Hildi Flores is a great restaurant server. She is friendly, attentive, and will make sure your dining experience at Ramblin Jacks in downtown Olympia is top notch. It’s not always an easy job, but it’s a good job and it pays the bills. However, being a restaurant server is not her passion. What many of her customers probably don’t know about 26-year-old Hildi Flores, is she is an aspiring fashion designer, who has created her own successful brand of clothing.
As we sit down to talk in her downtown studio space, I am distracted by the racks of colorful, unique clothing. She tells me she enjoyed the few sewing classes she took in high school, but she never envisioned designing clothes as a career choice. After graduating in 2008, Hildi made the move from her home state of Montana to Olympia, which is where her fashion designs really started to evolve. Becoming a success didn’t happen overnight. Hildi says she began with crocheting bikinis and up cycling other garments. “I started using the technique to bind things together with yarn because I didn’t have a sewing machine. I used to crochet my bikinis in the bar downstairs from where I worked,” she tells me with a laugh.
It was in that same bar in 2011 where Hildi came up with the name for her clothing brand, BubbleGunk. She says a friend gave her some cheap, really bright, pink yarn as a joke, which reminded her of bubblegum. She in turn paired it with some forest green yarn, the color of gunk, and an idea was formed. “I’ve really shaped my brand around those words and the sort of juxtaposition they create between something being uppity, fun, bubbly, feminine, but still being kind of grungy and edgy.”
Hildi tells me she really likes to color outside the lines and makes sure her brand represents this idea. She says she sees a lot of people wearing black, white, and grey here in the northwest and she likes to add some color. She does this through bold, but refined color schemes many might not think to bring together. “For me it’s a process. I’m inspired by the materials to start.”
And the result is nothing short of fabulous. As I look through her many designs, I’m mesmerized by the beautiful fabrics and styles. It’s this enthusiasm she sees from others which helps to keep her creating. “People are always really excited. That’s kind of the thing that will keep me going more than anything.” Hildi says she usually doesn’t do the same piece twice. “I’m bored when I do a duplicate. As soon as I do a second one I’m over it. It’s already been done. I want to be known for being someone you can come to and buy a unique one of a kind garment.”
However, becoming a known fashion designer people recognize isn’t always easy. You need to have a place to showcase your designs, a place to get your name out there. For Hildi such a place has been Chance Fashion, a non-profit organization out of Seattle “dedicated to providing opportunities for fashion artists of all levels.” She says in 2014 she met up with Ryan Muller, Chance Fashion’s founder. Since then she has participated in numerous monthly collaborations, showing everything from menswear, plus size clothing, and swimwear, to Halloween collections. And this past year received the honor of being named Designer of the Year for Chance Fashion.
Because of her belief in the organization, Hildi has worked tirelessly to bring an edition of Chance Fashion to Olympia for other designers like herself. She says it’s amazing how many artists are right here in this area, but just under the radar. “You give them a particular platform and then all of a sudden it’s like they just come out of the woodwork. They start to take themselves seriously as fashion artists.”
The first showing of Chance Fashion Olympia took place in 2015 at the 1230 Room in downtown Olympia, but most recently they’ve taken the show to Huber’s Gasthaus on the eastside. “I think for fashion to be taken seriously it’s kind of gotta be moved out of a nightclub,” Hildi shares with me. She says Chance Olympia is still in the experimental phase, but is becoming successful thanks to the countless volunteers involved.
With Chance Olympia gaining speed, it has also helped to showcase her own brand, BubbleGunk, more locally. Recently Hildi has been able to move into a co-operative workspace for new entrepreneurs in downtown Olympia. She says it provides a better working environment with less distractions, but is still a change she’s adjusting to. “It’s kind of a transition for me because I’ve gotten so used to working from home all the time and I’ve always done it.” With less distractions, she has more time to think about what the future holds for BubbleGunk. She says her top priority right now is researching what direction she wants to go in and how to get there. She is very adamant about never outsourcing her brand overseas and envisions BubbleGunk being in specialty boutiques or possible her own store someday.
For now, Hildi still waits tables in a restaurant, while at the same time working to make her dreams a reality. She obviously a fierce, independent woman with big ambitions, but tells me it’s also because of the people around her that she is becoming successful. She says she has had to rise to their level and push herself. “As much as I’ve accomplished on my own I wouldn’t be here today if it wasn’t for the network of people I’ve come into.”
You can find Hildi’s creations on her Etsy shop or visit her BubbleGunk Facebook page for more information and to see her designs.
