Youngsong Martin's table linens are the talk of upscale parties and weddings.
Made with embroidered silks, colorful fabrics, beads and jewels, her tablecloths, napkins and chair coverings are catching the eyes of event planners and brides looking for designs as exciting as the lavish parties they throw.
And her creations are all for rent.
Martin creates the luxurious pieces for Wildflower Linens, her 5-year-old company in Fountain Valley, where she has helped fill a void in the growing market for upscale rental linens.
Her firm produces and rents her work. Her designs cater to a niche between inexpensive white tablecloths available for rent at local party stores and custom items with big-time price tags. She rents tablecloths of all kinds from $35 to almost $300 for one-time use.
"She kind of found a way to produce really high-end products at affordable prices," said Jeff Johnson, co-owner of Square Root, an upscale event-planning firm in Irvine. He estimates that Martin receives 98% of his linen orders.
The idea behind Martin's small business came in the late 1990s. A fashion designer, she was in Las Vegas showing her latest line of sportswear at a trade show. But the buyers prowling the aisles were more interested in the covers she had made to hide the ugly metal folding chairs at her booth than in her clothes, she recalled.
In 1999, Martin dropped her line of clothing, which had been selling in Fred Segal boutiques and Macy's West department stores.
A few years later she began working out of her garage to keep overhead down, designing and sewing rental linens for Orange County's flourishing specialevents scene.
"It was sort of a natural evolution because I had been in the textile industry since I was 18," said Martin, a native of Korea.
The upscale niche has proved profitable for Wildflower Linens (www.wildflowerlinens.com). Demand for her goods will help push revenue to about $1 million this year, she said. The company now employs 25 full-time workers.
Wildflower Linens, which has a showroom and warehouse in Fountain Valley, added a showroom last year in the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood to cater to L.A. clients, which include Wolfgang Puck.
And Martin is in escrow on a loan with the Small Business Administration to buy a new building in Buena Park that will be four times the size of her 6,000-square-foot Fountain Valley operation.
