Kait & Crowne

A women's clothing brand where classic British lifestyle meets feminine Charleston elegance. Slow fashion prioritizing natural fibers and ethical sourcing. Learn more at https://www.kaitandcrowne.com/

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

You're listening to the Preppy Podcast, and I'm your host, Patricia May Olson. I'll be interviewing the brands, businesses, and influencers who are keeping the modern preppy lifestyle alive. Each Tuesday, I'll bring you a new episode, but if you're craving more preppy, then shop the merch and listen to past episodes at thepreppy podcast.com and be sure to follow at the Preppy Podcast and me, Patricia underscore May underscore Olsen on Instagram. Today I have a fabulous episode. I am talking with Sarah of Kate and Crown, who I really enjoyed this conversation because I think in this world of technology and AI and social media and fast fashion, it's really nice to find a brand that's all about made to order, bespoke, made-for-you pieces, and sustainability, pieces that you'll collect and keep for many years and are just truly classic. So I really hope you enjoyed this conversation just as much as I did and feel the same way about this. But before we get into the episode, just a little housekeeper. We actually moved our Camp Reppy Vale, Beaver Creek, Colorado, to August. I heard from a lot of you that said they wanted to attend, you know, it's so beautiful out there, but those dates just aren't great with our original ones in June due to kids and travel and family things, which I totally get. And silly me, you know, we did this back last summer. We rescheduled um our Berkshires event, and I should have kept that in mind that June and July, I know, are hard for people. So now you can find our Camp Reppy, Colorado, in August. Um, so I'm hoping a lot more of you can attend. It's just going to be such a fabulous time. I've been doing a lot of the unboxings on my Instagram, showing you sneak peeks of some of the fabulous products uh that our campers are gifted for that, including Lorna Marie hats, um, some stationery from Paper Eliza, um, Liberty of London pouches from Meanwhile back on the farm, even Spoonflower, we're gonna be making bracelets with. There's just so many great brands participating and gifting everyone. Um, it's gonna be a fabulous event. And then, of course, our Kenny Bunkport Camp Preppy, that is still in October, and I think I only have one ticket left for that right now, maybe two. Um, I know we sold a few more of those, and it just has been going really fast. But if you want another way to get into the preppy lifestyle without having to travel, then check out Club Preppy. All of the information for any of the camps or Club Preppy is available on the preppypodcast.com. You there you can learn all about membership, which we have at least one virtual event per month, plus a little gift to members uh for June, for example. Everyone is getting a twilly scarf. It's a beautiful pink and green sort of chinoisery um pattern that we exclusively created with Hattie Hill designs for our club preppy members. So I hope to see you either at a Camp Preppy or one of our Club Preppy meetups. All right, let's get into this week's episode. Okay, so why don't you first let everyone know who you are, where you live, and what you do?

SPEAKER_01 3:47

Sounds great, Patricia. Again, thank you again for having me on the podcast. Very fun. Um, my name is Sarah Johannes, and I am the owner, founder, and fashion designer behind the women's clothing brand Kate and Crown Collections. Um, we are based in Greenville, South Carolina, and we do all of the patterning, designing, and manufacturing ourselves in-house, largely in the Greenville area. Um, and our vision is to design elegant clothing for everyday women to help them feel honored in their everyday callings.

SPEAKER_00 4:15

I love that. And I can't even remember how I first stumbled upon your beautiful brand, but I think it was Instagram, and it just spoke to me. I love that it's slow fashion in this world of fast fashion and craziness on social media. I just think it's so important, like quality of design and and that like ability to last times and instead over trends. Um, so I'm thrilled to learn more about you today and have you on the podcast. Great. Well, it's exciting to be here, and I can't wait for all of your questions. I'd love to answer them all. So let's start at the beginning. Tell me a little bit about you as a kid. Were you someone that has always loved fashion, like making clothes for your dolls, or maybe had an entrepreneurial spirit? Like, what was your childhood like? So it's kind of funny.

