60,000 Dresses, 60,000 Brides- Get to Know Host Patrice Catan
Bridal and crafting industry legend, and host of Tales From Behind the Veil, Patrice Catan shares her stories from working with designers in New York while building her brand, to which celebrity wedding was her favorite to plan. (Hint: it may be a famous boy band member...)
Patrice also discusses the importance of DIY, why she’s come out of retirement (a few times!), and what has been her most rewarding moment in her 40+ year career.
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Leah Haslage:
Patrice, I am so excited to be here with you today, being a part of your show. It's kind of full circle for me because it'll be almost 20 years from when I worked with you at Catan's Bridal as a bridesmaids consultant, and now to be your producer and interviewing you today for your show. It's just so wonderful to be here with you.
Patrice Catan:
Well, thank you. I do appreciate it. And you were a lot of fun too. We had a growing business at the time. It was very exciting. The bridal industry and fashion as a whole is extremely exciting. And if you put the right flare on it, God only knows what can happen.
Leah Haslage:
And I'm excited to get into all that today, actually. And we're going to start though, before you opened up Catan's Bridal, in 1985, you and your father created your bridal business at the flagship store, the Pat Catan's Craft Center in Strongsville. What led to you getting the bridal business going?
Patrice Catan:
Well, that's an interesting story. Growing up in the arts and craft business, I had the privilege to be involved in a lot of creativity as the industry evolved after World War II. I was a very, very young girl at the time, and I can remember back when wood fiber was created, which was, it was from a tree, it was from the pulp of a tree, and it was manufactured and was fuzzy. So when you die cut it to make like a carnation or a rose, it felt as close to real as possible. And that was the birth of the bridal, the craft industry. So consequently, my dad was the true pioneer. He got an award at the HIA show many years later, and that kind of paved the way for me to be extremely creative. So as time went on, I taught floral designing to help create the business.
And at some point, I stayed home for many years to raise my three sons, but in the interim, did do work from home in creating. It seemed to come naturally. I sometimes think whatever anybody is good with, they inherit it. And I think that's true for no matter what there is in life. If you're a professional singer, you have a voice that you need to work at to take to the highest level, but you already got the level in your body. This is what you were born with. So basically, I went on and our store in Strongsville was our second location, and it was very large and it was very powerful. And we were out in the sticks. My dad bought the property in 1967, and there was chickens running across the street. I said, "Dad, where are you taking me?" So I didn't go to college.
I started at the craft center when I graduated from high school, taught a lot of classes to build up the business, stayed home like I'm repeating. And then all of a sudden, about 15 years later, designing, designing, designing. China was starting to make beautiful filaments, is what I called them, accessories to do a wedding bouquet and make a head piece. And we started creating some of these pieces out of wire art, which we will be showing later on in additional podcasting. So therefore, it sprung an idea in my mind that I need to go to bridal. My dad built me a miniature Gone With the Wind in the craft center. It was about 1,000 square feet, and I sold bouquets, I sold head pieces, cake tops. Back then, all of that was extremely popular. Everybody used a cake top. Everybody used a veil and a head piece, and tradition was very stable.
As the years went on, that changed, but it didn't change for the bad, it just varied a little bit. So we had that. I went into thinking I was kind of out of room, and my dad didn't really want to hear that. So basically what happened, we had a yellow house on the property that actually was the ugliest thing I've ever seen, but we couldn't afford to get rid of it. It was collateral for putting the building up. So I peg boarded it, I taught classes in it, I taught a lot of things in the craft industry. And I went to my dad and I said, "Could we just take this down?" And finally he said, "Yes, we can do this now." He knocked it down and built me what's standing there today, a very beautiful southern plantation look.
Leah Haslage:
It became a 54,000 square foot multi-department boutique.
Patrice Catan:
Yes. As years developed.
Leah Haslage:
Yeah.
Patrice Catan:
I kept edging my way into eating up some of the craft space. And eventually, I pushed them out and they moved up the street, which at that time, my son was running the craft business with my husband. So consequently, I first took the house, ordered three dresses, sold a lot of gift items to be able to buy the dresses, and then proceeded on to take the first 10,000 square feet. After that, I had nowhere to go. And eventually, years later, before we created it in the main house, we bought the building across the street for mothers and alterations. And that was an exciting move because we were able to spread out. My main intention in bridal, Leah, was to give the best service, the most honest service with the highest integrity, and never ever not follow through on what somebody wants. We never missed a dress in 35 years, never missed a dress.
