Marissa Tilley, of Lady Black Tie, Visits Section 36 Forevers!

Marissa at showroom grand opening
November 201

Section 36 Pageants has another visitor! Marissa Tilley is the owner of Lady Black Tie, a formalwear showroom in Andover MA. Since so many of her gowns have been worn by prior visitors to Section 36, I was excited that she was willing to visit with us to discuss her showroom, how she got into the business, and where she hopes to go from here. Hopefully you’ll enjoy this as much as I did.

So, let’s see what happens when Marissa Tilley visits Section 36

What was your first venture in fashion and formal wear?

Marissa Walking
Fall 2015

When I trace back my interest in formalwear, I would say the seed was planted when I was 19 years old. I was in the right place at the right time; I got invited to walk the runway in New York Fashion Week Fall 2008 for Couture evening gown designers. I had only a few days notice to attend the casting and I had never modeled before. I had to show up looking like I belonged, so I had a photographer snap some artsy photos of me wearing one of my prom dresses in the woods. I used these photos to print out a comp card. (Long before Instagram, having a comp card was a must for modeling!). Before I knew it, I was cast and a few days later, I was on the runway in New York Fashion Week. I walked in 9 different shows my first season and wore the most glamorous formal gowns. I continued to come back to NYFW almost every season through my 20's - always walking in stunning couture gowns. I would say this experience left me with a romanticized impression of the formal wear niche. Almost 10 years after my very first runway show in September 2008, here I am opening my own formal gown business in November 2018!

How did you come up with the name “Lady Black Tie”?

I wanted a name that was simple and also summarized what we do. The best business names are the ones that are simple. When I first thought of “Lady Black Tie” I typed it into search engines and all that came up (at the time) were random articles in Vogue and other magazines titled ‘How to dress for a black tie event” and not much else. So I thought, "Wow, no retailer has taken advantage of this space on search engines?”  I searched social media and nobody had taken the name there either. I liked how simple and succinct the name was. We sell black tie attire for ladies. So, I filed a trademark on it and claimed all the social media handles.  Voila! We have a name.

What do you like about your showroom location in Andover MA?
Opening shop in Andover was significant for attracting in-store

Marissa
Spring 2016

visitors when we first opened. I opened the store strategically just before prom season in November 2018 so I could have two solid months of heavy social media marketing before Prom shopping rush in January. Downtown Andover is very charming and it's also convenient to drive to. Most of our prom customers are located within a 30 mile driving radius from Andover; with the bulk of our business coming from customers who live within a 10 mile drive from us. A lot of major highways and roadways connect around Andover, so we won a lot of business from Mothers and girls who found it convenient to drive to our store first; before trekking to the other side of the North Shore (where other Prom stores are located). The roadways make it inconvenient to get over to where the other stores are. Our location was a contributing factor to our early success. 

How do you decide what styles/brands of dresses to carry?
Lady Black Tie carries a lot of unique designers and styles that you don't really see in other local formalwear stores; this was intentional. We work with American and Australian designers. The American designers we carry are very fashion forward, keeping pace with the ever-evolving consumer demand that is influenced by what's trending on social media at the moment. As per our Australian influence - I spent 2 years living in Sydney, Australia and my family is half Australian so my husband and I travel there every year. Australian fashion is positively different to what is trending in the US market. Our customers responded very well to the styles we'd bring in from Australia so we just kept reordering over and over again as the styles would sell out so quickly. Our customers really love that they can  shop for styles with us that they can't easily find anywhere else nearby.

What has surprised you the most during the six months or so Lady Black Tie has been open?

Marissa
Fall 2008

Honestly, our website’s unexpected and incredibly fast growth. It only took a few months in business before our monthly web sales started outperforming our storefront’s sales. I didn’t expect it would be this way so soon and I feel lucky to be in this position.  At this point, I’ve doubled down on what's working and we’ve been investing a lot into our growth online because it’s where the potential lies. Someday our storefront will eventually hit a peak for the amount of business we can bring in (limited to customers in driving distance). Whereas our website can grow far beyond that and at a much faster rate.We have shipped dresses to all 50 states and all providences in Canada. We’ve shipped to Europe, Australia and some parts of Asia by now. The success with our online sales changed my perspective on how I originally planned to invest in and operate the business. Maybe I’ll change my mind on this statement; for now, I’m thinking we may keep our storefront small and just keep expanding the online business. We're not even a year old and we're already exploring renting warehouse space for inventory and operations. It's been fantastic.

What is your favorite part about owning Lady Black Tie?
There are two things I love about owning Lady Black Tie . 1. Every day is entirely different and equally exciting. You don't always know what you're walking into and it isn't always predictable. 2. Owning your own business is incredibly freeing. Even though I put in a lot of hours - far more than I did in my boring corporate jobs- it doesn't ever feel like 'work' when I'm here. I remember in my stint in a corporate job, I'd find myself looking at the clock often to see when the day would be over. I never get that feeling at Lady Black Tie because I'm doing what I love every day. 

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That’s definitely the goal!

As always, I want to give huge thanks to Marissa for doing this interview. I’m glad we were able to make it happen. I also want to thank her for providing the pictures to accompany the interview. I loved the look back at her getting her start in the industry.

If you looking for a formal gown, know someone who is, or just enjoy looking at amazing fashion, I encourage you to check out Lady Black Tie. You should follow all of the Lady Black Tie social media accounts (Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter) as well as check out the official website. If you’re in the area, you should really swing by the showroom on Chestnut St in Andover MA. It will make picking out the perfect gown even easier.

And, if you talk to Marissa don’t forget to tell her you saw her on Section 36 Pageants!

Thanks again Marissa!