Northeastern students Lukas Dudzik and Alder Whiteford, Sewn Boutique founders, pose for a portrait in the Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Complex.

Northeastern entrepreneurs make fashion statement by connecting unique designer brands with consumers

Two friends and Northeastern University students have started an online fashion platform seeking to connect small designer brands with fashion connoisseurs.

“The world of fashion has financial barriers that have long been insurmountable hurdles for small creators, resulting in the premature death of valued creativity,” says Lukas Dudzik, one of the founders of Sewn Boutique.

The platform strives to “break down these walls and bridge the gap between small fashion and consumers” by showcasing one brand per week, while telling the stories of the companies and their creators.

Dudzik and his business partner Alder Whiteford met through a Northeastern fraternity.

Dudzik is a rising fourth-year student in the College of Science, studying mathematics and economics with a marketing analytics minor. Whiteford is a rising third-year student at the Khoury College of Computer Sciences, where he studies computer science and business administration.

Yet the two of them bonded over their interest in fashion.

“When you are dealing with courses that are very rigid, there’s only one answer—to look for other outlets in terms of creativity, I suppose,” Lukas says.

He became interested in fashion his senior year of high school because, he says, he wasn’t good at playing musical instruments or drawing but was pretty skillful at knowing what clothing represented him and expressed his style, feelings or emotions on a given day.

Whiteford used to spend countless hours buying and reselling the most coveted sneakers that were coming out when he was in high school, he says.

“This was my entry point to the world of fashion,” Whiteford says. “And I grew this immense appreciation for the shoe market as well as the designers behind them.”

 

Read more on News@Northeastern.

Photo by Alyssa Stone/Northeastern University.

Mathematics