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| Fortune Seller: Karen Noseff designs and runs Fortune Denim, a line of high-end jeans seen on the model below. photography by Vaness Gavalya |
When Jessica Simpson is spotted buying a pair of Fortune Denim jeans, it means more to Karen Noseff than to the average style-savvy gal. That’s because Noseff is the brains behind the up-and-coming, Carrollton-based denim line. So how did Noseff—who used to jazz up her jeans as a teenager—become one of the fashion world’s brightest rising stars?
The answer goes back several years, when Noseff was begrudgingly plodding through law school at Southern Methodist University. Though she knew law wasn’t her calling, she had pursued it anyway to please her parents. One day, while lunching at a nearby Pei Wei, she got a fortune cookie that promised, “Soon you will receive a fortune.” She took it as a sign.
“At that point I was just kind of buying time,” she says of her remaining years at SMU. “I was like, OK, I have two more years to figure out what I really want to do.”
What she really wanted to do, she realized, was design. Without knowing the industry terminology or even how to sew, Noseff set out to learn the way everyone does these days. “I started at Google.com,” she laughs. “I really did. I just started doing research and for hours and hours.”
The resulting work, an East-meets-West-style denim line that debuted in January 2007, pays homage to that prophetic cookie as well as to her Chinese background. The jeans feature pockets and waistbands lined with silk that’s emblazoned with an ancient Tang dynasty symbol—and traditional red silk bags or oversized takeout boxes used as carrying containers.
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| photography courtesy of Fortune Denim |
Noseff’s runway to success hasn’t always been easy. Her biggest hurdle along the way, she says, was getting manufacturers to take her seriously. In the eyes of the industry, her decision to remain in Dallas—primarily for her family, not to mention their local business connections—put her at a severe disadvantage compared to New York or L.A.-based brands, she admits. And because she still doesn’t sew, Noseff must work with patternmakers and seamstresses who interpret her original vision.
Despite the challenges, Fortune is now sold in more than 175 stores nationwide, with hopes to expand into 300 by year’s end. In only its first year, Fortune’s revenue landed just shy of $1 million, and stars like Eva Longoria, Heather Locklear, and Jessica Alba have been known to sport the jeans. And as if designing, running her own six-person company, and flying to both coasts to do business weren’t enough, Noseff is gearing up to launch a line of knit dresses to complement her denim offerings.
“I have no social life,” she laughs. “And you can print that.”