Leah Haslage:
Which is an accomplishment all in itself.
Patrice Catan:
Right. And we had a few minor hurricanes, but we got through them. And everything was done in a very precise manner that came out of my head. And I think a lot of it came from my father, because my father was a brilliant entrepreneur. And everything he did, he did in different steps to go where he wanted to go.
Leah Haslage:
And actually, with that, Patrice, not to cut you off, but with that, do you feel like when you were pivoting from the crafts to bridal, did you find bridal to be an untapped market in crafts?
Patrice Catan:
Yes, it was. It was beginning to be a tapped market because of the designing overseas, but it was slightly an untapped market. That's correct. Because the sophistication of what they were making in line with what we did many years before was totally different. So it gave us an option to express our creativity in the fashion industry that I was always intrigued with.
Leah Haslage:
Well, with that, what is your take, your personal take on the DIY movement with weddings, especially with the invention of things like Pinterest?
Patrice Catan:
I think DIY is very, very important. Let me tell you why. First of all, we're 35 years later. We're in an environment with inflation. We're in an environment that everything is costing more. And we're also with a generation that wants a nice wedding, but also wants money left for a honeymoon and to maybe down the road build a house. So consequently, they're more conservative. Now, some aren't. It depends what is affordable to you. But it's a very interesting thing too, because a lot of times girls like to make memories. And even though live flowers are still very much used, some girls like the silk flowers because they become part of a memory that they experienced during their wedding. This is where the broach bouquets came in, and a lot of girls created broaches out of a bouquet that maybe were her grandmother's and her mother's and her aunt's and whatever.
And this became a sentimental thing. Or a broach was set in the middle of the bouquet, and the bouquet could be live or silk. It just made a memorable occasion. Also what was very memorable was the girls maybe wearing their grandmother's dress, their mother's dress, or taking a piece of lace and making a head piece out of it, or the edging on your veil. So there was a lot of creativity involved in that surface through the years, and not only in the fashion end, but in the event end to decorate your own wedding in the theme you choose.
Leah Haslage:
So I want to go backwards from when you first started in your bridal career and you started traveling to New York and then eventually Chicago and all the other major cities, and you were meeting with designers in that. What was the experience like for you starting off to meet these designers in bridal and fashion?
Patrice Catan:
Well, it was hilarious, because you have to remember here I am, I'm about 42 years old, and I was in the craft business at that point over 20, 22 years. I was well known in the craft industry. I could walk in an HIA show and they knew who I was. Now, I'm walking into New York City with a suitcase on 37th Street by myself. Somebody would say to me, why by yourself? Well, by myself was easier because then I didn't have to hear somebody else's opinion, because I really didn't know what I was doing. I only knew I could be creative with fashions and I would love to sell fashions and use some of my creativity. So I'm on 37th and I decide, I get a list of names, and my first design house. Now, you got to remember, back in the '80s, late '80s, early '90s, couture was a very important part in the wedding industry. And a lot of those counts were made in New York City.
Leah Haslage:
And we don't have the list of designers like we have today back then. You had like Eve of Milady, maybe?
Patrice Catan:
Well, back when I started, no, you had more than you think. You had Eve of Milady, that's still designing. In fact, she designs her own lace too. So it's patented. You had Bianchi, which was one of the top in the industry. You had Jim Hjelm, you had Fink, you had Diamond Industries, you had Schala. You had many, many, you had, oh, even Scazzi. She was Hungarian. She was a terrific, terrific designer. Again, back then, the play was on the fabric because they were cut one at a time.
So the fit was more perfect. The prices, yes, were higher, but the fabric talked to you and it was how they were constructed and fit the body and how they were accented that created what we called a couture look. So I started Accalina, let's go back to this fiasco. I started Accalina. I walk in with my suitcase, nobody knows me, I'm petrified, although I'm not afraid of very much, and I go up to the man that was at the counter and his name was Jim Fitzsimmons. And Jim said, I said to him, "Jim, Mr. Fitzsimmons, can you help me? I really don't know what I'm doing."
