Startup Stories: Beautiful Designs & the Right Partner Can Change Everything -
Le Chien Bleu NY
Discover NYC-based dog fashion brand, Le Chien Bleu NY, and the inspiring story that brought this label to life!
BIO:
JY Lee: How did Le Chien Bleu come to be ? It’s a long story that started way back, in South Korea: as a little girl, I spent my time playing video games (and later in life designing them!), goofing around with my parents’ Yorkies and Malteses, and mostly walking around with crayons and drawing at every opportunity I had.
Fast forward to 2007: after graduating from Parsons School of Design, I started working in NY as a textile designer. My job was to create unique and attractive patterns for women’s fashion, with a contemporary runway style. I loved this role and learned a lot from it, but I always wanted to be more entrepreneurial and create an original line that would reflect my personality.
At the time, a coworker of mine had a very cute toy poodle named Oliver. She was looking for a cute tank top Oliver would wear at our company’s Christmas party. Since she could not find anything she liked online, she designed and produced herself a print for the outfit. Oliver was adorable in it! This is when it hit me. This was exactly what I had been looking for: being my own boss, combining my love for design and for dogs, making puppies look great and their owners happy.
During the same period, I made another life-changing decision: in 2016, I rescued the most adorable shiba inu (I’m being purely objective here, he’s soooooo soft). His name is Jax: he was surrendered by his former family because he had broken his leg. From the first day, he’s been my furry ball of happiness, a lazy but mischievous puppy who will sleep all day long and then jump all over the place if you dare give your attention to anything else (after weeks of treatment with the vet, his leg fully healed and he can now definitely bounce around).
My outfits are made with Jax in mind: I want him to be stylish, but before all to be comfortable, Here on the east coast, the weather can be very harsh: pets need to be protected from the freezing winds, heavy rains and frequent snowfalls. But we shouldn’t compromise on style!
My mission is to create and design fashionable, practical, premium quality dog clothes for all weather conditions. To that end, our products are made in the USA, and all our fabrics are sourced with style and durability in mind.
Our furbabies deserve the best, they are our family. Le Chien Bleu NY products are created with love and passion – we pinky swear!
Anita Lee: 7 years of business development, sales and marketing experience. A proud Maltipoo dog and a tabby cat mommy (and yes, they get along very well).
People say: “you know when you know it”, well, never felt it with any men but the minute I met my dog - Benji, I knew he was mine, love at first sight, this is it. Having a 5lbs Maltipoo, sensitive to weather changes, good quality and fashionable clothes became necessary. Targeting all my passion and love for my Benji to work, I am the business arm of Le Chien Bleu NY.
My mission is to support designers to create stylish, practical, top notch quality products in its target markets. Provide market trends so we are able to source the most wanted and exceptional fabrics for your furbaby. As the Director of Barketing… I mean Marketing, my goal is to expand the business nationally and internationally.