Poodle skirt maker

There's a perfectly logical reason that a rack in the shower at Donna Stolla's home in north Reno was filled with 1950s-style poodle skirts earlier this month.

Hot August Nights was on its way, and Stolla was building her inventory.

As the annual show of automotive abundance arrives in Reno, Stolla is as busy as a fruitcake baker in the weeks before Christmas.

"When it's busy, I work right until 10 or 11 o'clock at night," she said the other day.

Her onewoman company, Unique Designs by Donna, generates an order or two a day yearround through its web site poodleskirtsbydonna.com but Hot August Nights creates a surge of demand for the firm's nostalgia clothing.

Along with poodle skirts, Unique Designs by Donna markets peasant shirts, button-up rock-and-roll blouses, bobbie socks, saddle oxfords and 1950s accessories such as fuzzy dice and scarves.

Stolla said she was inspired to launch the company after she saw a display of poodle skirts during one of the early Hot August Nights celebrations a dozen years ago.

"They were horrible looking," she said.

"And they wanted $47 for them.

I thought, 'What a ripoff.'"

She bought a pattern, made skirts for family members and co-workers Stolla's day job finds her at Premier Properties and found enthusiastic response from others who wanted one of her creations.

Today, the company's creations are sold retail at Romantic Sensations and Judy's Dance Shop in Reno in addition to the Web site.

Advertising in Hot August Night publications has proven particularly effective, Stolla said.

As business grew, Stolla turned to outside help.

Her sister-in-law in Prescott, Ariz., makes the peasant blouses sold by Unique Designs by Donna.

Stolla herself continues to make all the poodle skirts, cutting stacks of poodle shapes from fake fur and creating poodle leashes from sequined material during the slow season.

For her work, Stolla earns a tidy parttime income $5,000 or so in most years.

But the value of the company, she said, has been greater than its financial rewards since the death of her husband three years ago.

"My husband always was so proud of me for the way I built this up," she said.

"There were times since he passed away I didn't want to go on, but I remembered what he said.

That really helped me a lot."