Redefining Fashion in Miami: Martu Freeman-Parker’s Journey & Sustainable Initiatives with Mana Fashion Services

Sneaker Impact News Presents: An In-Depth Interview with Fashion Expert Martu Freeman Parker

In this episode of Sneaker Impact News, host Bryan the Botanist sits down with Martu Freeman Parker, a renowned figure in the fashion industry. Known for her extensive experience with top brands like Polo Ralph Lauren, Victoria's Secret, and Calvin Klein, Martu shares her journey from growing up in Philadelphia to becoming a key player in Miami's fashion community. The discussion covers Martu's educational background, her early interest in fashion, the challenges and triumphs of working in New York City, and her eventual move to Miami, where she leads MEF Production LLC and MANA Fashion Services. Martu also delves into the future of sustainable fashion, her personal history, and her aspirations for her son's future. This episode provides an insightful look into the intricate world of fashion design, production, and community-building from one of the industry's most passionate advocates. 

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Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction and Guest Welcome
• 0:54 Martu's Early Life and Influences
• 1:26 Family Background and Upbringing
• 2:23 Fashion Journey Begins
• 4:41 Challenges and Triumphs in New York
• 12:02 Transition to Miami
• 14:25 Building a Fashion Community in Miami
• 16:44 Founding MEF Production and Workshops
• 23:29 Collaboration with MANA Fashion Services
• 30:13 Creating a Fashion Hub in Miami
• 31:39 Events and Collaborations in Miami
• 34:28 Sustainability and Community Initiatives
• 38:49 Fashion and Sustainability in Practice
• 45:22 Personal Stories and Inspirations
• 56:44 Future Goals and Reflections

