In 1992, Kathleen Clifford was working full time during the day and part time in the evenings and on weekends designing and sewing gowns for young women. The love of her life had always been in textiles and fashion design and she was wearing out trying to work both jobs. With the support of her family she quit her full time job and opened up her first business, "Kathleen's Elegant Gowns". The small salon was actually a home based business. The first gowns she had in the shop were dresses she designed and made. After a very short time, it became evident that she would need to purchase gowns from other sources in order to have enough inventory to satisfy her clients' needs. A quick trip to market to purchase more gowns and she was now formally in business. Word spread quickly about the beautiful gowns she carried and also about the one on one treatment she gave to each client. The store was open by appointment only and she often had to work until 11pm or later with appointments. At this time, her clients had the option to either rent the gown or to purchase it. The modest gowns were a huge success and sold out very quickly that first year. With each new season the inventory increased. Finally the store encompassed the whole basement. In 1997 it became very evident that the business had outgrown its current location and thus began a year long search of a standalone building to be the new home to Kathleen's.
After many months of searching for a place to move the shop into, an adorable vintage home became available to purchase in Kaysville, Utah. The home needed much work and remodeling in order to comply with all of the codes but knowing this was the home she had been looking for they moved forward and purchased the property. It took a little over 6 months of constant work before the store was actually completed. During the preceding months a lot of analysis was done on the business and it was determined that when the store moved the name would also change. The new name would be "Kathleen's Career and Formal Wear". Kathleen had become well known for dressing women as well as young women for all kinds of pageants and they needed not only formal gowns but suits and day wear clothing. With the name change and the new location she would be able to help them with all of their needs. On top of this, it was difficult to find nice career clothing and so she began to get a following of professional women who needed nice quality suits and dresses. The other major change that took place that year was the end of renting gowns. She found during the business analysis that the majority of her clients did not want to rent, but rather, they wanted to purchase the dress. So, when the move was made the renting of gowns stopped. The fresh new look of Kathleen's opened its doors in August of 1998, just in time for the Homecoming dances.
Up until this year Kathleen had personally done all of the alterations. The shop became so busy that she no longer had the time to assist the clients and to do their much needed alterations. She sought after the most talented and respected seamstresses. She interviewed Isabel Shaw and knew she was the one they needed to do alterations for their clients. Only the best would do and Isabel was the very best. It took a lot of negotiating and begging before Isabel quit her full time job at ZCMI and moved into Kathleen's back room to do their alterations. Isabel became the "mascot" if you want to call her that, for the store. Many, many clients shopped exclusively at our store because of her sweet personality and renowned alteration abilities. In 2007 Isabel was diagnosed with cancer and then passed away in 2008. She has been greatly missed by both our clients and by her closest friends that worked day by day with her.
This was the year of making a very important decision relating to the business. Kathleen formally decided to not carry "official" pageant wear clothing. In its place she would now provide Wedding Gowns. After years of hearing back from her clients that they wished they could come to us to purchase their Bridal gown she decided to take the leap of faith and go full throttle into the Bridal Business.
The building just to the east of Kathleen's Victorian style shop became available for purchase and a decision was quickly made to buy the building so that the Bridal aspect of the business would have a place of its own. Again extensive remodeling began and after months of renovations the 2nd Building opened its doors for business. The new 2nd location offered everything exclusively related to the bride, from her gown, to her headpiece and down to her toes. She was now able to find everything in one location. With 3 spacious dressing rooms whole families were able to be together as the Bride chose that "one and only" special gown. This was a definite plus for our clients who had truly become part of our Kathleen's family thru the years. Because of the change in the business' focus, it was necessary to make a slight change in the name of the business. The new name would now be "Kathleen's Bridal & Formal Wear".
The year was filled with turmoil as Kathleen spent many hours searching for answers as to whether or not she should carry only modest gowns. Up to that time she had spent timeless hours negotiating with vendors to get them to provide modesty options for her clients. She was able to have matching beaded wide straps made for many of the dresses and was able to get matching fabric shipped with her dresses so that alterations could be performed for those who wanted more coverage. The problem she found was 3 fold. First the gown would never look like it would have looked if it had originally come in a modest version and 2nd it was very costly to the client to have that much in alterations done, and third many women and young girls had a very difficult time envisioning what the dress would look like after being altered. Finally the decision was made that Kathleen would design a line of modest prom gowns with no need to alter the dresses for modesty. The process began slowly but was welcomed by our clients with a huge success when the dresses arrived. After receiving such a positive reception to the new modest collection the decision was made to only carry modest gowns. This also carried over into the Bridal line, and our bridesmaid collections.
In 2008 Kathleen's added to its modest selection of clothing lines, Temple dresses, Baptism dresses, and Flower girl/church dresses. They then were able to help women in dressing modest, for all of the special occasions from birth throughout their life. The intense desire to assist women in dressing modestly has become the mission of Kathleen's where we believe women of all ages radiate their inner beauty as they look and feel beautiful in a modest gown.
MY CART