SPEAKER_01 5:03

It's like in retrospect, I look back and be like, oh yeah, there were signs. But in the moment, I didn't necessarily see myself as like, oh, I want to be a fashion designer someday. I mean, I was always drawn to art and reading and history, um, love playing dress up. Um, in school, sometimes between subjects, our teachers would give us like a little break, and so I would usually like sketch out little um like stick figures and then I would design clothes for them. So I kind of create my own paper dolls. It's just for fun. Um, but of course, at that time, again, I wasn't thinking fashion. I kind of thought, oh, I'll be a teacher, I'll go into education because I enjoy that. Um, and it wasn't until later, probably my teen years, that some of the pieces started coming together. Um, and also being a teen in you know the early 2000s where it's spandex everything, and you're just like, this looks good on no one. It seems like the only focus for these clothing is like if you're hot and sexy, and if you're not hot and sexy, sorry. Um, and so I just started to be burdened by this desire to like, I want to create something that's beautiful that honors me as a whole person, as a whole woman, and not just your value comes from how sexy your body is. Uh-huh. Um, and so of course that was like mid-teens, and then yeah, that that desire and that dream just kind of continued. And yes, it's more of like I can look back and say, you love to play dress up. I love to, yes, make paper dolls, but my favorite thing was like designing the outfits, and I was very artistic. I think why I didn't see myself as a fashion designer as a girl was because I was not very fashion forward. Oh, okay. I was kind of one of those girls that you would look at, and I'm in some ways I'm still like this today, which actually has turned into an asset, which I'll get to in a minute. Um, but like I was not the girl that kids would look at and be like, oh, she's so fashionable. Um, you know, I kind of tried, but I was, yeah, it was it's kind of laughable if you would look at pictures of me as the little girl to be like, hmm, fashion design, well, that's interesting.

SPEAKER_00 7:00

I think that that seems true though for a lot of designers. Like once you say that, I feel like people who maybe were super fashionable um in our in like teen years ended up maybe in like buying or or something else in the fashion world, but not necessarily designing. And I think more of the creative um people that I wouldn't necessarily, you know, had like was wearing Abercrombie or whatever the cool thing was back when we were kids. Um, it was more of those creative people who had like that vision in mind that those are these amazing designers nowadays, right? Right.

SPEAKER_01 7:33

And I think we, because it just didn't come naturally for me, I had to work really hard at it. And so there's just a lot you you learn and grow along the way. So sometimes I was told, I was actually told this multiple times when it came to designing. It was like, Sarah, you're either good at it or you're not. You either have an eye for something or you don't. Well, I'm more like detail-oriented, logistics-oriented, even a little bit scientifically oriented. I'm like, there's gotta be an actual reason though, why certain silhouettes look good on certain bodies or certain colors look good against certain skin tones. That it's not, it's not just a luck of the draw, you're either good at it or not, and if you're not sorry. Yeah. Um, and so that's why actually after college was finished, I took a couple courses studying under a fashion stylist who is learning more about the principles of actually like styling according to body types, according to skin tone, according to hair color. And I was like, oh, there's actually like science behind if you wear this color, it just makes you come alive. Or if you wear this color, it makes you look like death. Or if your body is shaped this way, if you drape the clothes this way, it's gonna look stunning. But if you do it this way, it's gonna look really frumpy. Yeah, like, oh, there's an actual science behind it. Because what I wanted to make sure of when I went into the fashion space is like, I need to know what I'm doing, and I need to have like actual reasons why I say this is a solid design and not just like, well, maybe it is, maybe it isn't. I don't know, I'll figure it out. And I mean, there's an essence to which, like, sure, you test the market, and some designs people love, some designs people don't. But I wanted to have actual like statistics and research backing up why am I doing what I'm doing? Why am I designing what I'm doing? So I guess in some ways, because I wasn't naturally good at it at first in the early years, it forced me to work harder, it forced me to dig deeper into styling, into image consulting, into color tones and shades and shapes and draping, which is a little bit different than what I learned in college. College is more the technical side of like how do you build a garment? The engineering side. I was looking for more of like the why. Um, and I'm really honestly grateful. It was a hard journey, but I'm so grateful for that because I feel so much more grounded now in like why we're doing what we're doing, because it's more evidence back back. Yes. Um, and then two, just growing up not really caring about what's trendy, actually goes a lot into Kate and Crown now because I still don't really care about trends. Like I they're interesting, but I still love going back into those history books and looking about what are some of those styles that have come back over and over again for literally like hundreds of years.

SPEAKER_02 10:10

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 10:11

Um because our goal is to create just beautiful timeless styles that if you buy it now, you can wear it for the next 20 years until it falls apart and you'll be fine.

SPEAKER_00 10:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:20

Um, and it seems like there's just a growing hunger in the market for those type of styles. You know, you can find like one or two peop pieces that are very season appropriate, but then it's like, can I just buy a dress that I can wear for the next 30 years? Um, and so it's been really neat again how like back then I thought that that was oh, I can't be a fashion designer because I don't care about trends. Where now it actually has become an asset with our focus niche with our market. Like, well, great, because there's a lot of other people who don't care about trends too and are so tired of everything that's modern, and they're like, I just can I please look like Grace Kelly?

SPEAKER_00 10:58

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 10:59

Can I please look like Catherine Middleton? Can I please look like these people that I I can look through the books, um, pictures of them way back then and still think, oh gosh, that's such a gorgeous dress. I wish I could wear that now.