Transcript

Martu Freeman-Parker: 0:02

Welcome back to Sneaker Impact News. I'm your host, Bryan the Botanist. And today I have a very special guest, Martu Freeman Parker. Welcome Martu. How are you? Thank you. I'm great. It's great to be here. I'm excited. Awesome. All right, guys. Martu earned a BA in Fashion Merchandising and Consumer Services from Norfolk State University, and she has extensive experience in the apparel industry, having worked with brands like Polo Ralph Lauren, Victoria's Secret, and Calvin Klein. Currently based in Miami, she runs MEF Production LLC, offering services in design coaching, line development, and brand management. Martu is also the Managing Director of MANA Fashion Services. and actively involved in Miami's fashion community through various leadership roles. That sounds really good. Awesome. So we want to get to know you today. We want your voice to really come through and to learn all about you. So don't be shy and let's start off with where you were born and raised and how that has influenced your identity in life. So I was born in Washington, D. C. A 70s baby and I was raised in Philadelphia, which is, one of the flyest places. I agree, I love the city of Brotherly and Sisterly Love. Exactly all about clothes, growing up all about the sneakers and, The look, the fit, that was like the 70s and the 90s, and I was a part of that whole world it really shaped how I felt about fashion really early. Tell us about your family. What is your family's background? Do you have any brothers and sisters? I do have a sister. I'm the oldest and my mom is Liberian My dad is from Sierra Leone and both West African. Okay, so come from an African family 100 percent I'm just born here But a hundred percent African. Do you go back to visit? I was there when I was very little five to seven. The goal is to take my son who's 16 next year. Yeah. I just met him. His name is Eddie? Eddie. Yeah. Awesome. And he's a track runner. Yeah. That's cool. And I heard you guys like to do 5Ks. Oh yes, that's our family thing. He, we, that's like our bonding thing. We, we work out together and the goal is for him to beat his last run and for mom to catch up. That's awesome. Yeah. That's a great way to encourage fitness and also mental and physical health and also bonding as a family. Do you have any other kids? No, just one. Okay. That's awesome. We're going to get into mom life later and what your dreams are for your son. But first I want to learn more about what got you started in the fashion world. When did you decide that's what you wanted to do? I really, I don't remember per se. I can't pinpoint it, but I know I always wanted to do it. So as a little girl, you were dressing the best you could. Not even dressing. It was all about looking at admiring people and their style. So I was more intrigued by style, like how people dressed and how it made them feel. Like I lived in a very diverse neighborhood, so very Spanish and very African American, and you could just, the style difference there was like, intriguing to me and like my neighbors were from Puerto Rico. So like Saturday nights like, you know during the week She was very casual, but Saturday nights. She was red dress like heel. Yeah, cuz they were going dancing Yeah, and like I thought that was cool Like I just really just watched people and I realized that clothes played a lot of how people felt and like what they did. Like you could identify people by their clothes. So that was interesting to me. And that's where I fell in love with clothes and style. Like I really was like that kid, like trying to figure people out by what they had on. Cool. Yeah. Did you have any other passions as a kid? Any sports or any other interests? I had a lifestyle, which was buying clothes and when I just wanted to be in the fashion industry. So my goal in high school was to get into fashion school. Wow. Yeah. Okay. So you knew as a high schooler, cause you went to Norfolk State University. I actually, I wrote a book about it. I wanted to What's the name of the book again? I saw it in your bio. Get the Hell Out. But I, in my world, it was like, everyone knew that this, Martu was going to be a designer. That was like, it. I used to sew, I started sewing at eight. I had made everyone teach me. My neighbor knew how to sew really well. So I latched myself on to her. I got my first sewing machine when I was probably about 10 or 11. Wow. And I love fabric. So, all through high school, I worked at fabric stores. My whole world was based around fashion. And everyone knew that, because I expressed it very clearly I'm gonna be a designer. And so no one challenged it, it was just like, oh, that's what she's gonna be. And so my whole high school was preparing to go to school for fashion, and the school at the time was FIT. The Fashion Institute of Technology and I'm from inner city Philadelphia not the rich part, the poor part, I didn't have the training sketching, and, I just knew I wanted to be in fashion, and I didn't have the artistic background just the knowledge of, What I wanted to do and I went to FIT and I walked in there and then It was not too many people that looked like me and everyone had sketchbooks And I was like, it's a little intimidating. Yeah, so I was like, okay, i'll come back. So I actually it was just like a It was an introduction. So I was like, okay, i'll be ready for the sketch review To get into the school and I came back. I had a full time, not a full time, but I had a part time job. So I took sketching classes. I took a portfolio review classes at our local community center. I had a awesome lady that was like really was like blown away that I was so into trying to get this portfolio together to be a designer. She helped me a lot and I'll tell you that. Got myself ready, got on the train, went to New York at 17 and a half, yeah from Philadelphia, two hour ride. With my best friend and did my portfolio review and I knew I wasn't getting in. I just wasn't prepared I didn't have the knowledge I didn't have the training and these kids were like Prepared like their parents have poured money into them. It wasn't any shade to my mom But they didn't know how to support private art school. Yeah, not in all the supplies they needed in the Exactly. So no one knew. I was just on this journey on my own. Like I need classes. I'll pay for classes. I'll get classes. Self taught. Yeah. When I realized I didn't get into the school, I was like, okay, I just gotta find a fashion program. Period. I'm gonna find a fashion program. I'm gonna get in and then I'll figure it out. So FIT was in New York City? I was in New York City, and then I filled out a few class, a few applications, and the second school that accepted me had a fashion program, because at this time my mom was like, you're going to college, right? I don't care where, so I was like, okay, I have to throw in some fashion schools, or at least schools with fashion programs, norfolk State had a program, a very small program. Is that in Virginia? Virginia. Norfolk, Virginia. Yeah. I think I've been there. Yeah. Cool. And that's how the career started. You were born in Philadelphia. And then you spent a lot of Born in D. C. I'm sorry. Raised in D. C. Okay. But you spent a lot of time in New York City. Was it after college? After college. I graduated. 96 97 I was in London, I took some classes at the American College in London, like color theory, fashion history, illustration I was there for six months, it was a really intense program and got back on the plane, came back to Philadelphia a month later I was in New York. Okay. Yeah. And what, New York can be intimidating. Did you find a job there right away or were you just going there with a dream? Dream. Dream. I went there with about maybe hundred in dollars.

Bryan The Botanist: 7:30

Savings.

