4
I had an undeclared major in the
Liberal Arts,” admits fashion de
signer Tracy Hansen, one of a
team of four friends — average
age, 28 — that started a Berkeley,
California fashion sensation
called Chihuahua! back in 1980.
None of this team had any inkling of
what they would do when they ‘‘grew
up.” A friendship took their careers an
unusual route — no interviews in per
sonnel offices or answering of news
paper ads.
Debbie Moore, now thirty, is the quar
tet’s textile designer, responsible for the
eyepopping printed designs that impel
Chihuahua! fashions into the closets of
renegade trendlovers. Moore allows her
skills are self-taught. “I go for the thing
that keeps me the most entertained,” she
says. Although she is involved in the cur
rent primitive trend, Moore says her up
coming collections will evolve beyond it.
The Chihuahua! (pronounced Chee
wa-wa) group originally started as an
energetic foursome of friends. Katrine
Thomas (now 27), the business manager,
planted the seed when she suggested to
then-painter Moore her work might sell
better if it were printed on a t-shirt.
Moore, then 26, disagreed. It was the
first business conflict that occurred be
tween the not-yet-partners, but the so
lution was a creative blend of an and
management.
Moore explains, ‘‘It would have in
volved too many colors for our collec
tive 180, so we just took another route.”
Narrowing the colors to just simply
black, the entrepreneurial pair em
barked on their first product: hearts, re
styled into a leopard print, for Valen
tine’s Day.
“Suddenly we
wound up in busi
ness," recalls Moore.
Enter Tracy Hansen,
then 22 years old. Her primi
tive-inspired clothing shapes were
the fashion influence that blasted
Thomas and Moore’s t-shirt origins into
ancient history. Hansen’s daring sil
houettes won the new trio respect and
attention from the retail world. Stores
could now carry a whole line instead of
unrelated items.
What might have continued as a flurry
of fashion self-indulgence was carried
back down to earth by the fourth new
partner ir the group: the level-headed
Teresa Haedt. Her pricing and produc
tion talents shaped the company’s profit
structure and led the balance sheets to
financial solvency.
Tracy Hansen remembers being
warned about the potential grief of
going into business with friends. Yet, she
says, “Starting out as friends and ending
up in business is great. In spite of the
fear factor’ there is a sense of unity that
never knew what that fear was.”
Hansen summarizes the difference be
tween their friendship and their profes
sional relationships: “The personal rela
tionship and the personal obligation
and responsibility are the same thing.
Conflicts aren't a threat to the consen
sus, they are a normal function of a cre
ative business.”
Claire-France Perez, a fashion writer and
former editor of Apfxirel News, knows a
sharp look when she sees one.
Right: This faux bijou (false jewelry)
print Is hand-silkscreened in gold
ink over black cotton jersey, with
shirred sleeves and sides produc
ing its contoured hemline. Left:
Chihuahua’s charm—and business
sense—derives from these four.
Teresa Haedt and Katrine Thomas
(standing), Tracy Hansen (seated)
and Debbie Moore (seated on floor).