This is the first of a three-part series on winners of the 2014 Bluffton Center for Entrepreneurs Ropp Triplett Business Plan Competition. Rachel Davis is the first place winner. She receives $5,000 in business start up costs from BCE. For more information about the annual competition contact: [email protected].

Rachel Davis didn’t attend prom this spring. But she knows a lot about this year’s dress and tuxedo styles.

Prior to area high school proms taking place she completed extensive alterations to a dozen prom dresses. One dress was four sizes too large; another was one size too small.

Graduating from Bluffton University in 2005 with an early childhood major, she and her husband, Nathan, were married in 2003. Both are Pandora-Gilboa High School grads.

Today, Davis owns Studio Silhouette, a home-based business, which is a tailor shop and tuxedo rental. Tailoring services range from bridal and formal alterations, casual sewing and mending to custom-made attire.

“I draw most of my clients from Bluffton and surrounding communities though a growing number are from Findlay, Lima and as far away as Bellefontaine,” she said.

Her business mission statement reads: “Studio Silhouette provides sophisticated tailoring services with an enthusiastic flair for garments of any kind; casual fashion to formal heirlooms, as well as trend-setting tuxedo rental solutions.”

“I’ve always sewn,” she said. “I picked up the skills on my own and for a time was a head seamstress in a bridal store.” In addition, she has several years of experience in retail management.

It was while in retail that she decided to try to capitalize on her own skills, hoping to eventually have her own business and storefront.

Now the mother of three children, ages 7, 2 and 1, she works in her home, doing what she like best: sewing.

“I’ve worked in my home for five years and now I need more space. My goal is to have my own Bluffton storefront offering alterations and some related retail items. I’d like to accomplish this in the next year or two,” she said.

“I really want to focus on wedding, proms and formal dress alterations,” she says, adding that she can create dresses if necessary. Complimenting the alteration business she offers a line of tuxedo rentals including suits, shoes, vests and ties.

“My vision includes alterations as a secondary service and additional small retail lines of fashion jewelry and hair accessories. In essence, Studio Silhouette will become a one-stop shop for all things formal,” she says.

For more information, contact:
Studio Silhouette
482 W. Elm St.
Bluffton, Ohio 45817
419-306-6888
[email protected]
Click here for her facebook page

PHOTO INFORMATION: 
Happy customers. Created straps for one and altered large portion of heavily beaded bodice of the other.

Bridal before and after transformation - removed existing zipper and replaced with a full corset back for a completely different look. See my Facebook page for more info on this project. Search "Studio Silhouette" on Facebook.