And he goes, "What are you talking about?" And I said, "Well, I don't have an appointment." "Well, you need an appointment." I said, "Okay, I realize that. I'm opening up a bridal salon and I would like to come in and look at your line, because I heard it's fantastic. I did some research." "I can't let you in. You have no credentials, and I don't know if you can afford this, so you'll have to come back and you'll have to talk to me at a later date, but I can't promise you I can let you see the line."
Well, lo and behold, I wasn't going to give up. I said, "Listen Jim, I'm going to make myself clear. If I become the largest salon in the United States or one of them, which I think I can do, I will never come back and buy from you again." At that point, behind me was Naomi Cherub and Heather Clinefelt who truly created Kleinfeld’s that's still in New York City, but not owned by Heather. They went up to him and they said, "Jim, she's a feisty young lady. Let her in. We'll take care of her." She goes, "I think this girl has something up her sleeve, and I don't think she's a dummy." I said, "Yeah, Jim, I'm not a dummy. Just let me in the door." And I said, "I can give you my credentials so I can pay for whatever I purchase." They let me in.
That was the first step in me getting into the couture industry. The next one was Demetrius, Scazzi, Diamond, Bianchi, Fink. And then it goes, Jim Hjelm, and then it goes down the line, Amsale, Eve of Milady, Oscar de Larendi. You can just go on and on. It just goes on and on. And I knew them all. And of a sudden, I became their best friend. Why? Very simple. I paid my bills. So there wasn't anybody that didn't talk to me. And I also went to the Chicago markets who, again, nobody knew me. And again, I had to fight my way through the door. And I went into the middle of the line wedding gowns. Mori Lee, at that time, Alfred Angelo, Mon cherie, they were all fantastic gowns. But they were definitely at a lower price point, and you had to have both to run a salon.
Leah Haslage:
I would consider Vera Wang and the '90s designing moment with bridal, and celebrity weddings as well, kind of really putting a spotlight. What do you think of that whole movement come '90s when you had Vera really kind of, and then obviously with Columbus at Kennedy, with the Narcisso Rodriguez.
Patrice Catan:
Well, the funny part is I was a friend of Vera Wang's. I was in her studio many times because we did buy her line in the beginning. Vera was a very structured designer, and her outfits told a story. See, when you're creative, what you're doing tells a story. You have to create a story out of your creativity to make it work in the industry. Every one of these designers were highly creative and they had a certain flare. And to be honest, it's coming back full circle. You see a lot of things that you saw 10, 15 years ago. You could take neck lines and neck lines are coming back. And it's ironic. Longer trains are coming back. Straight dresses are definitely number one in the industry, or the trumpet dresses, because the girls like to show their shape. But I always tended that I loved them, but I loved the ballgowns and the A lines. And again, this all goes by what shape you are.
Leah Haslage:
And not the naked dress. Because I know how you feel about that.
Patrice Catan:
Well, the naked dress I don't like. Okay? I had many girls, when I closed and retired from the main store in 2016, I took a year off and decided I didn't like retirement. So I opened up a smaller store and went to designing. And I had many girls that came in and told me, could you cut the lining out of the dress? And I go, why? Well, we want it see through. I said, well, that's fine. I'll cut the lining out, but you want to walk down the aisle like that? I think it's a fad. A lot of these abrupt ways of doing things out of any type of tradition at all is very abrupt and very short lived. It's like anything in the home furnishings industry or fashion industry. It comes, it goes. If you look back into the 1920s, 1930s, you see some of what they had today.
Leah Haslage:
It's like the saying, fads fade, style is eternal.
Patrice Catan:
Style is eternal. Styles make a circle. So no matter what you look at, it's going to come back around.
Leah Haslage:
So you just touched upon 2016 and then your boutique. You closed your huge world renowned bridal shop. And the family sold Pat Catan's Craft Centers to Michael's. That's two huge chapters in your life right there. What was that like for you personally and professionally?
Patrice Catan:
Personally, it was the right thing to sell the craft industry at that point of time. It was very different. It was very, I say different, but it was very hard on me emotionally because I was very close to my father and it felt like I lost my father all over again because he died in 2003. But as time went on, I realized that basically all things must end. And there's always a new chapter over the rainbow. And I think this is something at that point he really wanted us to do. And as far as retiring from the craft, the bridal business, I have to tell you, it was difficult to a point, but not difficult.