Martu Freeman-Parker: 7:31

I had a good friend who had an apartment. She graduated from college a year before I did and was set up really well. Had a great job and she was like, come, just come. I got a couch and I got a TV. Floor like whatever and I was like she gave me like a corner and I was okay for a year Like I just temped and worked and did whatever I had to do until that final that job happened It was like within six months of me being there. I got like the job. It was a temp job, but it was like The coolest situation I could have ever had. Really? Tell us about that. I got hired at Vogue. At Vogue? As a temp. As a magazine. As a fashion assistant. For the stylists. When they go on their photoshoot, they need someone to go get the garments. Bring them back. Fold them up make sure they're prop everything's okay, and then take it back to the showroom So my job would be go to the pick up the garments from the showroom Make sure they return back to the showroom. So and that was my job and I loved it. I loved it I thought it was like, oh my god, I made it to heaven just being in Yeah, like it was amazing and I was so good, what was this in Manhattan? Yeah, Manhattan, it was amazing and I just, after a while, I was like, I'm okay. But I know I need more. I'm not that girl. It was overwhelming. It was an amazing experience. So I was just like, but I had a couple of opportunities at Condé Nast, which owns Vogue. I was able to be a receptionist at Marie Claire, which is another really cool magazine that I loved. And I was there and I would see the photographers and the models and all the editors. And I was like, I love this world, but I didn't love it. I just loved that I was there. being a part of fashion. So I kept the temp going on. Like the assignment was over and I didn't really pursue it. I was like, what's next? And a great opportunity at Ralph Lauren came up. And I took it. It was an internship. I was not an intern. I had been out of school almost two years at that point. But I was told if you get a job with Ralph Lauren, you're in, like you're going to always get a job. So I took it. And it was a year of me being a color assistant. I worked in the color department. We made the color boards, mood boards for all of the different divisions and I would sit there and make these little, cut these little chips all day and put them on the boards and, take it to the different departments and it just gave me a view of what the fashion industry was because Ralph Lauren had Floors, the merchandisers on one floor, the color departments on one floor, the designers, the stylists, the, the product development, the product managers, like all these different people that were making this brand work, like I've never seen that before, and it's done so well, like he's So meticulous and he's very intentional about everything he did,

Bryan The Botanist: 10:11

and

Martu Freeman-Parker: 10:11

you learn a lot, and it was true, like

Bryan The Botanist: 10:13

I, that

Martu Freeman-Parker: 10:15

standard of work ethics and

Bryan The Botanist: 10:17

how things should be

Martu Freeman-Parker: 10:18

done. Definitely Ralph Lauren sets

Bryan The Botanist: 10:20

tone

Martu Freeman-Parker: 10:21

for a lot

Bryan The Botanist: 10:21

brands.

Martu Freeman-Parker: 10:22

A lot of the people

Bryan The Botanist: 10:22

that

Martu Freeman-Parker: 10:23

leave Ralph

Bryan The Botanist: 10:23

Lauren do bestsell from them.

