Amanda Moreno Duke

Owner/Designer: Cutie Pa Tutus

Cutie Pa Tutus, LLC, was born out of a mother’s desperation over her inability to afford Christmas presents for her children. Having been almost financially ruined by the economy, Amanda Moreno Duke and her husband found themselves unable to afford any of the “extras” in life; any money coming in went straight to pay the bills that had piled up. As Christmas neared, Duke worried that there would be no money to afford the Christmas she wanted for her two children, then 4 and 1. Her breaking point was when she had to return the few gifts she’d bought here and there in order to pay an electricity bill. “I stood in the line at Customer Service and just broke down,” Duke recalls.

At about the same time, a different dilemma introduced a shimmery solution. “My daughter was invited to her first ‘Princess party’,” recalls Duke, of Charleston, SC. She scoured the Internet for just the right tutu for her princess outfit, but didn’t find exactly what she wanted at a reasonable price. So for the first time since making Barbie clothes as a child, Duke sat down to sew. After a few attempts, she came up with an adorable tutu filled with brightly colored pompoms and bells that jingled. Her toddler’s tutu made her the belle of the party, and every mom that saw it wanted one. Duke’s inner light bulb went off; what if she could market these tutus and sell them to help pay for Christmas? So she did; and with the money raised from the sale of her tutus, she was able to repurchase the gifts she’d returned and “save” Christmas for her children after all.