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"   Photo: The Twentyten  In this bleak economic climate, one in which even Karl Lagerfeld`s going mass and seemingly recession-proof brands are floundering (Hello, Gap!), it takes a brave and hearty soul to start a new fashion label. But we&amp;#039;ve met three: Nina Zilka, Jeff Dodd, and David J. Krause, the co-founders of the twentyten (a nod to their graduation year), met at the Pratt Institute. All three studied fashion design and discovered a shared aesthetic and appreciation of avant garde design. They&amp;#039;ve been collaborating since their sophomore year and showed their fourth collection in September. Their line&amp;#039;s both downtown and funky, but wearable even if you&amp;#039;re not. Standouts included wrapped jeans and leggings\u2014a nod to straitjackets\u2014and patched leather dresses. The twentyten has an advantage other fledgling labels don&amp;#039;t: They&amp;#039;re the first fashion designers to be supported by the Pratt Design Incubator for Sustainable Innovation. While they don&amp;#039;t get direct financial aid, they do get free studio space and frequent meetings to troubleshoot business issues. But even with that help, forging an identity as a label and selling product is still challenging. At this point, they&amp;#039;re mostly waiting\u2014for press attention, interest in their goods, and ultimately, for orders. So we went to the Pratt Incubator studio at the Brooklyn Navy Yard to talk to the designers about the struggles that come with launching a fashion business. During their senior year of school, they became an LLC with the help of Nina&amp;#039;s mom, who has a business background, though now David&amp;#039;s discovered that he sort of enjoys the financial aspects of running their label (though he &amp;quot;doesn&amp;#039;t enjoy that there isn&amp;#039;t a lot of money&amp;quot;). The label received a loan from Nina&amp;#039;s mom and another friend, which the designers gratefully acknowledge: &amp;quot;It wasn&amp;#039;t a huge loan, well, huge for my parents definitely. but unfortunately not as big a loan as it could be,&amp;quot; Nina said. &amp;quot;It wasn&amp;#039;t like $100,000, which would really set a company in motion.&amp;quot; Nina says the the difficult aspect of owning your own business at 22 is the lack of a support network: &amp;quot;A lot of my 22-year-old friends are babysitting and waitressing still. No one except Jeff and David really understands how stressful it is.&amp;quot; While they&amp;#039;ve received decent press from blogs, attention from local boutiques, and will be featured in Surface magazine, the twentyten can&amp;#039;t afford full-time PR, a huge disadvantage in this particular industry. While the twentyten had a great show this fall and have loyal business from boutiques such as Blank, Convent, and Eva NY in NYC, they&amp;#039;ve had to take on more of the PR and pitching themselves while simultaneously designing the line. Maybe the biggest challenge is their insistence on incorporating environmentally sustainable elements into their designs. While exceptionally admirable, it&amp;#039;s also difficult and expensive. The use soy-based and organic fabrics and all of their pieces are manufactured locally in NYC&amp;#039;s Garment Center. They try to re-purpose materials to save money and be environmentally friendly \u2014 think leather scraps for dresses and necklaces and turning plastic bags into sequins and paillettes. Despite, or perhaps because of, the uncertain financial climate, the twentyten are that much more determined to make their label succeed. Their poise, creativity, and commitment should go a long way towards making it happen. Plus, fashion needs unusual, small labels to keep things interesting. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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