Martu Freeman-Parker: 10:24

Big and amazing things.'cause he has, he is a machine. Yeah, he is a well old machine. And that was my like, true introduction to the fashion industry and then just kept moving. So did you stay in New York City for a while? Yeah, I was there from eight nine. That's okay. Over dated myself 1997 to 2008. Okay, so a good 10 plus year stretch in New York City. Yeah. And, is there any highlights in New York City that you want to speak on before we move to Miami? No, it was just a great experience like I just enjoyed fashion, I learned everything I possibly could I was never I was never that person that went into a job like planning to live there or be there for the rest of my life, I just wanted to go in and get it. Everything I needed all the experience. Yeah, I just wanted to know and I at the at one point I was just going in to compare like, Oh, there's an opportunity so and if it makes sense for them Maybe i'll go see what that looks like see what your options are once you learn the industry So I moved around a lot and I didn't know it was an option until I was moving around I'm like wow, it's easy to move around and then I was told not so much you're just able to because You have certain names and you've been around and you've learned a lot So the easier you are to sell. And so I was able to be offered a lot of opportunities, whether it was freelance or permanent or projects. I got a lot of project opportunities just being in in that space in New York. So for new brands, I know you worked for a lot of established brands. I saw Calvin Klein and Victoria's Secret on here. Was that all in New York City? Yeah. All in New York corporate. Wow. Yeah. Very cool. Those are big brands. Those are as big as they get. Yeah. So what brought you to Miami? I got a little burned out of New York and I wanted a life change, I had, finally had my son, I wanted to be a mom, and I knew I couldn't do it in New York the way I wanted to do it be a mom and be actively involved in my son's life. Neat was important to me and my first year like his daycare was more than my rent Because I needed it to be so I needed a place that he could stay at least till 8 o'clock at night Oh, wow, that's a long day. So I found exactly can you imagine night? Dropping him off at what? 7 or 6. And it was the worst experience I've ever had in my life. And then you're missing him for 14 hours of the day. And then I pick him up he sleeps. And he's asleep when you pick him up. Yeah, he's asleep. That's the lifestyle in New York City, though. And I was not okay with that. It hurt me to my heart. So I actually moved to Philadelphia to be with my mom and just to get the support. Sure. And then I started commuting from New York to Philadelphia every day, which broke me to the core and I was like, okay. You drove. No, I took the train or the train. I wouldn't drive and so it just, I was like, okay, what am I going to do? I knew a lot about Miami. My sister had been here for about, at that time, about six years. She loved it. She raved about Miami. And she's oh, Martu, a fashion industry here. There's about to be a garment with the design district and all these things. And she was really pushing Miami and my son became a certain age. It was like. Gotta figure it out. Yeah, he's almost two. It sounds okay. We're going. Yeah, we're going And we moved in 2011. Okay, I moved here in about 2008. So yeah similar time Hey, 2008 was hell. Yeah The housing market crash and everything. Yeah, Yeah, it was and he was born that year. I remember Being in a space like what the hell is happening? Like I'm a new mom. This can't be happening markets crashing and I was like glued to the television because I actually had Stock and things and like I had like my whole career was in like investments and really and I literally It's lost a lot. Wow. And that was my, that was the, okay, you got to go because now you can't even afford your lifestyle. No. It was. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Okay. So that was a big turning point in 2008 and 9. It was the best and the worst year. Okay. Miami has definitely become an up and coming scene in the world for fashion. Absolutely. Tell us about Miami's fashion scene and culture, what you learned when you moved here and how it compared to New York City. Miami Fashion still not defined yet. It's not defined. Miami fashion is very culture based. It's based on where you're from. If you're from Colombia, if you're from Venezuela, if you're from the islands or wherever, that's how you define your fashion. New York, it's fashion. It doesn't matter where you're from, who you are, a shirt is a shirt, right? Miami's a little different. It's a Colombian shirt. It's a Brazilian shirt, that's where, when I came in, I was like, no, this is a This is just clothes there's no clothes not like the big names. Yeah. Much. Yeah. This is just clothes. It's not based around a country or a cult culture. It's literally just a shirt or a dress. And that's, for me, that's where the difference lies. it's Miami, or New York or la It's just fashion Miami. It's Latin fashion. You know wherever I'm from that fashion And my New York is very established. It's the fashion industry there. It's been there for over a hundred years you know how it works, you know how to go in and if you don't do certain things you're in trouble Certain places you're not welcome and there's ways to operate and move in the fashion industry in New York But here there's no industry. So there's it's there's no organization. There's no structure. There's you know, there's no hierarchy It's just you know as it is it's all these different It's forming its identity still. It's getting started. Exactly. Exactly, which is a great thing. And it's a great thing and that's I found so much opportunity in that like I saw It was discouraging because I'm like, how do you operate? How do you move in this space? But you can move any way you want. Sure. That's the beauty of it There's no way in New York. You have to move a certain way in LA. You have to move a certain way here You don't have any way. You can create your own way. And and that was very empowering and very motivating for me to stay. Because I was like, I can figure this out, very cool. Yeah. So tell us about Man of Fashion. Was that, what was your