New York, a rainy fall night. I’d just arrived from the airport, having come to town to shoot a video the next day. Hair and makeup would arrive first thing in the morning. I opened my roll-on to hang up my outfit and found myself in the singer’s nightmare: I’d left my outfit hanging up on the closet door at home back in Austin.
This was a two-day trip, so I had not brought much. And I am not an easy fit. Literally, I had nothing to wear. But after just a few moments of panic, the lightbulbs flashed in my head and I jumped onto Facebook and went straight to the Opera Diva Dress Collection page.
In less than five minutes, suggestions and offers to lend outfits were pouring into my feed and private message box. What do you need? What size? You can come shop my closet. I just saw something at Lord & Taylor that might work for you . . . .
Divas to the rescue.
It wasn’t the first time Shoperatic (formerly the Opera Diva Dress Collection), the diva-powered group-turned-website, has come to the rescue of other women. Founder, soprano Suzanne Vinnik-Richards, and her partner, soprano Sara Duchovnay, facilitated a donated wardrobe reboot for a group member fleeing an abusive situation with only the clothes on her back. The duo regularly schedules pop-up concerts with a diva-founded nonprofit, Sing for Hope, wherein performers are invited to don Shoperatic merchandise styled by Vinnik-Richards and Duchovnay and sing with donated pianos-turned-art projects for a variety of underserved communities.
Many Shoperatic vendors have recently featured days when all or part of their profits are earmarked for Hurricane Harvey victims. Members are encouraged to promote their “side hustles,” and requests for fashion, health, beauty, and career advice are a daily occurrence in the Facebook group. Shoperatic is more than a marketplace—it is an active community and support system for female singers.
“We found that we love giving our money to other artists,” says Duchovnay. “All our partnerships are within the operatic community, and that’s a way we are supporting the arts. We’re keeping the money we have in the industry and encouraging other artists to live a financially comfortable life.”
“We’re connecting as women who are supporting one another and want to see one another do well,” adds Vinnik-Richards. “We [women] make up a huge percentage of the industry, and there aren’t that many women who are in positions of power. This is a way to bring together all these women who are totally killing it and bring the spotlight to them. We have a voice and we matter.”
Vinnik-Richards started the Opera Diva Dress Collection in 2012, during a time when she was questioning her own commitment to being a singer. “I had just done a contract with a major opera house and got injured during the performance. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to continue singing,” she remembers. She began temping, and when a coworker asked her what she did with all her now unused concert gowns, she had to confess that they were overrunning her tiny apartment.
“It looked like an episode of Hoarders,” she admits. “So I started ODDC—I just invited a few of my colleagues, and then they invited friends, and by the end of the week the group had grown to hundreds.”
The idea was to unload a few unused gowns and fund further fashion purchases, but that quickly changed. “When we hit about 3,000 members I decided that this was something that was real.
“There were people asking questions about what to wear and how to style things. I realized there was more that could occur,” Vinnik-Richards continues. But she also realized she needed a partner. She began to do a lot of research and met with many different people in different fields. But in 2016, when tenor Clay Hilley introduced her to his girlfriend, Duchovnay, there was an immediate connection.
Duchovnay had been running an eBay business specializing in designer dresses. She had experience with merchandising and sourcing dresses, as well as connections to buyers all over the country.
“I felt like there was a kindred spirit situation,” Duchovnay says. “Suzanne had this network of so many people already actively engaging in the group, something that was missing from my business. The second we met we began talking about clothes, my eBay business, her Facebook group, and the potential. The next day she asked me to be her business partner. Having another person to bounce ideas off of, sharing connections and experience, things just started moving much faster.”
The Facebook group—established as an online market where divas can buy, sell, rent, and trade gowns and audition outfits—now has over 10,000 members. It spawned the newly launched Shoperatic website (shoperatic.com), built by Bay Area soprano and web designer Maya Kherani (techiediva.com), and the project has developed into a full-time job for both Vinnik-Richards and Duchovnay, generating about $15,000 in sales during beta testing alone. It’s like a combination of eBay and Etsy, but with a twist—the services and goods are, by and large, created for and by what Vinnik-Richards likes to call “divas who hustle.”
“Our mission is to make singers realize they are more than just singers. You have other skills. It’s worth it for other people to pay for this skill that I have,” she says.
“Entrepreneurialism is very important to us,” agrees Duchovnay. “Most singers don’t have a lot of money, and if we feel moved to be philanthropists, this is a way we can do it.”
Shoperatic and its founders have helped several other diva-owned businesses get off the ground or take a leap forward, actively seeking out vendors via events such as holiday parties where local singers are encouraged to bring their wares and both sell and shop. But other small businesses have sprung up from the social media group and are now supported via the website.
Fringies, custom earrings created by soprano Tracy Cox of Neon Beautiful Design, were one of the site’s first big successes. “Tracy Cox and I had worked together in the past,” says Duchovnay. “We were Facebook friends, and she posted on her personal page about how she made these earrings. Last summer, I bought three pairs and started posting photos of myself wearing them in the group. They really took off. These earrings are like a symbol of being an opera singer, of solidarity.”
Soprano Jasmina Halimic’s MatchaMe skincare and soaps are another success story. While visiting her apartment, Vinnik-Richards was inspired by the delicious scents of the soaps she was making for friends and suggested she turn it into a business. Now, she says, Halimic can barely keep up with her orders.
A third Shoperatic-inspired side hustle is Stephanie Horowitz-Mulry’s sparkly opera quote pendants. “I have had a jewelry business for about seven years but I was really dwindling because I just wasn’t inspired,” she says. “Based on a discussion on Shoperatic, I was inspired to create a line of jewelry containing operatic sayings and quotes. Thus was born the Opera Collection that basically revitalized my passion for making jewelry. I was able to merge both of my worlds to create my shop, Jewel Song. As soon as I started making the Opera Collection the pieces started flying out, and now I am having a hard time keeping up with orders!”
