City Kid Style : Claudia Cerrato

I’m so excited to be starting a new photo/community project called Seattle Mompreneurs.  Over the years, I have met so many amazing moms with unique talents in Seattle, WA!  Women who have pursued their passion and spend countless hours running their business and balancing it with family even though it can feel thankless at times.  I want to celebrate these passionate women entrepreneurs through providing head shots, promoting their business on the blog, and spreading the word to our community!

I will be highlighting a local woman-owned business throughout the year through blog posts telling you a little about what amazingness they bring to the community.  You can learn more about them and their business and how awesome our Seattle community of women are.  If you know of a hard-working, passionate Seattle Mompreneur who would be a great fit for this personal project, please have them contact me!

This round I had a chance to spend some time with Claudia Cerrato of City Kid Style!

Hi Claudia!

How many years have you been in business? 4

Tell us a little bit about your business: I own City Kid Style, a clothing company for girls’ aged 12 months to 12 years. I specialize in making dresses, skirts, and tops out of upcycled clothing. I do almost all of my own pattern design and I do all of the sewing myself. I work with a graphic designer to create screen print graphics which I mostly screen print myself, although I occasionally outsource to a local print shop when needed. Everything else is all me…marketing, web design, shipping, fabric sourcing, etc…I’m pretty much a one-woman show!

Why is it important to have great headshots that represent your business and your brand?  It’s funny because when I first started researching starting a business I kept reading the about having good headshots and I never really paid much attention to that. But in the creative and small business industry, people want to know who they’re buying from and they want to know the face behind the brand. So you have to put your self out there once in a while. I’ve had a hard time with that because I’m a pretty private person and not comfortable sharing a lot on social media especially pictures of myself! I’ve been putting off getting headshots for a while now so I think it’s finally time!

When you aren’t working on commissioned projects, what can you be found doing? What are your other passions?  I enjoy the outdoors, working out, being creative and all of that good stuff but really my favorite past time is spending time with friends and family. In the warmer months I love just hanging on the back patio enjoying cocktails with friends while the kids run around and in the colder months, a good dinner party in my cozy home with friends is perfection! I was also born in Paris and grew up there so I love all things French and am literally always planning my next trip to Paris!

What first sparked your passion and made you decide to turn it into a paying gig?  I have loved to sew since I was a little girl. I used to make tiny clothes for my dollhouse people and eventually started sewing for myself. My first “upcycled” project was in high school…I took an old long 60’s style dress and cut it up and turned it into my prom dress. Fast forward many years later after a career in education and having my daughter….When I started sewing for my toddler daughter I would try out new projects by using my husband’s old t-shirts and button downs. I realized that these items of old clothing made perfectly good new clothing. By upcycling, I could make new clothes for my daughter and I could also help to make a small impact on our environment. I spent many hours sewing up cool, comfy and hip threads for my daughter out of old clothing. In 2013 I quit my full-time job in Education to focus on launching City Kid Style so that hip little kiddos everywhere could wear my one of a kind clothing.

What is your favorite project you never tire of doing?  Because I use upcycled fabrics everything is one of a kind and everything turns out differently. In the beginning, I tried to do multiples of one style in all the same fabric but I got bored sewing the same thing over and over. By using upcycled fabrics every single garment turns out differently so I really never get bored!

How do you find a balance between raising your kids and running a business?  I have to say that it’s a lot harder than I imagined but I wouldn’t trade it for anything. When I first started this business I really thought that my whole work day would fit neatly into my daughter’s school hours and that would be that. But running a business takes so much more than 6 hours a day. I pretty much sew during the 6 hours that my daughter is at school but then there’s all the marketing, web stuff, processing orders, shipping, meeting with retailers, prepping for craft shows, etc…Not to mention running a household, running my daughter around to activities, etc…So it’s very much a juggling act and I often find myself working at night and on the weekends when my husband is home to help out with my daughter. But the beauty of it is that it’s all on my own time. I can take time off whenever I want for vacation or help out at my daughter’s school whenever. And that to me is pretty priceless.

Coffee or Tea? Coffee

PC or Mac? Mac

Dogs or Cats? Dogs

Modern or Vintage? Both

Rain or Snow? Snow

Dicks or Burgermaster? Neither!

Ferry or Train? Ferry

Fiction or Non-Fiction? Non-Fiction

Crossword or Sudoku? Crossword

Seahawks or Sounders? Seahawks

Sunrise or Sunset? Sunset

Dancing or Singing? Dancing

Facebook or Instagram? Instagram

Pearl Jam or Nirvana? Pearl Jam

If you’re in need of some cute and whimsical upcycled clothing, reach out to Claudia.  You’ll be glad you did!

City Kid Style  |   claudia@citykidstyle.com  |  (206) 853-0130