We asked a couple of the leaders who have established fashion houses in St. Louis about their efforts to expand in a town that struggles to be taken seriously for fashion. They all have an unexpected commonality — none of them planned to work in fashion.
Each of the St. Louis brands interviewed, including the most successful of the bunch with plans to open six new stores this year, was established thanks to a series of random events that will not necessarily make sense to those looking to follow in their footsteps. Hunches were played, why nots employed and even when it seemed as if this idea could go wrong, really wrong, they persevered.
And they are all convinced of one thing: St. Louis is a mighty fine town to house a fashion enterprise.
SOFT SURROUNDINGS
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Founder: Robin Sheldon
Launched: 1999 as a catalog; first retail location in St. Louis in 2005 at The Boulevard.
Concept: Sheldon’s first catalog company began decades prior when she was a stay-at-home mom. It was her former husband’s suggestion. Though she was an English major with no retail background, Sheldon was an avid catalog shopper with impeccable taste. It didn’t matter that she lived on a ranch located a mile down a dirt road. She learned to source items, manage inventory and sell. Later, after other successes, she was invited to “start something” here in St. Louis by a company that had the resources to fund a catalog sales operation. She decided to launch Soft Surroundings, focused on luxury home goods, cosmetics, clothing and accessories designed to make living environments more comfortable and irresistibly cozy. Many of the products, especially bedding, sleepwear and throws have a softness rating based on soothing touchability.
Sheldon says: In a world focused on capitalizing and catering to the young adult market at all costs, she said she decided to focus on the baby boomer generation. She started developing and sourcing uber-soft things “that feel like a hug, you know like the clothes for small children. Why do babies get all the good stuff?” She called this older generation of women “the forgotten market. But she’s got the money, and she’s got the style and yet she’s underappreciated or forgotten. That’s crazy.”
Her customer: A stylish not necessarily trendy, college-educated mom with adult children who loves to travel and is an average of 53 years old, she said.
Recent developments: Announced plans to open six new stores across the country this year — Richmond, Va.; Lynnfield, Mass.; Alpharetta, Ga.; Madison, Wis.; Portland, Ore.; and Paramus, N.J. — for a total of 18 locations. Reported $184 million in revenue in 2013, an 18 percent increase from the prior year.
Advice to others: “There’s always room to fill a niche. Do it better than anyone else because customers are more interested and involved, and they always want something new. It’s all about a great idea.”
Website: softsurroundings.com
B THE COLLECTION
Founders: Brooke Nunn-Schultz, runs a de facto mom-and-pop corporation out of her home with co-founder and husband Peter Schultz, a management consultant; their two boys are Parker, 4, and Burke, 3.
Launched: The idea began in 2013 but launched in March 2014, and Nunn-Schultz quit her job in radio sales in June.
Concept: Boldly patterned country club meets city living attire for those with Southern gentility and prep school flair.
Her customer: Nunn-Schultz said that she and the woman she dresses is sick of the trend that casual means you should look like you just rolled out of bed, and she wants a line for adults who like to wear pearls and dress well and have fun.
Schultz says: “If I decide to do something, I go full speed ahead into it, and my husband is the same way. I don’t teeter on it or think I don’t know, maybe I shouldn’t. I just do.” She doesn’t sew or draw, but she’s learned to communicate with pattern makers and manufacturers to create a very wearable line of pants, dresses, twin sets, skirts and tops. She sold her first order in March, and “my hand was shaking, really shaking. ... I was so excited and so nervous, but I had to act like this is so normal, I write out orders all the time, oh, yeah, sure. But inside I was screaming.”
Recent developments: She has contacts with nearly 50 boutiques, and she’d like to have 100 by the year’s end. They added a salesperson to the brand this month, and Nunn-Schultz is currently designing the fall/winter 2015 collection, which includes accessories. But for the foreseeable future, they’ll continue to use a spare bedroom as a warehouse. “Yeah, we don’t even have a garage.”
Advice: “Big brands don’t come out of nowhere. They had to start somewhere. It takes ego to say, ‘I can do that’ and the mind has to open up and ask, ‘Why not? Why can’t I do that?’ My parents didn’t like me saying that when I was a kid, but it’s really helpful now.” She said people stop short too often, especially after they hear the word, “no.” … “Hundreds of people said ‘no’ to the guy who wanted to open a coffee shop with a name no one could pronounce that was selling $5 coffee. And guess what. It takes a lot of drive and a little bit of a thick-skin.”