SPEAKER_00 11:11

Yeah, you know, no, I love that story, and that makes total sense. Um I do think that a lot of girls who go into fashion think that it's like, oh, just you know, playing around with pretty clothes. But there is so much science behind it, like you mentioned, like uh what what colors look good on certain skin tones, but then also like the the makeup of fabrics and why then certain fabrics work a certain way. Um, I remember when I was in school and fashion learning that too, and that was like just a mind-blowing. Like there's so much more depth to it that I I think a lot of people don't realize. Um so where where did you go and study fashion then? Um, I don't know if we touched on that. I know we we talked about it a little bit, but where did you go and kind of was it fashion design than you studied?

SPEAKER_01 11:56

So I went to a small private school just here in town in Greenville. Um and it was a little bit more broad than just fashion design. Um I mean it was it was meant to kind of launch girls into wherever niche they wanted to in fashion design. So like they could go into marketing, they could become a buyer for a store. So the name of my major was apparel textile and design. Um, but in terms of like the garment creation, it was high on the engineering and the tailoring and doing a lot of things by hand, which even though in the modern day fashion world so much is digitally based, which I don't have all of those, I didn't get all of those skills in school. Um, I have so much more of the engineering base that a lot of modern day fashion designers don't get in fashion design school. And so kind of like what my team and I are trying to do, sort of in the future, is like a lot of us came from that same school and we have a lot of that engineering background, um, which ultimately is better in helping us know like why a design works. Totally. And what designs like not even to waste our time on, because we just know from an engineering standpoint is like that's not gonna work. Yeah. Um, and then we have connections with people who can digitize different patterns, and so it's like I would rather we know how it's done and why it's done. It's not like, well, if you just drape it this way, it looks gorgeous. Um so we partner with a lot of people that have more of the technological savvy to bring us into the 21st century.

SPEAKER_00 13:22

Got it. That makes total sense. Um, okay, and so then you said you studied under a um like a stylist, uh brand stylist. Um and then so at what point were you ready to go out and and launch your own thing? Like, did you have any more internships or jobs between, or did you have enough experience then um and confidence under your belt at that point to go out and start Kingdom Crown?

SPEAKER_01 13:49

Yeah, it definitely was a journey. I did not start the brand immediately after college. Um, there was still a lot of practical work I had to get. So, yes, I studied under a fashion stylist for about a year or two. She was actually working on developing a styling program, and so I was a beta tester. So that was super helpful. I could go through her program, but then give her feedback in terms of like, hey, this makes sense, or if you could tweak this. And so for me, that helped me to do a little bit deeper dive into the styling world because I was trying to help her build a program. I wasn't just taking a program.

SPEAKER_02 14:19

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 14:19

Um, I also did a lot of individual contract work for some small businesses in town. Because for me, I wanted to build a home-based business. Um, I wasn't looking towards doing something big, brick and mortar. Like I wanted to build a business that I could run from home and that especially if I got married and had a family, like I could focus on being a homemaker and a stay-at-home mom while also building a company. And I just couldn't do that if I was, you know, building something really big outside the home. Some women can do that. I don't think that I would have the skill sets to do that. Um, and so I did a lot of that. I had started actually a contract business my sophomore year of con of college as a contracted seamstress, just to help me continue to build the skill sets that I was learning in school. So, like immediately applying what I was learning in the classroom with private clients, and then also train myself like how to work with individual clients. And that kind of grew after I graduated college. Um, it's still actually my primary means of making a living. Um is still very much in its early stage, so she's just not she's not paying the bills yet. Um, but I work for an interior design firm in town. Um, and actually I think she'd be a great connection for you for your podcast. Um I can introduce you to her. But yeah, so I I did a lot from her. I learned also um from a local historical costuming company in town. And both of those companies were like very new companies, and so I got to kind of grow up with them in a sense, and they were both small business owners starting their companies like out of their basements out or out of their spare bedroom. They were trying their best to cash flow them. So they weren't necessarily going through the traditional route of like, okay, you have a bunch of money saved, and then you take out a hundred thousand dollar business loan and you have your business plan and you go to investors. I mean, that was kind of the way we learned at school, but that wasn't necessarily a path that I personally wanted to pursue. So getting to do contract work for both of those organizations and like watch them learn and grow and make mistakes was really helpful for me. And then having the confidence to launch my own company because I had been alongside so many other businesses that did the same. I also did a short stint in retail, which was helpful, but it made me learn that like that was not my love.

SPEAKER_00 16:39

I always say I think everyone should work retail or like a waitressing job, like hospitality job, because it gives you great people skills, though. And I think with any kind of business, being an entrepreneur, you do have to talk with people and um sometimes be in uncomfortable positions in terms of you know, the customer's always right, or or dealing with hard to deal with customers. So even though I I worked retail for a little bit too and I agreed, I was like, this is not where I want to end up, but it gives you such great skills.

