Know Your Neighbor: Kara Schwartz, Fashion Designer, Mt. Kisco
For many women who work in the business world or a corporate environment, they never seem to have enough shoes. Whether it be for various business engagements, a casual night out or needing to color coordinate footwear with their outfit, some women could go through multiple pairs of shoes in the same day.
Kara Schwartz, a 25-year fashion industry veteran, once faced that problem.
“Why can’t someone, why can’t some designer come up with a shoe that you can just wear from morning to night that’s super comfortable, that you can just change the accessories?” Schwartz pondered.
So the Mount Kisco mom of two teenage boys took the matter into her own hands–literally. In November, Schwartz, 49, launched Flop Girl by Kara Mac, a line of her own shoes with an assortment of at least 15 to 20 decorative heel coverings and toe clips that transform the same shoe into multipurpose footwear.
“If I wanted to look corporate during the day or fashionable during the day, I would wear one (pair of shoes) to coordinate with my outfit, and if I had an event that night, I’d slip this one on,” Schwartz said. “You could put five pairs of shoes in your purse.”
Currently, Schwartz offers three styles of shoes–the Patent Pump and the Smokin’ Hot Slipper are basic classic-style black shoes that start at $99 a pair, and the Betty Boot, which is an ankle-high boot for $159 and up. This year she will introduce two more styles into her collection, another pump and a sandal, both of which can be similarly decorated with various ornaments.
The shoes are available in sizes 6 to 11 1/2 for the Patent Pump, 6 1/2 to 11 1/2 for the Smokin’ Hot Slipper (half-sizes only) and 6 to 10 1/2 for the boot. She sells an insert for those who are between sizes.
Having suffered through her share of painful shoes, comfort is mandatory for Schwartz. There are all kinds of trendy styles that come and go and look great, but some of those damage women’s feet. Her shoes’ insteps are soft and plush, and the leather material is sturdy.
“I wanted to make it super high quality so the shoe lasts a really long time,” she said.
From the time she was 12 years old, Schwartz, who grew up in Somers through sixth grade before her family moved upstate, wanted nothing else but to work in the fashion industry. She recalled announcing to her mother that she would attend the Fashion Institute of Technology and never applied to another college.
Although Schwartz studied women’s wear, her first job after graduating FIT was in menswear, and that’s where she would stay for more than 25 years.
Now, Schwartz manages her online business from her Crow Hill Road home, a welcome change from the years of commuting into Manhattan, where at least 12-hour days were commonplace. Each morning she sends her husband, Steve, a financial industry professional, off to work and her two sons off to school. By 6:45 a.m. she is ready to start her day.
While Flop Girl launched in November, Schwartz said she first had the idea for the business about three years ago. But it wasn’t until she visited the business academy of Daymond John of “Shark Tank” fame at about this time last year that she had the gumption to make a go of it on her own. John listened intently to Schwartz’s plan and succinctly said to her “this could be huge.”
“That gave me the confidence to say, ‘You know what, this is what I’m doing from now on,'” Schwartz recalled. “I’m not working and doing this on the side.”
Then on May 30, she left her job to prepare to start her business. Schwartz launched Flop Girl over the Thanksgiving weekend. She signed up for space at the Massachusetts Conference for Women, a gathering of some 10,000 women in Boston, and she couldn’t run the mobile reader to take credit cards fast enough.
“I needed four other people in my booth because the demographics of the women who were at this were perfect,” Schwartz said.
For more information on Flop Girl by Kara Mac, visit the website at www.flopgirl.com or e-mail flopgirl@flopgirl.com.
Martin has more than 30 years experience covering local news in Westchester and Putnam counties, including a frequent focus on zoning and planning issues. He has been editor-in-chief of The Examiner since its inception in 2007. Read more from Martin’s editor-author bio here. Read Martin’s archived work here: https://www.theexaminernews.com/author/martin-wilbur2007/
