OCRegister.com:
Ladera Ranch mom Kim Marquis was sick of dressing her 4-year-old and 1-year-old sons in boring clothes when she dreamed up Haute Boyz Clothing with friend and business partner Jill Hoffman of Laguna Niguel.
“We couldn’t find anything we liked, so we started making (shirts) ourselves,” said Hoffman, the mother of a young son.
Marquis, 39, and Hoffman, 40, started brainstorming designs and catchy sayings to silk screen onto T-shirts and “onesies” for boys in early 2006.
Their best-selling shirt features the silk-screened saying, “Dump Him I’m Hotter” in chocolate brown lettering with the brown design of a dump truck on a sky blue shirt.
The stay-at-home moms got started by approaching a graphic artist and a silk screener in San Juan Capistrano who created samples of a Halloween shirt, a Christmas shirt and a few other back-to-school shirts that Marquis and Hoffman had designed.
The business partners set up appointments to show their samples to local boutique owners, hoping some would choose to stock the shirts, which Marquis describes as soft and comfy. Among the stores that stocked the shirts were Rascals to Rebels in Huntington Beach, Bassinets and Blueberries in Costa Mesa, Hush Baby in Aliso Viejo (now Abbie Rose) and a Hush Baby in Costa Mesa, which has since closed.
Photo from Haute Boyz