25th Years of Business Celebration Announced by Pegeen

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Orlando, FL – December 15, 2007

In 1982, Marg Hyland was looking for a way to combine her fashion and theatre background, and along with a growing brood of nieces and nephews, she formed her company called PEGEEN ® which was named for her Irish Heritage. After earning her Masters Degree, Marg Hyland, President and Founder of PEGEEN.COM took her love of clothing and theatre arts and created a magnificent yet classic line of Flower Girl Dresses and Ring Bearer Suits late in 1982. Wanting to create affordable yet couture quality formal wear for children; she began producing wonderful creations for special occasions and more specifically, the Bridal Industry. The company has always been a trendsetter and Marg has blazed a trail into e-commerce the first children’s wear company to have a web site, PEGEEN.COM, launched in the early-90’s. “In those days, including my web site on our banner at a trade show was a novelty. Many other manufacturers and retailers asked us, ‘how do you pronounce egeencom’ and I sure chuckled a lot at that one.”

“I have always been proud that we were the first children’s apparel company on the internet and also one of a half-dozen companies in the apparel industry to get into e-commerce.” Now, and in conjunction with the enhancement of new technology on their web site, Pegeen.com is also the first children’s bridal company to do national television advertising. The company has begun airing the first of a series of commercials for national television on shows such as “Bridezilla” and “Whose Wedding is it Any Way?” in addition to other women’s programming.

PEGEEN ®’s creations have been purchased by various clientele for their children or their weddings including famous celebrities, recording artists and authors but much more exciting to Ms. Hyland is that now so many of former clients who at one time were a flower girl themselves are going back to PEGEEN ® and purchasing outfits for their own weddings. “To me, the greatest compliment I get is not that I see our creations in a Soap Opera or a magazine where a celebrity used us, but when I get a letter and photo from one of our brides who show us how beautiful their children looked on their special day. Then, down the line, I hear from their sister, or friend or that same customer who orders again from us.”

Web site Enhancements: PEGEEN ® has been involved in creating beautiful yet affordable clothing for children. Because of the length of time in the children’s wear industry as well as trial and error, they have made it rather easy for a bride to create a unique look for her children in her wedding. Future inclusions to the web site will be a section where the bride can choose exactly what she wants and be able to sit down with the children in the wedding party where they can “color” their selection, try out various pricing options and then “walk down the aisle’ with their child on the screen. “So many of the weddings today, the bride is about to include her new step children to-be. This is a wonderful opportunity to find out what that young lady is thinking. Many times, I suggest to the bride to sit down with the girl, especially that difficult adolescent and go over our styles to get her input. It may be a wonderful time to share a special moment with the young lady. Just a few days ago, when a bride wanted so separately to include her step-daughter to be in her wedding party but was vehemently opposed to giving her an adult role. I suggested that she put the girl on the phone with me. After showing her how she can look good in a style suitable for a Junior Bridesmaid, I felt she was still very awkward about the whole thing. So I suggested that she talk over her feelings with her step mom to be and ask if she could walk down the aisle with her father and the idea went over well. The next day, the bride AND her fiance sent me flowers – to thank me for that excellent suggestion and helping them include her in this really important day. This wasn’t the only time a customer sent me a gift of appreciation. I got a dozen red roses from a very happy mom of a rather large, plus sized girl who had to go to a father – daughter dance and refused to go. So we created a very special outfit for the girl that was sliming and a perfect fit. Something we are very proud of.”

Plus Sized dresses are a huge business to this very busy company. Pegeen specializes in Special Fits for the really slender and the large, plus size girl as well. “Our bodice fit program has gone over very well with parents and ensure the dress will fit in advance through a special mailing program.” This trend for Plus Sized girls has kept PEGEEN very busy since this is a badly neglected part of the industry.