SPEAKER_01 17:09

It really does. And there are still things that I do, like in building our company, that are from things I learned from when I worked retail. So absolutely not a wasted period of my life, very helpful, but I I definitely would like to not go back to that unless it's retail within my own company. Okay, then fine. That's different, that's very different. Uh so yeah, I it was I graduated school in 2017 and then we finally launched the company in 2022. Okay. We so it was kind of like that stretch of years where I still felt like I'm not I'm not ready yet. I there's still so many things for me to learn.

SPEAKER_00 17:46

Yes, yeah. So then tell me about launching the business. Once you got to that point that you were ready, you had some experience under your belt, tried some things. Um, and so when when did you launch and sort of how? Like what did that look like?

SPEAKER_01 18:00

Oh, that was so colorful. I wish I could say it was smooth sailing, but it's probably one of the hardest, one of the hardest seasons of the business's life, and we've gone through a lot of hard seasons. But um, on the one hand, I was still trying to cash flow it on a very, very, very small income. So I had to be very creative, but that also created a lot of stress. Um, I still wouldn't have chosen to do it any other way, so I don't regret how we did it, but that was very difficult. And we actually were planning on launching in 2021. That was our final deadline. I we had a photo shoot, I had designs that I poured thousands of dollars into that we developed, and there was just one thing after another that was just not working. We had suppliers back out on us last minute. I mean, like you spend hours researching like the perfect button for a button down. Yeah. And then I order the sample buttons and I get them sewn on our blouses. We have a photo shoot, and then the button supplier company calls me and is like, by the way, we're completely discontinuing all women's buttons. Oh no. So it wasn't even like the style I chose was no longer gonna be carried. It was like, we can no longer be your button supplier, like ever. Oh my gosh. And and and like, I mean, multiply that by like dozens of phone calls and emails that we got of like it was a story of like four steps forward, four steps back, four steps forward, three and a half steps back. Um, you know, trying different to work with different pattern makers that may or may not have worked well. Um, again, running out of funds, and so having to like step in. There was um before our first photo shoot, um, I was contracting with a seamstress, and the deadline was just being pushed way, way, way late until she was finishing them like the night before our photo shoot. And then I get a call from her saying, So my buttonhole machine has broken. And so I will send you all these blouses that I finished, and none of them have buttons or buttonholes. And so I pulled like an all-nighter booth right before our photo shoot, like sewing all of these buttons and buttonholes. Literally, we're at the photo shoot, and I have the trunk of my car open, and like our photographer is doing models, and like I will finish a blouse and hand it off to a model and like have the model put it on, and I grab another blouse, and thankfully, I had some photo shoot assistants there. I'm like, do you know how to sew? Great, I'm gonna have you sew with me. So they're they're doing a photo shoot, and we are in the back of my trunk, like sitting there sewing. It's like we're having a little sewing bee, and I am so exhausted. Um, and then like two hours before we were gonna launch that fall of 2021, I realized that a key like we were we were gonna be marketing these blouses. I had gotten this fabric from Scotland, and I was pretty positive that this company made all their fabrics. What I didn't realize is that they make 99.9% of their fabrics. And so the labels that I had gotten said made from fabric in Scotland, because for me that was like a huge selling point. I just think that's so so cool. And so I was double checking some details for our website and I went back on the fabric page and it was like the 0.1% of fabric that they did not make in Scotland was the fabric that I had chosen, and so all of our tags were illegal, like I couldn't use them because it would be false advertising, and so finally I just had to call it of just like, yeah, we can't launch. Yeah, like I I give up, and we had run out of money, so I couldn't even say, Well, let's launch, but then work on fixing things behind the scenes. It was like I don't have any money left to fix things, and so we called it, and that was probably one of the hardest things to do because I had been working on starting this company since 2019, so it had already been like multiple years trying to get it up, yeah. And then to call it that late, I mean, you were working through shame and a feeling of failure, and like, why am I even doing This. But we we rested, we recovered. I saved a little bit more money. We started again and we finally launched in the fall of 2022. It was still a challenging process. We still had manufacturers pull out on us last minute. Like I had a bunch of designs kind of ready to go. Um, and again, we had a bunch of manufacturers and partners pull out on us last minute, such that we ended up launching with maybe three products. And most of those products were products that we had gotten from England from our knitwear manufacturer. Um, in fact, I still have a couple with me. Like, I don't know if y'all recognize these from the website. Yeah. Um, but I was like, you know what? We have garments. We are going to lot launch, darn it. Um, and I'm so glad that we did. So it's been it's been such a hard journey, but it has been so fulfilling.

unknown 22:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:54

Um, yeah, so that's what launch was like. And then it's been one colorful, beautiful, challenging journey since that time. So that was three and a half years ago.

