Costume Couture Design Lab, Warm Hearts 4 Wetlands, FOE Fur

I need help! Resourceful, enthusiastic, and connected, but also a mom on a budget. I need a team to execute developing operations & business planning for setting up 501c3 Warm Hearts 4 Wetlands which entails getting a certification process in place (USDA fingers crossed) for the FOE:Fostering Original Environment label, facilitating a regional operations base for: cost cutting extermination & waste processing, establishing a vocational skills program, develop a manufacturing & distribution for regional economic stimulus & charitable contributions. Idea applies to any invasive species regions (Florida Everglades' pythons).

Next, finish & produce our children's book Naughty Naughty Nutrias sharing the wetlands problem & explain why culling is necessary, partnered with a public relations campaign & fund raising events. "WHEN A BULLY WITH AN UNCONTROLLABLE APPETITE TAKES OVER THE WETLANDS AND WANTS IT ALL…ENOUGH IS ENOUGH"

Then procure more pelts to make samples & continue researching dying, processing & manufacturing techniques to craft, produce, & distribute the sustainable Grow FOE coats for kids kits & other products.

Continue exploring cross marketing opportunities & develop ecotourism plans to draw volunteers and donors to our community to help harvest pelts at a price point where we can donate coats to cold children.

Not since the 1988 movie Working Girl has as a team left no connection, skill set, talent or experience wasted. A mother-daughter team of nature loving, glamping, up-cycling fashionistas. The product line, F.O.E. Fur: Fostering Original Environment developed to create regionally crafted sustainable fashion accessories and coats that can grow with the wearer by adding pelts to prolong sustainability as part of a pageant platform educating about the effects of fast fashion on the environment and the effects of non-indigenous invasive species on our state.

Daughter Evangeline: (Miss Louisiana: 2021 National American Miss Junior PreTeen; 2021 International United Miss Junior Preteen, America’s National Teenager Preteen) smart, poised, funny, cultured, loving. Motivation: cancer philanthropist (Father 2011, Meré 2016), rent a show pony.  Skills: Archery, Acting, Storytelling, Horseback Riding, 4-H, Public Relations, Circus Arts

Mother Caroline: enthusiastic, inquisitive, creative, hardworking, resourceful, resilient.  Motivation: teach child to find a way to afford what she wants. Skills: BFA in Theater Production & Design, Entrepreneur, REALTOR, Contractor, Interior Designer, Carpentry, Up-cycling, Painting, Historical Tax Credits, Zoning, Safety & Permits, Insurance, Remediation-Flood Fire Mold & Hurricane Marketing, Event Planning, Fundraising, Sewing, Couture, Costume Designer, Milliner, Upholstery, Fur, Management, Investment, Tour Guide, Culture- Mardi Gras Queen

Louisiana wetlands impact the global water cycle, economy and Gulf South regional heritage. Costume Couture Design Lab (CCDL) provides a game-changing solution to critical social issues related to the impact of coastal erosion. Our product line, F.O.E. Fur: Fostering Original Environment, eradicates nutria, keeps the carcasses out of landfills, and gives purpose to the pelt by creating jobs, teaching trade skills, and telling our unique story. We educate about environmental damage done by invasive species with the children's book Naughty Naughty Nutrias. Grow FOE is a coat construction kit for age 10+ created from landfill reclaimed fabric and pelts. Assembled with a lacing system, it allows the coat to grow with the owner, thus making a sustainable fashion choice that encourages creativity. Processing costs can be cut by creating a local production and manufacturing trade center and encouraging ecourtousim to help in the pelt collection process.  This allows for a buy one give one platform to donate coats to cold children or anyone.  

F.O.E. Fur will turn destructive invasive species into sustainable entrepreneurial products and services for our community. Simply put, we want to eradicate nutria by repurposing their purpose in life.  This is a game-changing solution to a number of critical social issues in Louisiana. First, we want to educate people about the environmental damage that nutria, a non-ingenious creature, is doing to our wetlands with the children’s book Naughty Naughty Nutria. Second, as more wetlands are lost to erosion and destruction, we are losing more of our rich heritage along with economic opportunities in our local communities. Third, many children suffer from a lack of warm clothing. F.O.E Fur wants to provide a nutria-based coat to any child that needs one via Warm Hearts 4 Wetlands.

Our family vision is to entertain, educate and engage our target market beginning with children’s books that teaches about the invasive species, sustainable fashion as well as a transferable skill (sewing) which ultimately provides them with a warm coat.  Eventually we want to eviscerate invasive species, rebuild our wetlands, slow landfill waste from disposable fashion and cheap home décor, and create a lifestyle brand which focuses on sustainable, environmentally friendly products and services.

Education is the cornerstone for building a better world.  What you do not know can hurt.  Nutria are killing our wetlands.  Our book, Naughty Naughty Nutrias, is designed to encourage reading and storytelling and to promote environmental exploration and education. It also teaches how to craft and produce a coat which will grow along with them. The children will share with their parents who can take advantage of our vocational programs at a regional operations base for extermination, cost cutting waste processing, trade skills education, manufacturing, and distribution for regional economic stimulus.