Speaking of children, in the past, so many times a bride has had limited color choices for the flower girls. “It’s not a child’s coronation, it’s her wedding. So a bride has to be able to find clothing that is not knocked-down versions of a bridesmaid or bridal gown”. Pegeen creates a variety of 85+ style for dresses and almost as many for ring bearers and sells more outfits that are NOT WHITE or IVORY so they can compliment the wedding party but not steal the thunder from the bride. Taking this a bit further, Pegeen implemented a color swap program for only $20 more where a bride can swap out a white or ivory base dress in any color combination to compliment their wedding theme. Looking around at the racks just before the dresses and suits are shipped show that there is a strong inclination of today’s bride to for the use of color rather than white or ivory. “Last week’s dresses, posted up on our Gallery Page, entitled, What Others Have Done (https://pegeen.com/custom.php) showed the emphasis in color swapping with colors like Citrus & Fire, Orange & Shock, Jewel & Aqualine, and the ever popular Tiffany & Chocolate.” New exciting choices for the brides are including fantastic color combinations like Tangerine & Powder Blue are featured in their REAL WEDDINGS section (https://pegeen.com/rave.php) that also include testimonies from customers: “Marg, if you were traded publicly, I would buy stock

Commercial Launch: PEGEEN ®’s slogan, Walking Down the Aisle with Brides Since 1982™ will be greatly expanded as Pegeen.com will be choosing feature former clients in their commercials. “We plan to feature a few more customers’ children and, if we find the right “Pegeen look” we will ask the child to join us and be included in one our commercials being filmed in Orlando. We will fly them down along with their family and top off the weekend’s filming by visiting DISNEY. “

The Importance of Technology: Expanding into E-Commerce meant Ms. Hyland no longer had to exhibit at trade shows. When my children were very small, they grew with the business which meant going to the various shows around the country. It was as if my line expanded, and especially deepening our line of Ring Bearer suits when my son’s Bill & Ted were born. (Yes, the joke was that I had to have fun with their names if I was not able to have any girls.) At one point, Pegeen sold to over 1900 retail stores and chains all over the world including Nordstrom’s’, Neiman Marcus and Harrods’s. Eventually, Pegeen expanded their internet website and shut down wholesale operations.“Technology has made it so easy for me to never miss a moment in my children’s lives. Cell phones have revolutionized summer vacations, and my latest gadget – a tiny laptop computer about the size of a paperback – means total portability. I sometimes am so compulsive about staying in touch with bride’s questions and concerns that I have forgotten myself at times and even answered the cell phone on the top of a rollercoaster. Years ago, when my children were really small, I started something called Summer Mon-Fri’s which meant that employees worked really long week days from Tuesday through Thursdays so their kids could look forward to going to the parks, or beach and museums on Mondays and Fridays. We used to combine them with theme weeks when our kids were small – like a week of Sea Animals and let the kids investigate and read fish stories from the library, play Go-FISH, visit a pet-shop mid-week or read about fishing during the week while we worked in the office.” Ms. Hyland has two offices and is found in her home office more than at the factory to be available to tend to her young children. The factory and business management is handled by her husband of 21 years, Jim Frank.

Speaking Engagements: With a busy schedule, it is hard to believe Ms. Hyland has time to help anyone by speaking engagements but just like she is known to help solve crises with brides and their in-laws, step-children to be, wedding planners, and children attending, Ms. Hyland, a former teacher continues to be available to speak on a variety of issues including how the Internet has affected e-commerce, the future of e-tailing, speaking to fashion students, emphasizing a woman’s juggling act of owning a busy company and stressing flexible work hours and priorities. “I hope that by continuing to speak to women’s groups as well as other technology groups that I can instill the love of what you do with the love of family. I am known by my family as the Great Multi-tasker and try to educate women on how they can consider a business of their own that not only allows for them to re-evaluate their working away from their children but to pick something you love and involve whenever possible the input from your family because it is amazing what they can contribute since they are so close to the business. I have also seen my children take special classes at their school to help out, classes in video technology and website development and I value their input and who knows, one of the boys may someday want to take over the company.”

“Making Flower Girl Dresses and Ring Bearer Suits is all we do at PEGEEN.COM” its spirited designer said during a recent Radio interview. “We remain true to our founding mission: To create affordable and classic clothing for Children’s Wedding Apparel”.

PEGEEN is now headquartered in Orlando, FL after a 22 year stay in New Jersey. Pegeen’s commercials can be seen on women’s networking stations but next season, they will also be running a similar program on other shows on the 4 major networks.

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