Entrepreneurship

A Little Space and a New Perspective

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By now we all know life and running a small business is not as easy or pretty as it seems on Instagram, right?The story of this blurry dress pictured in the background (the Indya Dress) is a perfect example of one of many struggles I encountered last summer, a struggle that initially felt like defeat.⁠⁠

I had grand plans of releasing the new version of our Indya Dress along side our very popular Indya Tank last summer. I went through all the development of patterning, sampling, sourcing, etc. I even found a way to shoot photos during lockdowns and pitch it to you, our community, to make sure there was interest! We made waitlists and then got ready for production. And then slowly we hit roadblock after roadblock. It was a nightmare series of issues, not caused by one thing but just par for the course in 2020 when everything was tumultuous. After a lot of effort to push this new garment out into the world I decided to give up. There were too many other places my attention needed to be for the business so I decided to just let things unfold as they needed to and let go of getting this garment made in time for summer. And to be honest, I had a bit of a sour taste in my mouth about the dress after all the strife (poor dress, I know 😆!). ⁠

Eventually, the dress was finished. But we were already well in to autumn and again I had no energy to reshoot it (although I must say it would look fab with a turtleneck layered underneath). So I just packed the dresses in a box and left them to sit in the back of my office closet.⁠

Fast forward to this month, a year after I initially planned to launch the dress. My sister and I were making room for the new Yoko Capsule pieces and we open up the box. Olivia, who had never seen these before was baffled as to why they have been in exile. I tell her the whole story but I realize as I tell her that the narrative had shifted. I thought this was a story of defeat, but in fact it is one of triumph. Despite every odd being against me I still made these dresses, not on my initial schedule but I was flexible and more importantly I made an executive decision that allowed me to make many other beautiful things come to life last year. My sour feelings had dissipated and so that brings me to today.

In celebration of my realization and to give these dresses the homes they deserve, we are offering them at cost (of materials and sewing) in our Samples & Seconds sale! We hope that some of you find that this dress was just what you needed this summer and they remind you that victory is often just a matter of perception.

Comparisons for Happiness

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This year I have been reflecting on how the life I am living now was once just a dream for me. It’s a simple life, but when compared to other phases in my past it astonishes me how far I have come. This is a new perspective for me though…

A few months ago I became so fed up with my constant rumination on goals and ambitions that it was muddling my mind to the point of depression. I had become so focused on the future, in part because of the pandemic, that I could not appreciate where I am right now. My restlessness had become too much, I was constantly feeling rushed to get further in my life, speeding past this present phase. Fortunately, I recognized this feeling was making me unhappy and started the inner work that was needed.

While achievement is such a large part of my personality and life motivation, I recognize there is a dark side of it for me. Years ago I began practicing mindfulness because I can get so fixated on the future that I miss current life. And once I reach that future, I am yet again overlooking it to get to the next stage. I’ve never wanted to fall into the trap of never being satisfied with life. Instead I want to live a life full of appreciation for where I am at every stage and not simple when I’ve “made it.”

The way I cultivate this is by actively and intentional looking around me a speaking (often out loud) the things I am grateful for. At times it is simple the way the light is reflecting on the walls or the blossoming tree just outside the window. Other times it’s the peace and quiet of my home, or a beautiful piece of furniture I use daily. Or maybe it’s a meal I’ve prepared or the person in sharing my time with. When I stop and look around there are endless things that are right in front of me that I am so appreciative of. And the beauty of this practice is before long it happens subconsciously, my mind has quickly become accustomed to seeing what I have as opposed to what I don’t.

And when the gratitude doesn’t come so easily I compare my present, not to my future self or others, but instead to my own past self. I have so much that I have accomplished, and when I stop to think about it I can physically feel the pride well up in my body. I feel proud that I, as a Black mixed-raced woman worked my way through college, eventually and unconventionally received a graduate degree from an Ivy League university, built a fulfilling career and later bootstrapped a business, created stability for myself, found a healthy partner to build a life with, created safe home filled with laughter and love, and done the years of inner work to heal past traumas and manage my anxiety. These things, and more, when listed out are far more impressive than the bigger house or early retirement my mind may be focused on.

When I compare where I am today to me one year, 5 years, 10 years ago and more I can’t help but look around and realize I am enough just as I am.

How Did I Get Here?

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When I started my business, I didn’t really know I was starting a business. I was making things I loved and thought it’d be great to get paid for that. Falling into business this way creates a very different experience compared to setting out to make money and crafting your business model around that goal.

The past three years for me have been a series of trials and errors. For a scientist like me, that’s exciting. In my past career embarking on a project with no certainty of where it will actually prepared me well for entrepreneurship. In the lab you run into issues constantly, there are always setbacks and unexpected hurdles. It’s the same with running and growing a business. As soon as you figure out one thing and slew of new issues to solve arise.

When I used to step back and look at my life’s path I would sometime wonder how this rock collecting tomboy ended up with a clothing company. These days it’s a little less mystifying. I saw a problem in my personal, an over abundance of fast fashion options and so few sustainable ones, went to solve it for myself, and then attempted to replicate the results of my experiment on a larger scale.

I’m still a scientist, just in a new context.

Well, This Is Embarrassing

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Any home sewers out there remember when Burdastyle was an online community? I used to post my makes and tutorials under the username GinaSophia there for many years. Recently I stumbled upon some of my proudest sewing projects in a neglected flickr album. It got me digging and I found that the BurdaStyle community as it once was is gone. Wiped from the internet. One thing that does remain is my contribution to a sewing handbook (and no, I didn’t get to choose my fabric or pattern for this contribution).

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I also found one of my old sewing blogs lingering around the internet since 2010. It is far too cringeworthy for me to share right now but I will share with you this one image from a post entitled “Five of my favorite things: yellow edition.” Why a tampon was a favorite item of mine at the time, I cannot quite say…

What is not embarrassing about this memory lane jaunt is how consistent my interests are. I loved writing about clothes (thrifting and sewing), I had an Etsy shop (one of many entrepreneurial pursuits over the years), and I had many tutorials sharing my knowledge and favorite craft projects. It’s comforting to see Gina from a decade ago is still, at the core, the same. Even down to these 5 things (I can’t honestly say I don’t have some iteration of these items in my purse right now).

Now I will leave with this gem from my old blog’s “features” page. The trench is still one of my most impressive makes ever, the pose on the other hand, idk.

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