NORTH READING, Mass. — A North Reading photographer built a successful business taking maternity photos. But through the lens, she saw something that was missing and wanted to fix it. The local photographer decided to pivot her business and create a versatile clothing line.
Through the lens, Diana Sechrist takes more than just a beautiful picture. She also creates the clothing her clients wear.
“Photography was always almost like hand in hand with my design work,” said AFYX CEO Diana Sechrist. “I would often just like sew up a dress during hair and makeup while they were there and just I would look at the person and say, okay, I think this could work.”
For 12 years, Diana photographed over 1,000 women, mainly for maternity shoots. But COVID-19 put a pause on the photo shoots. During that time, Diana did a lot of soul searching and sewing, hoping to find “a fix” to women’s clothing.
“And I said, well, what if I could actually make one dress?”, said Sechrist. “And then it just converts in a variety of ways that that are just easy. So after 15 ways of not getting it right in the middle of the night, I think it was like 2 am, I realized, oh my gosh, I figured out a way.”
From the snap of a camera, to snaps on a dress, Diana created a patent-pending dress that can convert up to ten or more styles with a simple snap of three buttons.
“I didn’t expect the first one, the first batch to just sell out,” said Sechrist. “And so now we’re looking to, you know, I’m looking to go full force into this because I just believe in it so much.
From the cutting to the sewing, it used to take Diana about five hours to make just one dress. But because AFYX is growing so quickly, she’s been able to outsource it to a local company where she can now make one dress in a little over an hour. The dresses fit sizes 0 to 20. Diana made her dresses size inclusive using a soft, stretchy material made in the U.S. On her website and in her studio, she shows tutorials on all the different ways her dress can be AFYX’d.
As this photographer helps women feel confident in their clothing, she hopes her new business venture makes her two young girls feel confident in that they can turn their passions into successful careers.
“A lot of times, you know, you struggle and you say, ‘I don’t want to do that because it won’t make money,’” said Sechrist. “I just don’t believe in it. But, you know, if you start off with something that you love to do and you don’t worry about the money, it’s almost like it follows. And it’s been really amazing because I didn’t know this was going to be my side project that ended up turning into something more.”
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