"Tomboy" & "Girly Girl"
I grew up in the 1990s, the youngest of five trying to keep up with my older brothers. I started playing soccer when I was 4 years old, and adults and peers were quick to label me as a โtomboy.โ I went on to play D1 soccer at the University of Wisconsin, Madison (UW), but quickly started to look for a creative outlet to balance out the grind of competition. I quickly discovered a new passion of mine as I chose to study textile and fashion design at UW, eventually continuing onwards at the Fashion Institute of Technology in NYC. I later designed for "ultra-femme" brands like Carolina Herrera and Anthropologie, where at times, my designs were deemed too โmasculine." It was almost as if I had an identity crisis, being both athletic and creative! I started to realize that it wasn't just me, women have been siloed into a box for so long, and for the modern day woman, its no longer resonating as we are multi-facted and we should be celebrated to be so!
As I was coming into my own as a designer, I would be sent overseas to China and India to work with various mills and factories. It was on one particular trip to China where I accidentally witnessed some crazy unethical things on the factory floor, and it impacted me so much that I couldn't sleep at night. I started to deep dive further on all things supply chains and I thought about walking away from the fashion industry as a whole, but it was that specific moment that I decided to create a brand that combines the two: celebrating multi-faceted women and then further back it by a credible, ethical supply chain that empowers women.
We are on a mission to shine a light on every woman's right to exist in the way that feels right to her, whether that is within our local community or within our supply chain. I hope to inspire other women like you to believe they, too, can be anything they want, even if those things seem like opposites!"
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