Toronto Duo's Cry Wolf

The fashion world isn't an easy business, especially when you're a couple of independent designers operating out of your basements in Richmond Hill. But recent art and design school grads Rose Chang and Stephanie Drabik are giving it their best shot with Cry Wolf, a t-shirt company that launched in September.

With the oh-so-important holiday shopping season now upon us, the duo have just unveiled a kids t-shirt line and are offering free shipping on all web-based orders over $10. Amidst all the madness the two of them took some time out of their day to fill me in on all the need to know Cry Wolf details. Our short Q&A follows:

Why did the two of you decide to start a t-shirt company?

Well, we were both just finishing up art school and we wanted to start up our own business using the skills that we possessed. We weren't into having 9-5 jobs right away and wanted to do something with our passion for the arts and culture. We had the design skills as well as the technical skills and also loved the idea of wearable art. We also wanted to incorporate the idea of art and drawing, and limited editions into our products.

This isn't your first fashion company though...What happened to p0isson?

We are the same company, however after running p0isson for 2.5 years, we decided that we needed a name change because of the "0" in our name wasn't very user friendly. In doing so, we realized we wanted to take a more serious approach with it, and make our company more refined and streamlined both with our designs and our products at the same time.

In what ways have your designs evolved since the name change?

Our design process with p0isson was very random. With Crywolf, our designs are still random but we have been trying to develop our style into something solid and recognizable. We discuss our designs together and collaborate a lot more.

You sell a range of guys, girls and kids shirts, as well as buttons....What's been the hot seller so far?

We just launched kids shirts last week, so it won't compare, but I would say that online our best sellers all fall into the girls shirts category. The buttons come in as a close second. We find it a little harder to design for guys (as we are both girls) but we do design specifically for guys as well. The best sellers in both girls and guys shirts is the Panda and Penguin.

We get a different response with web sales and from when we do craft shows or exhibitions. People really seem to take well to the buttons at shows, they're fun and affordable. This year we started doing customizable buttons and people loved the idea of having their name put on their design of choice on the spot. Especially kids!

I see you guys made an appearance at the Clothing Show in September....How important are shows like this for your business?

It's been extremely important because we rely heavily on word-of-mouth advertising and on our personal interactions with our customers. Craft shows are where we have the highest amount of sales at one time, so if we could we would do one every day! We're always looking for good craft shows and we've even travelled to the States for some.

For those who can't make it out to one of the shows, can they find most of your stuff at Slinky Music or Freedom Clothing Collective? Or so they just carry a small percentage of what's available on your web site?

Yes and no. Each of our retailers carry different things which they would feel suit their customers. None of them have everything we carry, but they all do have some. If you're looking for something specifically, the best bet would be to call them. On the site, we try to keep costs as low as possible to accomodate for people who are weary of paying shipping costs. Also, we only charge PST as of now and we often have promotional free shipping sales (like right now)..haha.