But Shoperatic, say the women who use the site, provides more than a launching pad for their businesses. It operates as a sort of online lounge for divas, where women can admire pretty dresses and cute pictures of other people’s pets, but also discuss serious issues like sexual harassment, body shaming, and discrimination in the workplace. Advice is sought, information is exchanged, friendships are formed, and support—from encouraging words to donations of goods and services to mentoring—is offered with an open heart.
“Sara and Suzanne have been amazing supports for me,” says Horowitz-Mulry. “Suzanne even photographed some of my pieces for free. I also get to meet amazing people. That’s pretty much my favorite part.”
“Without ODDC I’m not sure I ever would have started marketing my Accessible Accompaniments (ready-made playable reductions for some of opera’s most difficult audition arias),” says pianist Nicole DiPaolo. “The welcoming environment and connections I’ve forged with singers and pianists of all backgrounds were exactly what I needed to start feeling confident that my idea actually had some merit.” Working on her side hustle has also helped DiPaolo learn more vocal repertoire, a benefit for her coaching.
“I’ve been business minded my whole life, but I’ve been in the wrong career,” says Errin Hatter, a Houston-based self-described “mommy diva.” She took a summer internship with Shoperatic, with the idea that she would go back to school for her MBA and probably end up working in a “random job” in a field she had no connection with. Instead, she has started her own business through Shoperatic. “If Suzanne or Sara had not taken a chance and interviewed me, I would not have considered the possibilities of buying and selling on Shoperatic or even owning my own business outside of what singers do when they aren’t singing, for example, teaching piano and voice lessons or being a choir teacher. I was looking for a way out of a profession that made me feel trapped and I really believe that starting my business is putting me on the path to being able to decide how I live from day to day,” she says.
Kaleigh Rae Gamaché, a coloratura soprano and photographer, recently moved to New York with few connections. “Shoperatic has introduced me to a community of women who are driven for the common goals of hustling, uplifting, creating, championing one another, providing services to each other, lending a hand and/or a gown and, for me, true friendships,” she says. “As a singer, I have been able to network, meet so many fabulous divas, and squeeze myself into some amazing ensembles and, additionally, hone my own personal style. As a photographer and videographer with Kaleigh Rae Photography, I have opened myself up to new projects and opportunities I never thought I would have—most of the time doubling in concerts/performances as performing coloratura and photographer/videographer all together! Singing and photography are both such crazy industries—Shoperatic has made it possible for me to own myself as a dual-career woman, and I feel so much more empowered and self-understood because of it!”
Artworks and custom illustrations, jewelry both handmade and sourced, diva-made beauty products and skincare, photography, fashion styling for photo shoots and auditions, fully shoppable looks put together from items on the site, résumé packages, diction coaching and, of course, lots of clothing and accessories are all for sale on the website. In addition to merchandise, the site boasts a blog with a variety of topics by different authors, including fashion, beauty, health, and special issues affecting singers.
The goal is to turn Shoperatic into a one-stop shop for singer needs and offer something for everyone. “Faces to finances, headshots and materials, career consulting, health and wellness advice from people who know what they’re talking about—we will have the information available from respected resources,” Vinnik-Richards promises.
What about Shoperatic’s influence on its founders? Vinnik-Richards and Duchovnay are, after all, still divas.
“It’s so funny to go somewhere like an audition and have people recognize and know who I am. But it’s wonderful because it makes the world smaller, and I feel like I have all these new fashion singing friends who I haven’t even really met. It puts us all on the same level as people,” says Duchovnay. “Building Shoperatic has given me a really deep sense of self and self-confidence. I feel like I bring something really unique to the table and I feel like I have something to say.
“It happened at just the right time for me,” she continues, “when my life was majorly changing and my voice was changing and filling out in new ways, and it really felt like a ‘coming of age’ thing. New rep, new sense of self, new identity as an entrepreneur and a singer. I feel like I really grew up this year. Holding a leadership position has also given me a deep sense of appreciation for the artistic team!”
“I see the difference in myself compared to when I started the group to now. I am so proud of how I’ve grown up and become a woman,” says Vinnik-Richards. “The greatest joy is to meet other singers who share their stories with me about how they felt wearing garments from Shoperatic. Sara and I attended a performance this summer and we recognized dresses from the audience. I saw success before my very eyes in those divas singing, wearing items they purchased as a result of all of the hours and labor of love that was put into building this supportive community.”
That sense of community, emphasis on positivity, and dedication to supporting other divas, says Duchovnay, is what gives Shoperatic its “secret sparkle.” “That’s what we hear from our vendors,” she says. “It’s not just selling things—it’s finding a different way to interact with members of our opera community.
“We are now getting respect from outside the opera world with designers and fashion influencers who see the value in what we’ve done, and we hope to see [respect] within the opera industry itself as a way to introduce audiences to artists and the art form that has allowed us to touch people’s lives,” says Vinnik-Richards. “I have no idea how this business will evolve, but I know it will help me achieve things I can’t even imagine. I’m beyond proud to be part of a capitalistic movement where women in opera can come together to be part of something so much greater than our individual talent and support one another financially, emotionally, musically, and in ways we haven’t even thought up.”
Back to that rainy Saturday in New York and my wardrobe dilemma. Vinnik-Richards, who I knew only via the ODDC Facebook group, spent her morning shopping for me and met me at OPERA America where she helped dress and style me for the video shoot. She didn’t ask for a thing in return—just a diva, helping out another diva in distress.
As business models and brands go, a diva could do a lot worse.
