Brandi Temple always dreamed of becoming a trophy wife. But when her second husband's earnings dropped by half in 2009, she embraced the thriftiness her parents had inculcated in her. She began sewing clothes for her two daughters from her home in Thomasville-Lexington, North Carolina. She posted the garments on eBay and figured she could make more on demand to use up her leftover fabric. The business took off.
The model: "We consider ourselves the Dell of apparel," says chief operating officer Emily Hickey of Lolly's "customer-specific" system. Shoppers customize every detail online, and Lolly's made-to-order factory produces items with the same features in supersmall batches. Lolly recently launched its first iPad app and interactive Web feature, Design Me, which will let customers design apparel from start to finish.
Fan power: Lolly says it does more sales on Facebook than any other brand in the world, thanks to its base of roughly 900,000 fans. "Our customers are just so fanatical about the brand, they've really helped us spread it," Hickey says of Lolly's traction on Facebook. "I think a lot of people will just share [their designs] all day."