SPEAKER_00 23:03

Well, and it gives you thick skin. I think being an entrepreneur is about pivoting and you know, uh nothing, nothing goes as planned always. Um, and it's just about making the best of it, learning from it, right? And growing.

SPEAKER_01 23:17

So truly like the things that we have learned along the way um have helped to bring us to the place that we are. Uh, yesterday I was in an entrepreneurial networking meeting um where we were interviewing another another founder and learning from him. And he kind of reminded us how I don't know, it was the founder of like the Ritz Carlton, or someone had said that like true business success comes from failures handled well. Yeah. And I thought, is that not true? Yeah. That we can have this idealized vision in our mind for like, oh, especially in fashion, like everything is just glamorous and beautiful and fun, and it's just like, oh, fulfilling all of your girlhood dreams, right? It's like, well, sort of. Um, but just that reminder of like usually the successful companies, yes, they have a lot of really neat opportunities that come their way that they embrace, but a lot of the growth comes from how well do you handle failure? How well do you handle disappointments? How well do you handle setbacks?

SPEAKER_02 24:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:19

Um, how after how many setbacks do you choose to just give up or do you choose to keep going? Yeah. Uh and there's a time certainly to rest and step back from the company. I've done that multiple occasions. I've done that honestly at the beginning of this year. I just really needed to rest, regain respective perspective, um, just get that fresh set of eyes on the company again to then, yes, keep going forward.

SPEAKER_00 24:43

So tell me a little bit about the name then, because I loved reading the story behind it on your website. And I think the listeners would really enjoy it as well.

SPEAKER_01 24:52

Well, I would love to share that story. It's definitely part of our brand that probably spent we spent the most thought, careful thought over of like what what encapsulates like the heart behind our brand, because we're more than just okay, we want to produce pretty clothing, but why? Um just something that I mean I think probably most of your audience has struggled with. I know I have certainly struggled with it various times in the past, is this idea of feeling like um an object, whether that be your value is tied to how sexually attractive you are, or like an object to produce. So, how successful are you at your job? What size paycheck do you receive at the end of the week? How consumable is your life on Instagram? So, like if you don't have a big Instagram following or a big blog following, back when blogs were a big deal, um there's this struggle within the feminine soul of like, does my life matter? Am I really doing something important? We all want to change the world, but very few of us have a platform that is in that vast level. But of course, the reality is like every one of our lives has deep meaning and deeply matters. I mean, even when we look back over our own lives and we think about people that impacted us, you can usually point to like this parent or this uncle or this coach, just like one individual who poured so much of their life into you. And most likely they were just like a neighbor next door. They weren't, you know, the president of some company, but they had a huge impact on you. So I really wanted to create some designs that reminded women of the importance of their calling in ordinary spaces. So, how does that relate to the brand name then? So it's so easy for us as women to get caught up, and I'll just speak from personal experience, personal struggle, it's like so caught up in this idea that it's what I look like that gives me value. It's having the right clothes or the right body or the right makeup or you know, so on and so forth. And that's just absolutely not true. It's rather the clothing that kind of represents an internal reality that we dress in such a way that's dignified to say, like, I am a woman of value, therefore I will dress accordingly. So that's how it relates to the word crown in our name, because crowns are merely a symbol of royalty. They don't like make a queen or king royal. You know, it's not like you put the crown on their head and like boom, they're royalty now. No, I mean they're royalty because it's in their blood, it's who they are. The crown is just a symbol. Whether or not they're wearing the crown, they're still royalty. So, also for me, that was a helpful reminder of like clothing is like your crown, it's just a symbol. It's not what gives you dignity, it's not what gives you value, it's not what gives you purpose. It can just be a tool to remind you of that purpose. So that's why we have crown in the name. And then Kate. I wanted a name that was feminine, but really communicated like the girl next door kind of a feel. Um I had even played with like Jane, you know, Jane Doe. It's kind of like the like the everyday girl, like a Jane Doe, but Jane and Crown just didn't work. Um I really liked the name Kate. It was another common everyday name. I think it was pretty popular when we were growing up as kids.

SPEAKER_02 27:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:59

And especially with like Mary Kate Nashley and all of that, um, that it was very much like a, okay, that's a great feminine, sweet, like girl next door type that I wanted, like it's it's the crown for the ordinary, everyday Kates of the world. That's the heart behind our brand of creating things to make that ordinary woman just remember what you do every day is so valuable and important, even if it just impacts a handful of people.

