The Bennett sisters-in-law frolic on the beach, wearing vibrant garments, which they've designed, and tossing their blond heads back with ready laughs and a jubilant sense of celebration.
And why not celebrate? Liz & Jane Clothes, based near their homes in Panama City Beach, achieves its 10-year anniversary this year with a success story even the two founders find amazing.

From Chairs to Clothes
It all began with their husbands' beach business: "They rented chairs, parasails, and Wave Runners," says Janie, wife of Nee 1 Bennett. "So we decided to start our own business of tie-dyeing. It's almost as if we saw that tiedyes were coming back and knew to pick up the strings and rubber bands. I'll be honest, we weren't diehard 'let's start a business' people. We did it because it was fun." Liz chimes in, "It was fun. We were tie-dyeing in my carport. When we got going, Mike [her husband] and the lifeguards would help after they got off the beach." During this prechildren era, Janie and Liz romped off to art shows in Fort Lauderdale and Miami, where they often would baner their goods for and they also sold the clothes-bright, oversize T-shirts with leggings-to car pool moms around Panama City. Then the two got gutsy and headed to the Atlanta Apparel Man, where they set up a booth and attracted their first sales reps.

Are You Ready?
"This couple wanted to take our samples and sell the line for us; they had Walt Disney World in mind," reports Liz, "We weren't sure if we could produce what they were talking about. It was a big decision-and we decided to go for it." The rest is a blur of business building. Liz and Mike took off by car and hit the major markets of Los Angeles, Dallas, and New York, magnetically attracting reps at each location "We decided to see how big this could be," says Mike. "Otherwise the girls would go back to being substitute teachers" They never looked back. Instead, Liz & Jane, with Mike at the management helm, blossomed "We went from 3,000 pieces in a year 10 years ago to a peak season recently when we were delivering 30,000 pieces a month," says Mike of their 2,000 national accounts. The staff of 50 also supplies goods for two Panhandle based company stores one attached to the warehouse in Panama City Beach and the other at Silver Sands Factory Stores in Destin. "We've just kept growing-anywhere from 20% to 50% a year".

The Bennett families have grown too-which presents challenges. Liz and Mike are parents to Isabel, 2; Michaela, 6; and Rylee, 7. Janie and Neel's children include Sam, 7, and Mallory, 10. 'This changed the course of the company," says Mike of the mothers who now work two or three abbreviated days a week. "They just come in, design, and get back to raising children," he explains.

Dreamy Visions Appear
The designing women know what they're doing-from sketching ideas that sometimes come via dreams to wearing new concepts themselves to test the market. They've cut back on tie-dyes, kept the screen-printed animal motifs, and added lots of linen to the line. Their only nod to fashion industry rules comes with using the "color forecast," a library of colors New York predicts as future hits. "We'd used every blue and every red and every green we thought was available, so this helped us," says Liz. Mostly Janie and Liz aim to please themselves as they create five separate lines a year. "If we struggle to follow trends and understand the fashion lingo, our jobs get harder," continues Liz. "It's so much easier to go with a hunch. Just yesterday we created a new collection, and we got so excited we high-fived and shouted, 'We did it!'" And they continue to do it, all the while keeping family ties intact. "We're just kind of isolated in our world here, and we love it," says Liz. "When we travel to a big city, go into one of its department stores, and find our things there, we're slapped in the face with reality. Our goods are out there, and we're being taken seriously." Now doesn't that call for celebration?