When you meet an entrepreneur with a Ph.D. in clinical and forensic psychology, you expect to shake her hand. Nope. Denyse Ray is a hugger.
She is about to mark some milestones and has big plans for the future, to strengthen Hawaii-based manufacturing.
On May 18 an open-to-the-public block party will serve as the grand opening and first-anniversary celebration of her now 7,000-square-foot Kakaako manufacturing facility and her Ease Collection lines of apparel and accessories. She started with 3,500 square feet.
In private showings a day earlier, she will unveil the holiday collections of two new lines of clothing to retail buyers.
Kaha Iki is a line of hand-loomed knitwear named in part for longtime Hawaii fashion industry maven Linda Iki, who plies her craft at the facility turning out isle-appropriate, lightweight knit fabrics for the line.
The Cross Cultures line will include apparel and accessories made with fabrics from Hawaii and from Africa — specifically from Ghana and Senegal.
Cross Cultures may just return the dashiki to chic status à la the late 1960s and early 1970s, with the twist of local tapa and tiki prints, a sort of dashiki tiki thing.
A portion of the proceeds from Cross Cultures’ sales will support nonprofit organizations, including Kaneohe-based Parents Inc.
Also soon to come — which may make local women gasp with excitement that most men won’t understand — is moisture-wicking shapewear.
The company also is about to start selling its own line of hand-painted sandals, which are a little too upscale-resort-casual-looking to call "slippers." One would not use one to smash a six-legged B-52 cockroach, for instance.
Ray has purchased a machine employees will use to make the slippers in-house, just as she purchased looms to make knit fabrics in-house.
"We made all of our samples that are in the line, off of these machines, out of the fabric that we loomed," Ray said. "That’s why it’s important for us to be able to make our own threads. … That’s the goal, to make our own threads." Out of those threads, Ease Collection will be able to create a wider variety of fabrics.
Ray, who came to Hawaii from North Carolina, hopes to use Kunia-grown cotton blended with bamboo or other locally grown materials to make fabric for her factory.
That is likely something local "organic-type T-shirt companies would be interested in," said Linh Owen, business manager for Fighting Eel Inc., which has worked with Ray.
| EASE COLLECTION BLOCK PARTY
>> What: Live music, KSSK radio, barbecue, games, free tours
>> Where: 831 E. Pohukaina St., Suite E
>> When: May 18
>> Time: 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
>> Available for purchase: Masks, sun sleeves, custom embroidery
>> Showroom hours: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday to Friday
>> Info: Phone: 380-7555
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Ray’s company offers pattern-making and pattern-adjusting services, and "pattern-making is hard to find," she said. "Her costs were actually awesome, for being in Hawaii, and it was convenient."
"Her business, what she offers, is really needed in Hawaii," Owen said.
Ray’s employees do the sewing for several well-known Hawaii apparel and accessory companies, and Ray is in negotiations with others, while also making Ease Collection apparel for individuals and groups.
She has prepared a bunch of embroidered golf shirts and matching sun sleeves for the Honolulu Executive Association and makes lined jute bags of different sizes with handles made from webbing or bamboo to use as practical, reusable packaging. The company also does sublimated printing, such as photos on mugs and other surfaces.
Her signature item is the mask, made to exceed OSHA requirements. It comes in solid colors, prints or blinged out with rhinestones. Matching pouches are available, and the full range of sizes and styles, including children’s, is available through her website (www.ease-collection.com) or the Kakaako showroom.
She is soon to embark on a mission to both sell masks and collect data on their distribution from a prototype vending machine at Honolulu Airport, Hilo Airport and the Bob Hope Airport in Burbank, Calif.
The mask was her first product because of her first-responder work in psychology dating back to the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. She tore a sleeve off her clothing to tie around her face to protect against the rough, particle-laden air.
Her next-best seller is the golf sleeves, or sun sleeves, which sell "equally" to men and women and run $108 for a dozen. "People are thinking of melanoma, and they want something that has some SPF (sun protection factor), but you don’t want long sleeves all the time," she said.
In addition to e-commerce through its website, the company showroom is open for retail sales from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.
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“Buy Local” is a new weekly column, featuring products grown or made in Hawaii by Hawaii residents. If there is a product you’d like to see featured in this space, please contact erika@staradvertiser.com.