SPEAKER_00 28:26

Yeah, no, I agree a thousand percent. And that's why I think that's so special what what you said there. Um, and it's an easy-to-remember name, too, that could be anyone. So I really like that story. Now, tell me a little bit. I know, you know, throughout this conversation, we touched on the importance of slow fashion over fast fashion in this digital age. Um, but I'd love to hear a little bit more about your passion for that. Um, and then even the women and the vendors you work with. I know you're very selective with them. Um, so I'd love to hear about that thought process too. Oh, I'd love to share.

SPEAKER_01 29:03

That's one of my favorite parts of the business is the women that we get to work with. They inspire me every single day with what we do. Um, so in terms of selecting vendors and fast fashion, I'm not quite sure where to start. There's just so much prolific waste in the fashion industry. And when it came to building our company, I was really thinking about how can we structure this differently? Um, and I I say slow fashion, yes, it's slow fashion, but I I love to emphasize more of the sustainable fashion. Um, because that impacts uh the clothing that we make, that impacts the way we do business, how we treat our people, how we treat our customers. Is this sustainable? Does this help produce and nourish life and wholeness and wellness and joy for all the people that this impacts, not just our customers. And so I think from a practical standpoint, one, I was leaning more towards fast fashion just because we were trying to do our company on a strict budget. Uh, and I really value doing a company on a strict budget. Um, also, just so many times filling the news, you see, okay, another big brand is filing for bankruptcy, another big brand is filing for bankruptcy, and there's just this glaring idea that y'all were doing this incorrectly, something is going wrong with the traditional business model that we have been trained in at school. This this can't be the way to go. You also see that the biggest item in landfills, right under plastic, is clothing. Wow. Um, that there's so much excess. It's like this is this is just disgusting. I mean, this isn't even like, oh, we should do better. It's like, no, this has to stop. And I can't change the world. That's not my like, I don't have the power to do that. But I do have responsibility over my own company. Can we do things differently? Can we choose to do things differently? And so, kind of our our mindset is like we would come up with designs, we would test them, but we would not produce inventory, or we might produce a very, very small, small inventory. Number one, because despite as much research and testing as we do, sometimes there are just products that don't take off, which is normal. That's completely fine. That happens in a fashion company, but I wanted to make sure we weren't spending so much money and using other people's resources to create products that no one wanted, and then what do you do with them? You give them away, throw them away. It's just again, such waste. And I wanted to steward well our women's time, our women's talents, our resources, and then make sure that every garment that we made had a home in mind, that there was a woman who fell in love with that piece who wanted to include it in their wardrobe. And so it'd be sure to have have a home and bless someone. It was a wanted garment. So that's kind of how we came up with the majority of our products we sell through a made-to-order model. Um, we've we've played around with different ideas of like having um like a pre-order window. Um, sometimes we just launch a product and just say, just order, and when you order, we'll make it for you. For me, also that creates a little bit more of a personal aspect to the business that you know when you order, like we see your name, we see your measurements, um, you know, we kind of dream about what what hair color you might have and what copies you might have. And like we're just making one garment and it's just for you.

SPEAKER_00 32:28

Yeah, that's special. How long how long does that typically take for you?

SPEAKER_01 32:33

Um, like a make-to-order piece if someone's interested in ordering just it can take between one to four weeks, depending on if we have to order fabric. So if we have fabric in stock, we can manufacture it relatively quickly so long as we have seamstresses on hand. Sometimes though, we'll have an order placed and we just ran out of stock of fabric, so we have to order it again. So it's kind of like and if if a four uh fabric gets delayed, I'll try to make sure I tell the customer, like, hey, you know, wait. Or or immediately if I know that a fabric is in stock, I'll reach out to a customer and just ask, like, are you needing this for an event? Do you have a strict timeline? And then I'll be honest with you, if we just I know we can't make that timeline, and then we can discuss, hey, do you want to order something different?

SPEAKER_00 33:16

Okay, that makes total sense. Um, and then tell me about you know the women and your partners that you work with to produce these garments. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 33:24

So we actually do not work with a manufacturing company. The last three and a half years, we've kind of been working on building our own manufacturing company, which has had its joys and challenges. Um, a lot of the women that we have on our team, they're all independent contractors and they all almost all of them have started their own small companies. So one girl started a side patterning company because she's patent creating patterns is her love. We have a couple other women on our team who have started their own kind of custom design wear companies. I have a couple girls that do a lot of client work in the pageantry industry. So, like pageants that are women that are competing in pageants, they'll come to get them to get their custom designs. And so I contract with them to help encourage them in their business, um, help their business continue to grow, but then we get the benefit of their incredible craftsmanship. And a lot of these women too are stay-at-home moms. I mean, that's why they have started their companies because then they enables them to do it from home. So I feel like building our team in this way, building our own manufacturing company, one, it's just easier to do quality control when they're all here, they're all in town. It's much more efficient. We can meet for coffee to discuss um projects versus like, okay, we have to wait two months for this manufacturer over in New York to finish something and send it to us. Um, it's all right here. But then I feel like I can enable them to fulfill their dreams of being small business owners and be stay-at-home moms. And um, that's again elegance to honor. That's what we do. We're trying to honor the women on our team and support them in their dreams.

