Carlea Badolian had a merchandising and fashion design degree from Missouri State in her back pocket and a frightening job market facing her.
“I was just applying to jobs,” she recalls. “I probably applied to 100 jobs on Indeed. Nothing. I think I got one interview and that was it. The job market is bad now. Only one person I know who graduated actually got a fashion design job in the industry. I had a couple of opportunities for full-time jobs in my hometown, but there was nothing I really wanted to do.
“(Fashion design) is just so hard to get into and I didn’t want to give up yet. … We don’t have a crazy amount of connections as far as the fashion industry goes, so I was like, ‘We have to start making our own opportunities or we’re not going to be able to be in this industry.’”
She took a chance, leased a storefront in downtown Springfield and officially opened Carl’s Bad Designs — a play on her name and a nod to her native California.
The entrepreneurial spirit runs in her family
Badolian was walking through downtown Springfield when a “For Lease” sign caught her eye.
“I looked in the windows, I saw the exposed brick and I was like, ‘I wonder how much it is,’” she said. “I was just a little curious. I love numbers, I love crunching them and figuring things out. And I was like, ‘Maybe I could do that,’ and that kind of got the worm in my brain. I thought about it for a while, and it just kept coming back.”
She comes by the entrepreneurial spirit naturally. Her parents opened a massage business in West Plains, where her family moved when she was in high school, a couple of years ago, and she helped them with that.
“I saw it was possible to do your own thing without having to go into debt to do it,” Badolian said. “If you work and do it without making a huge investment right in the beginning, you can do it. And so I was like, ‘Hmm. What if I did that?’ That gave me the confidence to just do it.”
Carl’s Bad Designs celebrated its grand opening during First Friday Art Walk in May 2024.
From creating doll dresses with baby wipes to sewing her own clothes
Badolian’s family has also played a big role in her fashion work. She created clothes for her dolls out of her sister’s baby wipes as a child — “They start out wet and they dry into place, so it’s actually a really great medium.” — and learned how to sew with her father.
“My dad went blind when I was in high school and he started sewing,” she said. “I know that sounds crazy: Went blind, starts sewing. But he’s always been super mechanical, so he liked fixing up old sewing machines and that’s something we did together.”
Her father learned to sew by feel, and Badolian learned alongside him. They started making backpacks before she moved on to making her own clothes.
“I found my love for sewing and also fixing up the machines, which has been really helpful,” she said. “Now I can figure out what’s wrong with my own machines, which I think is a big hurdle for a lot of people with sewing. The machine is scary. There’s a lot of pieces, there’s sharp needles; it’s overwhelming. So learning how it works first is really helpful for that journey.”
Badolian offers alterations and will soon teach classes
Badolian has more than one revenue stream for Carl’s Bad Designs. She creates her own collections as well as custom pieces while also offering alterations.
“Alterations are always needed,” she said. “Maybe I won’t be selling crazy, fancy, designed dresses, but everyone needs alterations. That’s a huge market and there’s not a lot of people that do it anymore.”
She’s also created space in her shop to sell work from other designers and artists. Currently, there are six other brands you can buy at Carl’s Bad Designs.
“I wanted to help showcase other designers, too, because I just thought it would be fun to have my friends also have their stuff in here,” she said. “It’s kind of expanded. We have Bonanza Jellybeans. We have Bae Savage, which is like a vintage shop. We have 207 Trinkets. They do vintage and handmade custom pieces. And then we have Rinkle, who’s actually out of Omaha, Nebraska. I met her through Omaha Fashion Week and I was like, ‘You literally have some of the best sewing technical skills I’ve ever seen in my life.’ I have been obsessed with her stuff ever since. I just like to look at the seams, because they’re so good.”
Badolian is also preparing to launch classes this fall. Details will be posted on the Carl’s Bad Designs Instagram page.
“I’m really excited,” she said. “We’re going to have sewing classes, art classes and mending classes. It took me a while to get them set up, because I really wanted to make sure the curriculum was worth it. I always want to make sure that people are getting their money’s worth, so I spent a lot of time thinking about it and trying to streamline it the best I can.
“I want people to feel like they can do stuff. I already have people who will say, ‘I’m doing this thing, but I don’t really know how to do it.’ I’m like, ‘Bring it in! I’ll teach you how to do it!’ I love sharing my machines. I’m so blessed to have all of the sewing machines I do have, because a lot of them were inherited from people. I like to share them with people if I can.”
Bringing sustainability to the fashion industry
All of that plays into an important value for Badolian: sustainability. When people can alter and mend their own clothes, it keeps them out of the landfill. She acknowledges that no one is perfect at being eco-conscious — herself included — but says the point is to know that you’re not perfect and try to do better.
“Especially with fashion, because fashion is one of the most polluting industries in the world,” she said. “It’s so bad with fashion, and online shopping has made it worse. It’s so easy to get so many cheap things that are garbage, so I just wanted to really stand on business with that and not shame people for it — I never want to shame anybody — but just educate and offer an alternative. I think that’s important.”
Badolian lives that value in her own work, turning her own scraps into new creations. She also designed a collection called “All Tied Up” using repurposed neckties.
“I got them everywhere,” she said. “I had people give them to me. I went to some of the local thrift stores. I have a supplier out of Lebanon, and they helped me get some neckties. I ordered some random boxes on eBay, most of them sight unseen.”
That sustainability does make her pieces more expensive than fast fashion, but she says it’s worth it.
“Well, we like to pay our workers a livable wage — and by ‘workers’ I mean me and my sister,” she said with a laugh. “You can even come in and watch us work on it if you want and see the process. It’s just when things are produced overseas, their people aren’t getting paid a livable wage. Even though a lot of companies will tell you they make sure everything is ethical and they have these parameters, those parameters don’t really mean a lot — especially compared to what our standards are in America for paying workers.
“Online shopping is fun, but you can pay $10 more and get something made locally. With (my) pieces, they’re usually a one of one. A lot of our pieces, I’ll just make one of them and it will be its own thing, so you’ll have that. You’re the only person in the world that has this piece and it was really, truly made with love.”
With that, she took a look at one of her two shop cats.
“And probably a little bit of cat hair.”
‘Fashion is supposed to be fun’
Badolian’s work has been featured at fashion weeks in Kansas City and Omaha, Nebraska, and this fall she’s taking part in 99x, the Springfield Art Museum’s signature fundraiser. This year’s theme is “Prohibition — A roaring ’20s masquerade.”
“I want to do a lot of beading,” she said. “That was super popular at the time. Me and my sister, Saphira Gale, are going to work on it together and we’re very excited.”
She says she sees Springfield’s fashion scene growing, with more people selling their work every year, and she encourages everyone to have fun with what they wear.
“I’m a big fan of maximalism,” Badolian said. “I think that’s one of my favorite things. I’m a big Chanel hater. I think the thought of taking something off before you leave the house is stupid. Add something. Add a couple of things. Be fun. Fashion is supposed to be fun. It’s not supposed to be rigid and have all of these rules. It’s supposed to have no rules.”