At that point in time, I was working 14 hours a day, seven days a week. At that point, I had nine grandchildren. And I was trying to float between running a very large business, a household, my boys and my grandchildren. And I realized that I was missing out a lot. And if I continued down this path, eventually I would probably be very sorry that I did it that way. So I decided that it was time. Also, you could see at that point the writing on the wall that the internet was taking over a lot. And basically we were still busy because we were a household word, but decline was coming because it was a whole new world. So again, they both were appropriate timing.
Leah Haslage:
Well, your retirement was very short lived because you decided to open up that boutique that you had mentioned. And it was all your fashions, no longer working with other designers in that. So what was the design experience like for you?
Patrice Catan:
I loved it. I loved the design experience. I did all my own sketching. I picked all my own materials, all my own laces. And the fun part was, when a girl put a dress on, I could change the color of the lining. I could add sleeves, I could add lace. I could pretty well make several changes. And I always looked at it as paper dolls. When I was a little girl, I loved paper dolls. And paper dolls you could change and you could change their outfits. Well, I saw a vision that it would be very smart to create a wedding gown and use it like Velcro, where you attach a sleeve, you attach a skirt, or you attach a different skirt, or you attach a different bodice.
And this makes nine different ways you could make that look different. And that's always what I had in my mind. And this was a slight different version of it. I created head pieces, I created belts. It was a very interesting part of my life. I had 220 designs and they were sold at an inexpensive price for today's market because I was importing them directly. The custom changes weren't that high. And we had excellent seamstresses then, just like we had in Strongsville. Again, I'm not selling a product that isn't right for the person. Everything we did in the bridal industry was dedicated to the experiences that myself and the stylists had. We weren't just selling a dress. We were selling a memory. And we made sure it was a memory, and we made sure that it was to their liking.
Leah Haslage:
So you have had such a successful career. You have been commissioned by Cleveland's Western Reserve Historical Society to replicate head pieces and bouquets for a special wedding exhibit. You've earned Retailer of the Year, the Debbie Awards, from the National Bridal Association. You share your time and resources with so many organizations like Make A Wish Foundation, Big Shots and Little Stars, Cornerstone of Hope, Cleveland Clinic Mental Health Department under Dr. Malone. I can go on and on. With all of that, what do you consider the most rewarding moment in your career?
Patrice Catan:
Most rewarding moment? I think the most rewarding moment was that a girl left my establishment, we got her down the aisle, because we also in time had an event business. We saw the glow on her face and I had accomplished what I wanted.
Leah Haslage:
Oh, I love that. And you probably have multiple moments like that then, huh?
Patrice Catan:
Yeah, because we sold a lot of dresses.
Leah Haslage:
Getting to share in the special day with the brides that you've helped select?
Patrice Catan:
Yes. And I even run into them now. And then years later, I ran into them coming in to buy baptism dresses, communion dresses for their children. A lot of the women that bought in the craft industry ended up with older grandchildren and found me to create a wedding gown for their granddaughters. I've done a lot of the newscasters, again, even actors, actresses. We've done those also. And it was a lot of fun and it was very rewarding. In the event, and the best thing that I think was the most gratifying was the lighting of the chandelier at Playhouse Square. I did all the decorating in all the theaters, and it was all themed according to the colors in each theater. So each one was different. Everything was live, and I made everything myself.
Leah Haslage:
Wow. That is incredible, Patrice.
Patrice Catan:
Yeah, it was. I almost fell over.
Leah Haslage:
So out of the big-name celebrities and designers, can you share any quick stories with us?
Patrice Catan:
Well, quick story was we did a wedding in Florida for Chris Kirkpatrick, which is from NSYNC. And the funny story was we knew the bride, she lived here locally, and the mother sought us out. And she said, "Can you pull this off?" And I go, "Yeah, I could pull off anything, even if I didn't know I could pull it off." So the laugh around the business was, oh my God. Now what did she get us into? At the time, we did all the decorating for the convention center downtown and did 48 inch wreathes for their windows. I thought my staff was going to put me in jail so that I didn't open my mouth again. So basically we did Chris's wedding with his bride. They were lovely, lovely people. And the funniest part was, I had designed all the centerpieces. They were enormous. It had an Italian flare.