Website: bthecollection.com
JORD WOOD WATCHES
Founder: Salman Shah, chief brand officer
Launched: Nov. 11, 2013
Concept: Polished wood watches in maple, sandalwood, zebra and bamboo. “Watches aren’t a utility so much as a fashion accessory, and aside from the new smart watches, the industry has been pretty stagnant,” Shah said. He’s a lover of watches for status and style, and he wanted to introduce a new concept that watch aficionados and trend setters could appreciate. He saw a few wooden watches from European brands that were interesting but not as stylish as he wanted.
Shah says: “We thought using an alternative material could give us a boost. I get double takes all the time for my (Jord) watches. … It’s the one accessory that a guy can take pride in. You know it’s kind of the only one allowed.”
His customer: “We cater to the business male and female, mid-20s to mid-40s, looking for something just different than what anyone else has. ... People ask all the time, what is that?” In response, he passes out business cards. One side includes the brand and website information. The other side says, “Thank you for noticing.”
Recent developments: The brand with a proud “Born in St. Louis” label etched on the backs of watches is exploring more customized options, including allowing clients to select from different woods, dials, buckle colors and crowns to create their timepiece. The brand is also planning to expand into other accessories next year, including sunglasses and cufflinks, in wood, of course. So far the firm has sold about 2,000 watches and manufactured about 6,000, he says. They sell at one local retailer, but they have an office and ship around the world.
Advice: “I started with something that I was really interested in, and so I wasn’t worried that I didn’t go to school for fashion (Shah has a master’s degree in health care administration). The key for me is that I wasn’t just thinking about what would be best for me financially.” He said that he was going to have to start at the bottom, working extra hard no matter what field he chose, so he chose a field where he’d be more passionate about fighting. It’s also a family affair; he works with his brothers, and they get logistical and business advice from their dad, who works importing and exporting locomotive parts from Pakistan.
Website: woodwatches.com
MADE FOR FREEDOM
Founder: Dawn Manske
Launched: April 17, 2011; this is also the day she was married.
Concept: As a master of arts student in theological studies at Covenant Seminary, Manske learned of an undercover report in Cambodia examining how young a girl could be bought as a sex worker. It broke her heart, and she wanted to help. Two wedding gifts gave her an idea that she could launch a social enterprise. She started her line based on the design of Thailand fishermen’s pants. One of her bridesmaids brought her five pair, and she was complimented every time she wore them. Her husband gave her Sseko sandals, which help pay school fees for women in Uganda. “I thought, ‘Could these pants be the foundation of a business to help women who are preyed upon by sex traffickers?’” Under her brand, she works with agencies that offer rescued sex workers employment and counseling.
Her customer: She’s looking to dress people with a conscience and a love of comfortable global styles. She donates 20 percent of her net profits to agencies that help with her mission of providing rehabilitation, counseling, a fair wage and “dignified employment.” All her products will have the same purpose.
Manske says: “Getting them a fair wage is important because any woman in a marginalized situation is more likely to become victims of sex trafficking, so what we really want to do is start working on preventative measures so that fewer women have to go through this at all.”
Recent developments: Manske won a $50,000 Arch Grant this year, and she’s expanding to produce purses and other accessories soon. On Nov. 1 her company will be profiled on the PBS reality show, “Startup.” Eventually, Manske said that she’d also like to contribute to an entrepreneurial fund for women in these circumstances as well.
Advice: Manske was going to school, had four part-time jobs, no retail background and no time to do one more thing, especially launch a clothing line with a complicated supply chain. She started anyway, “because I couldn’t imagine not trying to help,” even if it failed. If it’s something you believe in, she said, it’s worth losing a little sleep over. It’s worth learning a new skill. It’s worth the headache and the frustration and an embarrassing attempt to create a website, she explained, because it beats regret.
Website: madeforfreedom.com
Debra D. Bass is the Post-Dispatch fashion editor. Follow her @DebraBass on Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, Vine or Facebook.