progression in Miami? And how did you get involved with Man of Fashion? So it's a longer, I'll give you a short version. Here in Miami trying to figure it out. So I always had my company, MEF Production. I started in 1999 when I was in. And that stands for your name? Yeah, my, my name Martu E. Freeman. Okay. And Production, which I was, Production about 99, I realized that I really like production and sourcing, and those are the jobs that I would get in these companies. Production manager, sourcing manager, sourcing assistant, so I put Production being for like a shoot? No for developing a garment, so working with the manufacturers, sourcing the fabrics, all the behind the scenes things that people don't talk about. And that's what I really love to do in fashion. And that's the big thing. Bread and butter of the fashion industry. If you go to any company, there's like these two departments and the largest department would be production. Okay. Department. Started that company and when I moved here, I always had clients and it would always be designers, emerging brands that I would help them with sourcing, finding manufacturers, helping them develop the product. I moved that business with me here. Kept my Clients in it in New York and up north and I moved here and I was like, where are the fashion people? Because I know there's a fashion scene When I worked in New York with the gap with at the gap I worked with people here in Miami. So I knew there were you know, you must have some contacts here from New York Yeah, but a lot of the places closed after 2008 and by 2010 a lot of the manufacturers had closed So I just I knew it's fashion let me figure it out We started going to events, talking to people, had a partner, we started an organization where we were going to help emerging brands in South Florida. We're able to get like a whole bunch of people on board. And it, our company fell apart, and I was just like, so I have no way, I don't know what to do here. Again, there's not a fashion industry, so I, it's not like I can go to Fifth Avenue or call, the network I had in New York was not here, so I just, Started working my own company. I was like, I just got it to figure it out And I would meet people and they would want to get into the industry and didn't know how so I would take on a client I worked with someone for a year and It would just fall apart and all sudden they their business would make it or yeah They would fall apart like it would just be so wishy washy. It's not I was used to the New York mentality, make money, work, do, and so I was like, okay, I gotta figure this out. How do I make my business work here? What I realized, people weren't educated on the fashion industry. The people that were trying to get in the industry weren't from a fashion background. They had money, but they had no know how. And or, Any education around fashion so I started teaching so I started doing workshops Okay, so I would meet people and if they all I'd like to work with you I have a clothing line take my workshop first. Okay, and my workshop was two hours how to launch a fashion business if you Wanted to do a fashion business after my workshop Let's do it. Okay, but you had to be ready. You had to have the money available You had to have like you had committed things and it was a checklist. If you have all these things, let's go If not, come back when you're ready. So I did that from 2016 to 2021 once Every month I had a workshop and from there I built my clientele. Like in person too, like the people come and you work? They would come at the workshop, after the workshop then I would, sometimes I would have 20 people, sometimes I would have 2. And I would do the same workshop. It doesn't matter how many people showed up, I would do the same workshop. We had handouts. You fill out your questionnaire at the end, I follow up with you, you get a follow up call, and I usually close the deal, I had a great closing I would always get at least one client after one, every event and I built my clientele from that, and I also built a community because a lot of the people knew they weren't ready to be in fashion, they would thank me, it was like, oh my god, I wanted to spend all this money, and I'm not ready, and I don't have the time, but when I am ready, I want to come back. So I had all these people that I and I was talking to people every month And but I was also very lonely because I had an office downtown and and that's all I did was have these workshops and work with clients and the owner of the Co op co working place. It's what do you want to do? I said, it's not like New York I don't want to make a New York, but it's like there's no one here Like I have no one to talk to Bounce ideas and she was like we'll do something about it. So I started a talk. It was called Fashion Talks Miami Okay, my first event I put it on Eventbrite. I had 77 people register I had over 50 people come and that's when I realized that Miami wanted a community and it was I had like people I had met that were in the industry that I worked with and I was like, let's sit on the panel and just have a talk. We just talked about fashion and a lot of students came from the different universities and that was it. It just started every month. I would just have a talk. I would, the people that I was meeting or I knew, I would just have them talk. So we would just talk. Sure. So every month it was a workshop. You guarantee you can meet up with me and I would have a workshop. Great for networking, great for learning. Great for everything. Great for business for me. And that's just what I did. And it was a community, I had 800 people on my Instagram and I could put anything out. And I had half those people responding. So very engaged. Very engaged. Because that's it was something that it was personal for them. and they would come and we would talk like we would have our talk and then we would talk for two hours like everyone would just sit down and just chat with each other because that was missing and I was like that's what's missing. Yeah, like I knew it was. Eliseness between all the different people. And just sharing. So that kept going and a lot of people started paying attention. I was like, how can I take this to the next level? And I wanted government help. Like I want a space and can I get