It was at the hotel in Universal Studios. I'd never been subjected to so many, what would I say, detectives that followed me around to make sure nothing happened to me. And I go, this one guy was like six foot seven. And I said, "Who are you?" He said, "I'm Todd." He said, "I'm your protection." I said, "Well, who's going to bother me?" He goes, "You never know in this industry." So anyway, we're getting ready for the wedding. She wanted the wedding outside in the garden. It poured. So the caterers for the hotel came to me and said, "We're going to take the wedding inside." I said, "No, you're not." They go, "Yes, we are. It's raining." I said, "Look, the wedding isn't until four o'clock." I went outside, decorated the whole outside in the rain with my staff. I said, "Let me handle this." By God, four o'clock, the sun came out. They were very, very happy. So of course, one of them that was there was, guess who?
Leah Haslage:
Justin Timberlake?
Patrice Catan:
Yes. Him and his crazy buddies were in the pool room and they were playing pool, and we were the event people. So I said, "Guys, we got to line up. We're ready to go." And they kept playing. I said, "Mr. Timberlake, could you just get the hell out here right now?" He enjoyed that. Why? They want to be normal. So that was really hysterical. And he goes, "Okay, okay. I'm coming. I'm coming." I said, "Well, we got to get lined up. We got to go." And the rest was history. It turned out gorgeous. They were very appreciative. They've been married for many years. Right now, we did Jenni Meno's wedding, the figure skater, Karen Kadavy's wedding. She was a figure skater. So there was a lot on our plate. I'd almost have to go back and really think hard a lot of the people we did.
Leah Haslage:
We'll have to do another episode on your celebrity and experiences.
Patrice Catan:
Oh yeah, that's what we'll do. Yeah, I'll get my brain really working.
Leah Haslage:
Well, and lastly, what made you decide to start this podcast and what can we look forward to this season?
Patrice Catan:
Well, we're going to look forward to a lot. And basically the reason I say that is, you can't take away education in a specific field. I have the education, I worked it, I studied it, and I still study it.
Leah Haslage:
You still live it.
Patrice Catan:
You have to live it. It's in your blood. So I never really want to go away from it. I think this is an opportunity to talk to the brides of today, starting with their engagement, and giving them a relaxing view of how you can have a happy event. Not only happy at the time of the wedding, but happy planning the wedding, and step by step what I recommend to make it that exciting. So there's going to be a lot of education, teaching you what to do first, what to do second, what to do third, and why, and a reason why. When you do 2,000 brides a year and we sold over 60,000 wedding gowns, I could give you 60,000 examples why you shouldn't do this or that. What from? Experience. The funny thing is, I had 21 seamstresses in Strongsville. All of them were European. They were wonderful people.
I called them to have golden hands. But from watching them, sometimes they would even be backed against the wall how to create what the bride wanted. And I would come in and they'd go, "We don't want you here. You can't sew a stitch." And I said, "I know. Just let me see what you're doing." And I'd say, "You know, if you did this, this, and this, we might be able to create it." And they'd go, "Okay, we'll try it. But we don't think it'll work." And it worked. Why? Because I had a creative eye. Nobody taught me this. That was my birthright. And I used it to the ultimate, even in podcasting, by telling you a story step by step that you understand and can appreciate to help you move forward, no matter what your budget is.
Leah Haslage:
Absolutely. And as a woman that has sold 60,000 dresses to 60,000 brides, I know we're going to learn a lot from you this season.
Patrice Catan:
I hope so. And I'm going to have fun doing it. And down the road, we will have questions and answers from the audience. I want to hear from you. I want you to tell me what you need to know and why. No question is stupid.
Leah Haslage:
Absolutely.
Patrice Catan:
So I think we're going to have a good time, Leah, and we have a lot to look forward to and a lot more coming after this. We're going to have a lot of good guests on here. And I want to inform everybody that one of the top guests we're going to have is David Tutera. And he's very interesting. I've designed with him, wonderful person, very creative. So between him and many, many more, we have a lot to look forward to.
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