Fashion Designer Cassondra Hadel Celebrates First Year
6pm Thursday Goddess & Glam At Parlor Gallery A Medley of Porkchop's Art, Atom Worth's Music & Camaroha Sutra Fashion
Photo by Michael Barlow
From trading stocks to teaching yoga, city resident Cassondra Hadel’s journey has led her to a profession she never envisioned; that of a fashion designer.
“I never thought I would be a fashion designer,” the 5-year-long city resident said. “I never thought when I was young – this is what I’m going to do when I grow up.”
On Thursday, the Holmdel native will celebrate the one year anniversary of her Camaroha Sutra line with the 6 to 9:30 p.m. Goddess & Glam, an art meets fashion and music event being held at Parlor Gallery, located at 717 Cookman Ave.
“When you are trading stocks it’s really you and your cell phone,” the 28-year-old said. “I didn’t find it fulfilling and I wasn’t connecting with people.”
Hadel moved on to teaching yoga, and it was during a six month trip to Thailand that her new path unfolded.
“I found fabric and material in Thailand with amazing patterns,” she said. “They are lightweight and breathable. I left to meet a woman in Bangkok [and] we worked on a couple designs and concepts.”
That was in February 2017 and by May she was selling her line at the AP Bizarre in Convention Hall and the at Asbury Fresh, the downtown seasonal farmers and crafts market held at Kennedy Park.
While Hadel was selling her comfortable yoga-inspired wares to help support her yoga business, the line had a mind of its own. In just two weeks she sold out. She went back to Thailand and brought back 1500 pieces, but those also sold out quickly.
A third trip to the southeast asian country led to a partnership with two women owned workshops. She followed that up with a cross country trip that led to 70 boutiques, yoga studios, spas, vegan markets, smoke shops, and marinas now selling her line; with 65 of them being women owned ventures.
“It’s been a lot of fun,” Hadel said. “Life in itself being so abstract, difficult, confusing…I’ve taken all that and channeled it to keep myself moving forward to create stability and balance. This line has really helped me meet and connect with women.”
Today, women across the globe wear Hadel’s line, not just for yoga but as every day attire.
“My line does not discriminate,” she said. “Women from all walks of life, all ages, and all body images – shapes and sizes, wear my line. It’s really cool how it connects those who might not have been connected otherwise. I really like the fact that what I’ve seen happen is this shift to women wearing loose clothing and I just love the way the fabric floats around a person’s body. It’s just so beautiful.”
The Thursday night event is a fashion/jewelry/art show and fundraising event, being held in support of Threads 4 Care, a mobile clothing pop-up boutique for underserved youth created by a fellow Holmdel native.
“What I like about this organization is that she recognizes the ages of 13 to 20 can get lost in the mix and I feel like it’s just such an influential time in their lives,” Hadel said. “Her nonprofit serves everyday normal people who are struggling to pay bills. Plus Sutra means threads, so we also have that in common.”
Hadel’s spring Collections of Camaroha Sutra collection will be partnered with jewelry by Red Bank-based artist Oriana Lamarca. And, Tara Weldon and her Hot Mess studio will be designing the model’s hairstyles.
On the night’s roster is live art in the form of body painting by a Manhattan artist and the city’s own celebrated artist Porkchop who will mimic the body art to his current deity collection at the gallery. DJ and Emmy award winning videographer Atom Worth will provide the music, AP Brewery the drinks, Brando’s the food, and close to 40 Asbury Park venues have signed on support in the way of sponsorships, Hadel said.
“I moved here after [Superstorm] Sandy because there is so much soul and creativity in Asbury Park,” Hadel said. “In curating this event, I reached out to people I’ve personally been inspired by and all of them offered support, no questions asked.”
Neighboring venues – the Asbury Park Cigar and Tobacco Shop and Cookman Creamery will also open their doors, with the former offering the first 50 men a free cigar.
For more about the event, visit the event page via Facebook. For more about Camaroha Sutra visit the website, Facebook and Instagram pages.
[Photos courtesy of Camaroha Sutra]
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