funding? Should I become a nonprofit? And I had someone with the DDA at the time. And he said, Martu, just make us pay attention to what you're doing. You need to make noise we need to see you. So I started going to Beacon Council and, like, all these city meetings and raising my hand. Hi, I'm a, I'm in the fashion industry and people turn around what does that mean? Who is that and why? Just standing up for fashion because I realized here No one mentioned fashion. They would mention all the different industries and they would not mention fashion and I knew firsthand that there was an industry here because I was dealing with them on a monthly basis and So that became like what I did, which Go to all these events, meet people, talk about what I'm doing. People would come and talk and then people wanted to talk on my panel. It was like a thing like, people were like why haven't I been invited to talk? So it became our community. Yeah. Yeah. So that was my intro into community building here in Miami. Fashion community building. So MEF Productions has been a constant in Miami since you moved here, even before it sounds yeah. When did you meet MANA Fashion Services, because that's how I currently have heard a lot about you. So I met through the Beacon Council. I went to the Beacon Council for support for getting a building for, Whatever this incubator or this fashion I had two programs that I was pitching at the time and I actually went to two different places to Miami Dade College in the city of Medellin to get a building to start this fashion incubator and a really wonderful lady at The Beacon Council said, you should talk to this man, Moish, Moishimana. He's buying up all these buildings and I know he has an art program and I'm pretty sure he would want to do fashion, so I'll get you a meeting. So I was like, okay. So I got two really powerful, strong women that I knew who were in the industry. One was in marketing and advertisement and the other one was in buying. She was a buyer for Many years and I said we need to come together to talk to this man So he can understand that we want to do something around fashion. We put the proposal together. We met with him we met with his people. Then met with his people again And then we got a meeting with him and we had several meetings with him and then a pandemic hit And we were discouraged the pandemic just put a hold on everything. And so we we were dismantling because we got together for this event to be, to pitch to him. And so it started falling apart. But he gave us his Whatsapp and every now and then he would send like general Whatsapp like messages to people or he would post something and I actually had, still had clients during the pandemic and I needed to do some shopping and the only place that was really open was L. A. to do fabric shopping so I took my clients to L. A. I took four people to shop for their collection. And I was just so pissed. I'm like, what is happening? I, the last conversation I had with this man, it was like, oh, we're going to do fashion here, blah, blah, blah. So I text him. I said, there's no reason why I should have to get on a plane with my clients to go shopping to, to source when Miami is supposed to be the next fashion capital. And I sent him this whole Email on a text and he's like I can't talk right now But when I get back in town, I want to talk to you and that started a card Yeah, so a week later I text him and he's yeah, he's come let's talk. So he invited me and I We just had this big conversation and for a couple of months he kept including me in conversations. He was like, oh, tell them what you want to do in fashion. What do you see and blah, blah, blah. And he would have these meetings and he would have me come. And then he wanted me to see what he was doing in New York and what he had done in New York and he flew me to New York. And at the time, people in the company were like, wow. What's going on? Do you work here now? And I was like, no, I don't work here. He's just so I started giving him like invoices for my time. And I remember the one invoice, like the second invoice He was you don't work here? And I was like, no, you never hired me. And that's when we started a process of me being hired. Okay. I actually got hired. I was in Morocco on vacation with my family and he was, they were, people were texting me, you need to get on a call, Moish wants you on this call, and I'm like, I'm in Morocco? Yeah. Like it's one o'clock in about two hours. Yeah. And they were like you gotta get on this call. And I'm like, when I came back, I was like, What's going on? Yeah, and everything happened. So that was in August, October. I was hired. Just this last year 2021 Okay. 2022, we launched Man of Fashion. Okay. We launched Man of Fashion and we decided that his goal for downtown is a fashion, tech and culture hub. So the culture is restaurants and galleries, tech would be tech startup, tech businesses, fashion would be fashion professional. So it'd be showroom spaces, design spaces, co working spaces, event spaces and everything else. And retail. Yeah. Retail. And. This department will be in charge of curating what that looks like downtown. And and he was like, what do you want to do start with first? And I gave him a couple of options and it was like we need to figure out what is the fashion industry. I was like, I have an idea, but we don't know. So we started off with Just full on activations and events, at least three every month. Happy hour a networking event, or a talk, a panel discussion. We would do, we would collaborate with Bryan, and just to understand who's who, and see what people wanted, and and network. Every event will be at least 100 people, maybe 200 depending on the location and we were just collecting the data and really talking to people and listening to them and saying what do you see in Miami? Why are you here? Why do you, why are, how are you a fashion professional? And we met so many people that did so many amazing things and it's just been growing for the, since 2022 when we launched. And you're the Managing Director. Managing Director. Where is the where's the central location for it? Is it in Wynwood? On Flagler Street. So downtown. Downtown Miami. Because I know he has a big MANA has a big convention center in Wynwood. We have a convention