SPEAKER_00 35:01

So, with that then, how have you found these women? I think that's another hard part with owning a business is finding employees, found finding partners. Um, did you was it word of mouth? Was it a post on Facebook? Like any tips for um finding and building a team?

SPEAKER_01 35:18

Oh, I feel like the way that we did our team is so unique that I'm happy to share what we did, it just may not be able to be replicated by other businesses. So I ended up settling down here in Greenville, which is the same town where I went to school. And so a lot of girls who graduated from that program, there were a number of them that chose to settle here. So, one, I already had total knowledge over the schooling that they had gone through and the different checks that they had to pass in order to graduate. Um, as time went on, too, one of the classmates that I went to school with ended up taking over the program as a professor and ended up building out the program. And so I often would go to her because she's worked with these students for four years and has graded them and has trained them. And I would say, okay, I need someone who's good at this. Do any of your students meet those qualifications? And so if my friend who is like the head professor of this design program said, Oh, you need to contact this girl, I didn't tell that girl, but in a sense, it was like you're hired, I will still interview you. But if Anna says that you're gold, then I know you're great and you're gonna have a great work ethic because she's worked with you for four years. Um, so I would say probably in a way that can be replicated for other businesses, your network is huge. When you have people that you know and trust, ask around. There are a lot of folks that are so excited to help and share connections and share resources. And oh, I know this company, this manufacturing company. Um, they do such great work. I know their turnaround times, I know how they execute. Like, so finding a network, don't do it yourself. I couldn't have gotten to where we are without my network of people that I can constantly ask questions to. They're excited about the brand, they want to do everything they can to help me. Um, so yes, go to that network. And then online organizations. So um, I haven't used any of the resources yet, but they're kind of like a safety blanket there for when I need them. Places like seams.org or the Carolina Textile District. It's sort of a conglomeration of all these people who are passionate about bringing manufacturing back to the United States that have sort of this whole directory filled with pattern makers and tailors and manufacturing companies and whatnot. That like there was one time I gave the director a call. We had like an hour-long phone call, and she just talked with me through okay, this is your company and this is your need, and like I can give you kind of a list of these people that I have known for the last 10 years that like I'll send you their way. So using online resources like that, that people are one, they want to know your business and they can give you personalized recommendations. Talk to these manufacturers.

SPEAKER_00 38:12

Yep, that's all great advice. And you know, it's very similar to me, actually. My um, where I went to college, that's how I got some of my first clients that I do PR with is through an old professor. And then even still to this day, I'll contact them when I need an intern or something like that. Um, or if I'm hiring someone to help me out with some projects. So I think leaning into your alumni association is always helpful. But then yeah, like you mentioned, the bigger picture is your network, like network, um, joining groups, you know, there's Fashion Group International, I know that's another great one, that they have a directory um with a tons of businesses in there. So joining any of those is so helpful. Um, I'm curious, and I always ask this to everyone, but what does preppy mean to you since this is the preppy podcast?

SPEAKER_01 39:02

It means classic with a little bit of flair. Of course, you have different iterations of preppy, from like the fun, vite vibrant Southern Preppy to like college Ivy League preppy to like old British England preppy. Of course, Caitlin Crown leans a little bit more towards like the Ivy League British type of preppy, even though I love a good Southern preppy as well. Um but yes, very timeless silhouettes that have been in style for hundreds of years, but they usually have a little bit of flair to them. So like the popped collar or um the really fun, snazzy sunglasses, or it's not plain, it's very classy, very elegant with just a little bit of sass and flair to them.

SPEAKER_00 39:49

I love that, a little bit of sass. Um you know, I think I know the answer to this, but I'm gonna ask it anyway. Um, who would be your dream customer? It sounds like you just love working with women and honoring them and and their bodies, but I'm curious if you had to pick someone, like a celebrity, a royal, or anything, like who do you think embodies um, you know, a Caden Crown, would you say?

