Dare to Wear
About our name:We named our company Dare to Wear because we want women of all shapes and sizes to “dare to wear” clothes that make them look and feel beautiful. Here at Dare to Wear, we feel strongly that the image a woman presents to the outside world should be a reflection of the beautiful goddess that she is on the inside. And so we design our clothes to work with her image from the inside out – clothes that allow her sexy and sophisticated nature to shine forth. Clothes that are designed to flatter rather than hide her figure. Clothes that celebrate and accentuate her voluptuous curves. Clothes that help her say, “This is who I am! I am glamorous! I am beautiful! I am confident! I am a full expression of me!”
About our designer:
Natalia Slastina is the designer and founder of Dare to Wear. She grew up in Siberia, where her mother and grandmothers taught her to make her own clothes, using an antique foot treadle sewing machine. It was the Soviet times – material possessions were scarce - if you loved a dress, you wore it till it was threadbare, then took it apart and used it as a pattern to make new dresses. Natalia was a precocious and creative child, and more than anything she loved to make things to wear. In the long, cold Siberian winter, young Natalia would busy herself with sewing and knitting projects – she knit hats, mittens, scarves, and sweaters, all the while developing a keen eye for color and pattern and dreaming of becoming a clothing designer.
When she came to the US in the early 2000’s, her first clothing-related job was as an ebay re-seller of club and occasion apparel. She received countless pleading emails from plus-sized customers, “Can you get this in plus sizes? I have nothing great like this to wear!” She searched far and wide for fashion that worked with the curvy customer to create a look that is feminine, romantic, and alluring. She knew in her head exactly what she was looking for; she envisioned clothes that would allow her plus-sized grandmother, her Auntie Lyuba (Lyuba in Russian means “love”), and her plus-sized best friend, to feel beautiful and confident, to show the world the wonderful, radiant beings that she knew them to be. But they were nowhere to be found. Suddenly she knew that if she wanted to find the clothes she imagined, she would have to make them herself… and that’s when Dare to Wear was born.
Slastina means “sweet” and there is an element of sweetness in all of Natalia’s designs. A Dare to Wear garment starts with a fit that is designed to flatter the figure – upon this foundation, Natalia likes to layer detailing from myriad influences, ranging from the Victorian, Renaissance and Romantic to the fantastical Goth and the playful whimsy of Japanese Harajuku street fashion. She hand-picks and matches colors and patterns with finishing elements such as lace trims, corsets, and ribbons to create a look that is daring and edgy, while remaining sweet and feminine… a stylish and sophisticated look that is uniquely Dare to Wear.
About our company:
All of our Dare to Wear fashions are made in the USA, right here in the San Francisco Bay Area. We have a strong commitment to green and sustainable practices – most of our operations are run by Benjamin Wang, who has a Ph.D. in Ecology, and whose father was a quality control engineer for IBM for thirty years. We have sought to streamline our procedures to use and reuse our resources most efficiently without ever compromising quality or style. Whenever possible, we ship our products in reused or over-run boxes, we don’t individually wrap garments in plastic, and we don’t ship our garments on disposable plastic hangers. Our goal is to have our customers looking beautiful and glamorous while keeping our planet healthy and green. Here at Dare to Wear, we dare to care about our environment!
