clude “Be Brave, Be Authentic, Be You” signature T-shirt and the Zip Zip Hoodie. Vanna said they also plan to add some more plaid

shirts, polos and some new but-ton-down shirts at the style room. All of the accessories in the store are handmade, and, coming soon, Rasha said they hope to have some very special belts available handmade by a woman in Hawaii.

The woman repurposes fire hoses that have been damaged while being used to fight fires and turns them into belts. Rasha said they are very gender neutral and are also reversible. They hope to have some of the belts available for sale soon and would like to call it the Dapper D Hero Belt.

Vanna and Rasha live in Bat-tle Ground with their 3-year-old daughter, Leilani. Current-ly, the Dapper D style room in Battle Ground Village is open Thursdays, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; Fri-days, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; and Sat-urdays, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Vanna and Rasha are also available for appointments at the style room, contact them at (360) 723-5288. To see some of the Dapper D clothing options, visit their website at www.dapperdfash-ions.com and visit their Face-book page, Dapper D Fashions.

members that they launched Kick-starter campaign in May 2014.

By mid June, Dapper D’s Kickstarter fund was at more than $17,000, surpassing the Pec-oraros’ funding goal of $15,000. Vanna and Rasha were then able to order all of the clothing and projects for their Dapper D brand, Vanna curating pieces from all over the world.

“We own all of our inventory, it’s great,” Vanna said.

In July 2014, the Dapper D clothing brand was launched and available online. Originally, Van-na and Rasha planned to sell the clothes online through their web-site and also planned to continue holding “pop-up shops,” which they have successfully held in Portland, Seattle and San Fran-cisco. Pop-up shops and pop-up retail are temporary retail spaces that sell merchandise of any kind, creating short-term stores. They did hope to have an actual store-front eventually, but figured that was probably a few years away.

However, they were happily wrong.

“We got an opportunity to get into a retail space that we just couldn’t pass up,” Rasha said.

So, in the beginning of this past March, the Dapper D Fash-ions style room officially opened for business in the Battle Ground

Village area at 1103 SE Rasmus-sen Blvd., Battle Ground. During the style room’s opening week-end, Vanna and Rasha said they had a great turnout, with numer-ous people in the community stopping by, bringing flowers and offering their support.

“There was a lesbian couple who we’ve never met before (who came to the store for the opening weekend) who told us they had been worried that there might be protestors or something outside the store,” Rasha said.

“It isn’t just about the fashion,” Vanna said. “I wanted to make people proud of themselves. I’m proud of who I am.”

Rasha, who used to be a plus-sized model before los-ing 135 pounds with hard work and weight-loss surgery, helps to model some of the Dapper D clothing, along with Vanna and several of their friends. Rasha said they like to have their friends model the clothing as a way of representing the everyday person. She emphasized that all of their models are ethnically diverse and two of them are also transgender.

“We want to empower people to be themselves,” Rasha said.

“My goal was to offer every-day clothes,” Vanna said.

A couple of Dapper D’s most popular selling items so far in-

FOUNDERS OF THE Dapper D Fashions clothing brand Vanna (left) and Rasha Pecoraro stand next to the Dapper D storefront located in the Battle Ground Village. The couple opened the style room in the beginning of March.

APRIL 8, 2015 The Reflector A7News

Dapper D offers ‘tomboyish’ fashions fitting for women

Photo by Joanna Michaud

Clothing brand was started by Battle Ground coupleJOANNA MICHAUDstaff reporter

“Be Brave, Be Authentic, Be You.” This is what the Dapper D Fashions clothing store in Battle Ground is all about.

The idea of Dapper D Fash-ions, a men’s style clothing line for women for the “dapper tom-boy in each of us,” was that of married Battle Ground couple Vanna and Rasha Pecoraro.

“I’ve always dressed in men’s clothing, I was always very tom-boyish,” said Vanna. “It was al-ways hard to find men’s style cloth-ing that fit me or clothes that didn’t have all the glitter and stuff.”

Vanna and Rasha also said it was difficult for Vanna to get good customer service when try-ing to shop in the men’s depart-ment at most stores.

Vanna, 43, is a retired police officer from Los Angeles. After her and Rasha, 36, met in Portland and were then married in 2010, both women were trying to find something new to be passionate about and put some work into.

In the summer of 2013, Vanna and Rasha started talking about possibly getting into fashion and came up with the idea of a men’s style clothing line for women. They received so much positive feedback and encouragement from family, friends and community

pearl pendant and earrings, a handcrafted cedar table and benches, a fire pit, monthly floral arrangements delivered to your home or office, and a private flight including lunch around Mt. St. Helens for three.

Other items include a cus-tom bowling ball, bag and shoes and bowling party for 10 people, personal rowing lessons, multiple wine-tasting experiences, and a romance package at the Heathman Lodge. There will also be many unique gift baskets and silent auction items.

Rotary is a group of busi-ness and community leaders who endeavor to improve lives in their local commu-nities and around the world. Rotary’s motto is “Service Above Self.” The two clubs have a combined member-ship of 80-plus and work on events and projects both in-dependently and together in North Clark County.

Locally, Rotary works in partnership with the North County Community Food Bank, assisting with financial support, food drives, and a holiday party for underpriv-ileged students. Last year the two Rotary clubs donated $15,050 to help end hunger in North Clark County.

The two Rotary clubs also support multiple education programs for local students including over $l7,000 an-nually in scholarships, mock interviews for high school se-niors, teacher grants through the Battle Ground Education Foundation, Lunch Buddies, support of ROCKSOLID Teen Center, Pomeroy Living History Farm, and the Battle Ground Community Library.

Lewis River Rotary meets Tuesdays at 7 a.m. and Battle Ground Rotary meets Wednes-days at 5:30 p.m. Guests are al-ways welcome.

For more information, con-tact Lewis River Rotary presi-dent Ralph Akin at (360) 606-6715 or Battle Ground Rotary president Heather Renner at (360) 702-0700 or visit www.lewisriver.rotaryclub.pro and www.battlegroundrotary.org.

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