a bit of time getting fits right, thinking of color schemes, and a mood we want the collection to portray.
LM: What can we look forward to seeing from you girls in the coming seasons?
Wand: You can always count on us using silks, and laces, but you will see the designs mature, and become more unique. We plan on keeping SCF’s aesthetic but always keeping it fresh and new.
LM: Tell us about SCFhome? Can we expect more home goods in the future? Wand: We absolutely love home décor. We get it from our mothers. And we want SCF to eventually become more of a lifestyle brand. If it looks good on your body, it will look good on your bed as well.
Morris: We use the same laces as we do on our clothes, beautiful linens, faux furs and silk velvets. We are coming out with a new SCFhome collecting in March of 2012.
LM: What makes SCF unique from other California-based brands and designers?
Wand: We are not a surf brand, we are a higher-end, fashion forward women’s clothing company, that uses luxurious fabrics and detail, but still is influenced by the beach lifestyle.
LM: What are your plans for the future of SCF? How do you hope to expand?
Wand: We are planning on expanding into Australia and Canada to start, and hopefully get into a few more stores on the East Coast. We also plan on maybe coming out with more collections each year, expanding our home line, and doing more accessories.
Morris: We want to expand, definitely. We hope we can retire in Bali one day with our future husbands and babies. But we want to keep the personal vibe of SCF intact, and make sure that SCF stays feeling special.
LM: What has been the most defining moment thus far for SCF?
Morris: Being featured in Vogue and Elle was pretty amazing. Getting in Free People’s catalogue.
Wand: Realizing we could quit our silly side jobs and just do SCF. Moving into a big warehouse and really feeling professional.
LM: Where is home for you girls?
Wand & Morris: Laguna Beach
LM: How has Orange County influenced SCF?
Morris: The laid-back beach style, and how you don’t have to try so hard when getting dressed. We like the look of a beach cover up, but also being able to go out. It’s very subtle style.
LM: Favorite spots in Orange County?
Wand & Morris: K’Ya, the beach, music in the park in the summer in Laguna.
LM: Favorite Beach?
Wand & Morris: West Street or Shaws Cove
LM: Favorite Breakfast?
Wand & Morris: Zinc Café and Eat Chow
LM: Best Coffee?
Wand & Morris: Alta
LM: Best place to relax?
Wand & Morris: We love going to Habana and sitting there for hours, drinking sangria and laughing with friends.
LM: Best drinks?
Wand & Morris: The Cannery, The Deck, Watermac, Turks in Dana Point
LM: Three words to describe SCF?
Wand & Morris: Timeless, Sexy, Effortless
It isn’t everyday that I come across a piece of clothing that seems almost destined to not just be a part of my wardrobe but an addition to the collection of who I am. Stone Cold Fox strives, and in my opinion succeeds, at making a brand of clothing that feels as good as it looks. The individualized attention given to each piece and design makes any owner of SCF feel as if they have come across a gem made just for them. For daily musings and style points you can follow SCF on twitter, @TheStoneColdFox, or you can tune into their blog, shesascf.tumblr.com. Visit their website TheStoneColdFox. com to find everything from look books to film projects, and a detailed list of boutiques and websites that carry their clothes. Find yourself in their clothing and you’re sure to be Stone Cold Fox as well.
http://www.localemagazine.com/velvets-laces-and-silks-oh-my/
