Impressions - Digital Decorator - Fall 2015 - 7

O

ne good thing often leads
to another, and no one
knows that better than
Dixie Louviere, owner of Bling Dat.
Louviere opened her first business, DL
Creations, in 2002. With a love of retail
and a desire to operate her own business,
she initially offered jewelry and jewelry
repair. As the business grew legs, a thriving boutique was born. Louviere officially
added apparel to her store in 2006. Shortly
thereafter, it became obvious that the star
decorations were the rhinestones.
"I researched how to make rhinestone
transfers and attended an apparel decoration show," Louviere says, adding that she
basically is self-taught.  "I started with the
Stone Stencil system and CorelDRAW. I had
no real formal training, other than a manual and a little phone support."
Louviere says that, while stencils
worked well, they weren't production
friendly for highly detailed designs.  She
soon purchased two mini CAMs (1V2P) that allowed for easier production.
Louviere taught herself to use GemMaster
for her CAMs, and learned to use Hotfix
Era as well. 
"The way I learn to design with any
new program is to just throw myself into it
and practice, practice, practice," Louviere
says. "One thing you are not told when you
get a machine or any program is that there
is a learning curve to design.  There is no
'one-click' rhinestone design software. The
programs that do offer fills or traces are not
up to the standards I like to use,  so much
editing is required."
When Louviere first began offering
decorated apparel, the same old generic
designs seemed to be everywhere. In an
effort to distinguish her merchandise, she
offered customized apparel. This meant
purchasing a heat press. She also found a
company that would make transfers from
her original art, but with 50-piece minimums. As her boutique took off, people
requested small, custom orders or single-piece orders. So in 2007, she took the
plunge, making her own designs via the
cutter-and-template method. Today, she
makes all of her designs in-house.
A SUPPLEMENT TO IMPRESSIONS

RIDING THE WAVE
By 2008, Louviere's fast-growing business called for an automatic rhinestone
machine. A new website, rhinestonefetish.com, also was up and running,
quickly bringing sales to the company.
The once jewelry-only business was now
a bona fide T-shirt shop.
With the store's success came a new,
trademarked name, Bling Dat, a nod to the
region's use of "dat," as slang for "that."
The company launched a rebranded website, blingdat.com, as well.
"In New Orleans, everyone uses 'dat,' so
I thought 'Bling Dat' would be appropriate
as my trademark and website," Louviere
says. (Blingdat.com and rhinestonefetish.
com will take users to the same site.)
Today, Bling Dat still features a small
selection of jewelry and accessories,
but rhinestone and sequin transfers are
produced full-time, along with multimedia designs on T-shirts. The company
employs four people, with Louviere serving as manager and designer as well as
operating machines. One employee helps
with designs and operates machines,
while another operates the machines and
assists with sales. Bling Dat also employs
one outside sales rep.
The shop is located in a 1,200-squarefoot, freestanding building in Kenner, La.,
a suburb of New Orleans, an improvement
over the company's previous strip-center
location, which Louviere says brought
unnecessary overhead since most of her
business comes form custom and
online orders.
Louviere would like to add a
2,000-square-foot warehouse for
stock materials and machines to
the back of the existing store by
summer 2016.
"A working rhinestone shop
is noisy with the CAMs running," she says. "The warehouse
would allow me to have a separate design area, showroom and
production floor. Right now, they
are one in the same. I also would
have room to add additional
equipment."

Bling Dat sells Mardi Gras-themed apparel
throughout the year to people across the
country.

WHO'S GETTING
'BLINGED?'
The main niches that Bling Dat serves
are schools, sports and corporate markets. The shop also creates a lot of designs
for fitness groups, gyms, and cheer and
dance  teams.  Small retailers in need of
custom orders - either transfer or shirts,
or those who make their own transfers
and need digital artwork - also call on
Bling Dat.  Louviere enjoys working with
animal rescue groups for fundraising and
designing apparel for pet lovers as well.
The company offers heat-transfer
vinyl, glitter, rhinestone, Hotfix sequins,
laser heat transfers and sublimation. The
shop has a large stock of rhinestone and
sequin transfers, but specializes in custom orders, says Louviere.  

COMPANY NAME: Bling Dat 
ADDRESS: 3205 Georgia Ave.
Kenner, LA 70065 
EMAIL: dlcreations@bellsouth.net
FOUNDED: 2006
NO. OF EMPLOYEES: 4
DECORATING METHODS OFFERED:
Heat-transfer vinyl, glitter, rhinestones,
Hotfix sequins, laser heat transfers and
sublimation
COMPANY WEBSITE: blingdat.com

FALL 2015 § 7
http://www.fetish.com http://www.blingdat.com http://www.Blingdat.com http://www.blingdat.com
Impressions - Digital Decorator - Fall 2015

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