When I set out on this fashion journey over ten years ago, I did so as it aligned with my purpose in life. My vision from the outset was to create a lifestyle brand that encompassed all parts of life. Fast forward ten years or more, and I still have the same passion and vision to do just that. I am laying the foundation brick by brick and want something to last the generations, like these European fashion houses or even American ones like Ralph Lauren. I still have a ways to go for sure, but the destination is set and the journey is well under way. I am proud of what we have created over the past ten years and all the bumps in the road and hurdles we have overcome to get where we are. And here we are, having come all that way, with the same hunger and desire to expand. Sure it has been scary at times, and I’m sure I’ve held myself back with my own fears and repressions. But remember, there is no courage without fear. And as I mentioned last week, fear itself at times is an illusion and just showing up day by day and taking the steps towards the end goal has always been the key for me.
As I look back on how far we have come and the lessons we have learned, I can’t help but think we can only get better with the knowledge of 10 years of ups and downs and having come out the other side. In that time, a lot of brands have come and gone, and here we still are. Even if I look back at how far the product has come from the early days, not only in terms of aesthetic but also in terms of details and quality, I know I can improve anything. I work with the assumption that something can always get better. So I don’t like to rest on my laurels, and I look for those incremental improvements, the 1 percenters as I like to call them. It is those 1 percenters that become mountains of progress in ten years, and I take it step by step like that. There is a long way to go, but the journey is well advanced. And in terms of a lifestyle brand, the pillars are in place and the wheels in motion.
And what does that look like? Well for starters, expanding our product categories and improving upon what we already have. Things like new denim are coming soon, footwear and accessories are already part of the mix. I’d love to do homewares and furniture at some point too, as I have such a passion for interior design. Of course, these all have to make sense and come at the right time, as I can have a thousand crazy ideas and want to do everything all at once. But I know I have to establish each pillar well before moving onto the next. Otherwise, we can get all dispersed and be doing a thousand things but doing nothing well or have our strengths suffer from having our fingers in too many pies. So, a lifestyle brand is the goal and brick by brick, step by step is how we are going to build it because we are essentially building a house, a fashion house.
