Sabrina Carpenter in her custom-embroidered tee on 'Saturday Night Live'. Photo: NBC
Abby Price always knew she wanted to run a business. She just had to find the right one.
After a few months working in public relations, Price, 29, was laid off. She decided to dedicate her time to her graduate programme in fashion studies at Parsons School of Design in New York City, but she graduated into a pandemic, and like many others, began experimenting.
Her first venture was a dry floral business that offered event arrangements and vintage housewares. When that began to falter, she pivoted to embroidery.
That time, it stuck.
A rapid two-year ascent of her company, Abbode, unfurled, culminating in an endorsement from a celebrity who could put the company in an entirely different orbit: Sabrina Carpenter, who wore a shirt embroidered by Abbode when she appeared on last week’s broadcast of Saturday Night Live.
The embroidery business began in 2023 when Price dusted off a machine that had been sitting in the basement of her floral store on Elizabeth Street in Manhattan.
The business offers custom embroidery on garments that shoppers bring in, as well as on its own line of boxers, tank tops, toiletry pouches and tote bags.
With Abbode, Price’s mission was to “modernise” embroidery by subverting people’s expectations of traditional embroidery businesses, which are often unassuming mom-and-pop shops.
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Abbode is versed in pop culture references and has a blush pink aesthetic that is intended to feel “girly”. Carpenter, who is known for her unapologetically feminine style, was Price’s most high-profile customer to date.
And Carpenter was, indeed, a customer.
Her team reached out to Abbode the week of the Oct 18 episode of Saturday Night Live, where she was doing double duty as host and musical guest.
Price said they asked for the words “Live from New York” – the opening tagline of the show – to be embroidered on a white baby T-shirt.
The singer paired the shirt with pink bikini briefs emblazoned in red with the rest of the phrase, “It’s Saturday night,” while performing Manchild, a single from her latest album, Man’s Best Friend (Abbode did not embroider the bottoms).
“I’ve been really manifesting and, like, trying to get some sort of celebrity placement,” Price said in an interview.
“And ‘SNL’ is, like, the most New York thing ever. As a New York-based brand to do that, it’s just crazy.”
The placement was a milestone moment.
“My phone’s, like, blowing up every five seconds,” Price said.
Even though this is not her first brush with fame – her work has appeared on influencers and major brands – this is the first time she has experienced the full force of a viral response, with congratulations, praise and requests that she begin stocking the shirts.
Price said she is currently in talks with NBC about a potential partnership.
Since Abbode’s move to embroidery, Price has caught the attention of brands including Charlotte Tilbury, Skims, and the Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection, collaborating on branded touch points for events, from bespoke napkins to on-site custom embroidery.
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A particularly meaningful partner for Price was LL Bean, a brand she grew up with in Swampscott, Massachusetts.
Abbode worked with the company on an in-store takeover last year, where customers could embroider and personalise Boat and Tote bags.
The store now stocks the bags and Abbode is offering complimentary embroidery at LL Bean’s latest pop-up in New York this month.
Price has a theory for why the venture, which employs 25 people, operates a separate studio in Chinatown and is on track to grow revenue sixfold since the pivot to embroidery, took off.
“I think that people just are looking for ways to express themselves and have a perspective and a point of view,” she said.
“There’s so much sameness – TikTok trends that cycle through and last for two weeks. It’s just classic when it has something to do with you.” – ©2025 The New York Times Company
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
