The road to making your dream a reality is full of stops and starts and sharp detours, as designer Lorna Davalos knows firsthand.

Davalos founded Davalos Designs, a startup business run out of her home in Polo Fields that designs and creates custom special event attire, bridal gowns and upscale scarves and shawls.

Davalos had always been interested in design ever since her mother, a quilter, enrolled her in sewing classes at a young age. She attended Slauson Middle School and Community High School and, after taking a few years off to figure out what she wanted to do, was accepted into the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City.

After graduating from FIT, her plan was to stay in New York City and get some work experience, but she hit a bump in the road.

“Unbeknownst to me, I was in the middle of a divorce,” explains Davalos. Wanting to keep her house, she came back to Ann Arbor, took in a roommate and went to work for Autumn Cashmere in Auburn Hills as director of product development. After a few years, she found work closer to home at Webelite in Ann Arbor and later Arbor Networks.

“All this time, I’m losing the hold on my dream, which was to start my own design business,” says Davalos. During this time she met her current husband, who encouraged her to start her own business. In a fit of determination, she formed an LLC seven years ago but was too busy with her full time job to develop it.

In what ended up being a life-changing event, she was laid off from Arbor Networks two years ago, and that is when she got serious about the design business.

Lorna Davalos, the owner of custom high-end attire shop Davalos Design in Ann Arbor, says that custom wedding gowns are her "real love."

Laura Blodgett | for AnnArbor.com

“My real love is making custom wedding gowns for individuals,” says Davalos. “I had a moment of temporary insanity and signed up for a booth at the Winter Bridal Celebration at the Palace of Auburn Hills.”

In order to have some gowns to show, Davalos got to work making five samples she had designed. She also arranged to have a girlfriend to model them in order to have professional pictures and develop marketing materials.

To complicate matters, Davalos jumped on the opportunity to have 12 gowns modeled in the event’s fashion show -- without really thinking through what she would have to accomplish to make that happen.

After the tremendous amount of work, Davalos didn’t get one client from the bridal show.

“I missed Christmas, New Years, my anniversary and my husband’s birthday, and nothing even came of it. I wasn’t even allowed to videotape the show, and since I was in the back dressing the models, I don’t even have a picture or got to see the show myself. I was very disappointed.”

Upon reflection, Davalos realized that people who attend bridal shows are not her target audience.

“Typically my customer is not the first time young bride. Typically it’s a second wedding or an older bride -- someone who doesn’t want a mainstream gown.”

She decided to find customers through different means. She started getting involved in networking organizations and joined the decorating committee for the St. Joseph Mercy Hospital holiday ball.

Last December, the decorating committee decided they wanted a ruby red silk chiffon ball gown to decorate the ladies lounge as part of the event’s Parisian fashion theme. Davalos offered to make the gown and donate it to provide extra funds for the mother-baby unit they were sponsoring. They took her up on it, which ended up being a big success — and great publicity for her business.

She also realized she needed a new business model. “If I didn’t have a customer, I didn’t have work," she said. "I needed to have product before customers.”

With that in mind, she transitioned into designing scarves.

“It really opened up my customer base to include husbands, brothers and uncles and was a way to cross market myself. Plus I don’t have to worry about fit.” Her plan was to have that entity pay the bills so she could concentrate on designing gowns.

She hit some of the country clubs with her line of scarves, including the annual Lucile B.Conger Holiday Market event at Barton Hills last year.

“I must have sold 18 scarves in six hours, which for me is great,” says Davalos, whose silk iridescent scarves average $100.

In August, she entered the wholesale market, renting a $6,000 booth at a textiles show in Las Vegas called Magic where buyers and store owners come through and place orders for higher quantities.

“This was a whole new animal for me,” said Davalos. “I didn’t make enough to cover my expenses, but I picked up five customers. I’ve already gotten a repeat order from one.”

She just finished another show in Dallas and picked up another customer there with a large order, bringing her to another milestone.

“After Vegas, I realized I needed a manufacturer,” says Davalos, who was spending every waking minute at her sewing machine. “I’m looking at my time and what I need to do to be able to deliver — I see no family life, no way to go to a Halloween party or Thanksgiving.”

After much consideration, she recently placed an order for 200 scarves with a cut and sew manufacturer in New York.

“With so much manufacturing going overseas, it’s becoming very difficult to find a manufacturer in the U.S. who can make something at a reasonable price — the sample cost is more than what I can even sell them for,” explains Davalos.

Davalos said she tried to find a manufacturer in Michigan but only found a uniform maker who is not set up to work with her lightweight fabrics or local tailors who would do it for $35 an hour, wiping out any profit for her.

“Although they have minimum runs of at least 100 pieces, I decided to bite the bullet and make the investment,” says Davalos, who is also a dancer with the Ann Arbor Ballet Theatre.

“I’m at a place where I can’t possibly do it all myself. I’ve been getting to bed at 3 am; I’m going gray.”

Davalos will still be sewing but hopes to work more like five hours a day instead 12. She also hopes investing in a manufacturer to build inventory will allow her to step away from the sewing machine to organize her business and put on her sales hat again.

“I want to put together a sample kit and drive into Royal Oak and the shops in Ann Arbor to see if they want to carry my stuff,” says Davalos, who currently has merchandise at Renaissance in Ann Arbor.

She plans to get a shopping cart on her website and do more shows. She also would like to set a goal of designing four gowns next year, if possible.

“What drives me in all of this is to do wedding gowns. When the bride tries it on for the first time and is almost brought to tears — that’s what makes my day. It’s not a big money maker, and it takes a ton of time, but it is very rewarding to me.”

Laura Blodgett is a freelance writer and a frequent contributor to AnnArbor.com.