SPEAKER_01 40:14

Yes, that would definitely be Kate Middleton, which I know comes as no shock. I will clarify though, our brand is not named after her. We do get that question a lot of like, oh, you named after Kate Middleton. No, we did not. We named it after the everyday girl because that's ultimately who we want to honor. You don't have to be royalty in order to have a really important place in life. But yes, I think I mean the Princess of Wales just really embodies class, grace, elegance, and femininity, um, and navigating very difficult life circumstances with grace and femininity. And again, I think that is reflected also in her clothing choices. But kind of like we say, this is the clothing that is a deeper reflection of like who the person is and how she carries herself is such um it points to the ideal of who she is. So yes, it would be lovely if she decided to wear our garments. Um, though again, my dream is celebrating the everyday woman. But yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:10

I love that. That's that's a great answer. And I I thought she would be um one of your picks as well. But yeah, what is a piece of advice that you can give listeners? Like a a lasting little bit, um, whether it's uh a quote for encouragement or a resource, like what's just something you can share with listeners now?

SPEAKER_01 41:30

My biggest piece of advice is don't do it alone. Don't do it alone. Um, we all struggle with imposter syndrome, and I think sometimes that can keep women trying to just hustle on their own because they they don't want to reach out for help because they're afraid, oh, someone will realize how much I really don't know what I'm doing or how much I need help, or you know, in certain fashion spaces, it can be highly competitive, uh, which just doesn't encourage you to try to reach out and ask for help. But along our journey, it's the people that have been in my corner that have gotten us this far. I could not have done it without them. And I know that's so cliche, but it is so true. So get involved in local entrepreneurial networks in your town, join groups online if you live in a really small town that doesn't have one. Like find something online. Um, find people that are in your corner and like always reach out for help. Don't do it alone.

SPEAKER_00 42:30

Yeah, that's great advice. And it's funny because we were even chatting offline about we have a mutual friend. Um, and so I think, yeah, Leanne, shout out to her if she's listening. Um, but I I do think it's important to lean in, make new friends, whether it's just someone you're gonna have, you know, coffee with and maybe just encourage them or you're asking for some advice. Um, or it's just someone I always say too, like, I love meeting with women who have their own business. And even if we're just like commiserating about something together, it's nice not to do it alone, right?

SPEAKER_01 43:06

That's probably one of the biggest draws for some of the entrepreneurial networks that I'm a part of. We love just getting together and like not feeling alone in our struggles. And the of course, the goal is not like, okay, we're gonna have one big pity party, like, not at all. It's it's to encourage one another, but like for all of us, sure. We want professional resources, but just to have other business owners who get it, because it's a very unique type of life that a lot of people don't understand. They don't understand the amount of work, the amount of responsibility, the amount of pressure. They just don't. So being with people that are in the trenches with you that get it. And and they can also reaffirm like, no, you're not a bad business owner. This is just normal. Like, this part is normal. So keep going. It's like, oh, okay, wow. I'm not really horrible at what I do. It's just this is normal, and we can do this together.

SPEAKER_00 43:55

Yep. There's peaks and valleys, right? Yeah. Um Any sneak peeks, anything you're working on right now or excited to share or want listeners to check out from you?

SPEAKER_01 44:07

Ooh, so we have a couple collaborations coming up with both, mainly is with Victoria Magazine. We did a fun collaboration with them, all centered around Wales. So we did a project over in Wales that should be coming out this fall in the September-October edition. So yes, look for us there. And we have a couple unique collaborations going on. Again, more in the fall, but one is with a big British brand out west that we're partnering with to create some unique um tartan formal wear that we're working on. I'm trying to work on getting samples done now. And then we're also collaborating with a local university that has very big British roots, but they don't have a lot of British influence in their campus culture. And so we're gonna be partnering with them to like design some fun clothes that their their college kids can wear to really dive into the the British culture and the British heritage of their university, which is very fun. I feel like Ivy League Preppy. That's like my dream. I'm like, yes, clothes for like a college, like an Ivy League call. It's not Ivy League, but like that stuff.

SPEAKER_00 45:15

That vibe. Yeah. Yeah. Oh my gosh. Well, all of those sound so exciting. I cannot wait to watch out for them and cheer you on. Uh final question is where can people find you? Let them know your website and social media handles. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 45:30

So our website is KatenCrown.com. Uh, and then we're on a couple social media platforms, but honestly, I'm mostly just active on Instagram. So that's just Caitlyn Crown as our handle. Um, I'm in my stories a lot. So if you want to contact me, I do have on our website a phone number listed, but really, if you just send us an email or just send me a DM on Instagram, like that is probably the best way to get a hold of me and where we'll actually be more active.

SPEAKER_00 45:56

Perfect! Well, I really enjoyed our conversation, so thank you so much for being on the Preppy Podcast today. Oh, you're welcome. Thank you for the invite, Patricia. It was so fun to get to meet you. Thank you so much for listening to the Preppy Podcast. I hope this put a little prep in your step for the day. Please subscribe, rate, and review on wherever you listen to your podcast, and follow along with at the Preppy Podcast on social media.