Ginger Root Design - Tailoring & Design Studio Opening

Our second visit to Ginger Root Design in the past week was an eye-opening and exhilarating experience. Though talented owners Kristen Swenson and Erin Derge have been tailoring and designing clothes from the English basement of 1530 U Street for awhile now, the opening of their dedicated tailoring and design studio on the second floor of the same building represents a significant step, not only for Ginger Root, but for Washington DC as well. Stylish DC’ers now have an appointment-only destination for tailoring and clothing re-design and Ginger Root has the infrastructure to kick things up a notch. Old clothes from your closet and found thrift or vintage items can now be turned into exactly what you hoped and dreamed they would be when you bought them. What we saw at Ginger Root is a testament to just how serious, hardworking, and organized an operation they are running. This is an exciting time for style in DC.

Our photos:

Kristen Swenson and Erin Derge of Ginger Root Design:

A sewing machine ready for work in the new sewing room:

Our favorite photo, a rainbow of thread spools:

Inspirations in the sewing room:

A work in progress:

We loved that Ginger Root Design produced a book with examples of their custom work:

Eric Channing Brewer of Dandies and Quaintrelles with Nicole Aguirre:

Eric’s fantastic messenger bag:

The gift bags were so cute, with illustrations by local artist Elizabeth Graeber and a measuring tape bow pin:

Butler + Claypool Pop-Up Shop at Ginger Root Design

This past Saturday we attended another successful Butler + Claypool pop-up, this time in the newly-renovated upstairs of Ginger Root Design. Nothing is more encouraging and inspiring to us than the continued success of creative businesses in Washington DC; Butler + Claypool recently completed their appointment-only showroom in Capitol Hill and Ginger Root Design is expanding their booming tailoring business (and making more room for their similarly booming retail business downstairs).

Here’s our photos from the pop-up:

Holly Thomas of Butler + Claypool is also the Washington DC Editor of Refinery 29 and one of our favorite people:

We absolutely loved Holly’s handmade shell-casing and coral necklace (we hear B+C might have more of these in stock soon):

Erin Derge is one-half of Ginger Root Design; she is wearing a necktie of her own design and earrings made by a local designer and sold at Ginger Root:

We are powerless not to photograph Cheralee Lyle of Lyle Style - even her camera strap is stylish!:

A quick visit to Ginger Root Design

We have been following Kristen Swenson ever since we worked with her last year during the Treasury Spring/Summer 2010 show at ReadySetDC’s Fashion:District. Much has changed for her since then. She has teamed up with Erin Derge to found Ginger Root Design, along with ReVamp tailoring. Kristen also found some time in between to get married (Congratulations!).

Ginger Root Design offers their own designs along with vintage fashions and jewelry. ReVamp tailoring is a dynamic tailoring service. They help clients repurpose old clothing or great found vintage into something fresh and new.

This chunky necklace was amazing:

Ginger Root is single-handedly bringing the Lady Tie back into fashion. We love the colors of this one:

The sculptural nature of this necklace and earrings is inspiring:

An original design:

Killer vintage flats that we sadly could not fit into. These will make someone very happy, just make sure you have narrow feet!

Ginger Root Design
1530 U Street NW, Washington DC
Phone: 202-567-7668
www.gingerrootdesign.com