center in Wynwood, yeah. I've been to that for the Three Points Music Festival and for other runs. Exactly, a lot of events. Yep. Big place. Yes, it's a huge place. The one in Wynwood, the area. So downtown on Flagler, which is down by like the courthouses. Exactly. So if you know anything about Manor Common, he owns, I think right now, about 80 buildings downtown. Oh, wow. So on Flagler I just knew a lot that he had some properties in Wynwood. I didn't realize. Yeah, 45 acres. What about the design district? Is that somewhere that he was Wynwood and downtown. Okay, so that's a separate property. Arts and fashion scene. Yeah. Okay. So what are some of the things you're most proud of with Manifashion? I'm of I gotta say I mean I have to be a I'm a mom so everything every everything has been an accomplishment We started from nothing, it was really just Putting ourselves out there and really listening. So I think one of our biggest accomplishments right now has been, we have studio spaces for designers to workspaces. And one I realized here in South Florida, people worked all in, all over the place. So you wanted to a designer, you have to go to HI showed you, you'll have to go to Kendall, you'll go to. Fort Lauderdale in someone's garage or some random office space and I'm like, that's not how the fashion industry or any industry works. People work together. And so we, we said we were going to do something downtown. It took about a year and a half for it to get a go, but last June, it's a year and a half. This month we opened our first designer design studio, so spaces maybe to anywhere from 250 square feet to 1600 square feet of workspace, design space creative space and right now we have 24 studios and 24 brands that are Designer slash. So like a co op where many different people. So they all have their individual space and then we have a common space where they can. But they're so close to each other that this is what you were looking for was keeping everyone closer together versus spread out. Exactly. And the goal is to make Miami like that, downtown like that. So if you want, content studios, if you want, marketing people that are in the fashion industry, if you want merchandisers, if you want color specialists and if you want designers all should be in one area and that's the goal for downtown. Cool Yeah Simplify everything keep it in Miami versus having to travel far and wide all over the place Yeah, and that's what I did when I first moved here. I would go to Kendall to get fabric I would go to Hialeah for someone to sew, I would go to North North Miami for people to do the labels or to pick up other facts, like you, you have to drive, your day would be 40 miles and it's just one day and it's just working on one product, it's really smart to centralize it into one location. No absolutely. Build an identity for Miami. For me, coming from another city it was. So I know when people come from other cities, they ask where's, where do you buy fabric? Where do you, where are the seamstress wear? And the goal is to say it's downtown. Awesome. So simple. Yeah. And then it gives Miami a true identity too, as well as being a tourist destination. It's a fact, it's becoming a fashion destination due to events like Art Basel. Tell us about some of the events you've been involved with in Miami. One of our, my proudest moments when we had the editor from Brazil, Vogue, she came and did a talk around fashion, and I love Brazil, I love the culture, and she wouldn't give me any feedback, she wouldn't tell me what she was going to talk about, she was like, I'm going to do an amazing presentation for you, and she did like a history lesson. And Brazil, About Brazil and then she tied it into fashion. Okay, which was amazing We've done tons of event like recently that we participated in swim week At the convention center big week in Miami in June right the first week of June So we all we hosted a panel discussion on AI and fashion and retail which was amazing we've been doing a lot of great things. We have every year since We've had fashion innovation come in and do these fashion talks. So it's one day of just these fire chats with people from the industry in New York and LA and all over that comes to Miami, which no one's ever invited them here to talk about fashion. So we had people from, Donna Karan and Ralph Lauren and, Saks Fifth Avenue come and talk to our locals and our professionals and our students about fashion. So that's I think one of our proudest moments when we can get all these people in a room together on our behalf and, have 400 people in the space talking about fashion. So Those that's a big yeah, okay. That's really cool. Yeah swim week and there's you know Are there other big events throughout the years Art Basel something you guys get involved in or is that more of the art scene? You know what? i'm I like to be true to what things are and people are making Art Basel about fashion and it's about art and if we do anything around Art, it's fashion art, right? So people are and I you know, I don't care if I offend anyone but People are making this an opportunity and it dulls down what it's a true intention It's about and I love art and like the same way. I love fashion. So if it's something around fashion, I'm not going to include art Yeah, unless it's truly related. So for us we support brands like we will support Designers that are doing events in our community we have over in our intimate. We have a what's up chat We have over 300 people Fashion Professionals in our WhatsApp chat. So if anyone's in that chat puts a flyer and oh, I'm doing X, Y, and Z, we try to support. And then we have just brands that we're close to, that we've worked with, that we will support. But for us to say do something during Art Basel, as a company, absolutely, but as a fashion brand, if it's not fashion art, then that brings me to my next section, which is Sneaker Impact, which we're in the studio. So how did you learn about Sneaker Impact? So one of my our creative director actually did some research and found out about Moe. And I believe she was like, we should find out what he does. She found him online or, and I was like, To be honest, I was like, I don't know, I don't know. And she actually, her and our project manager came and did a tour, I think a year and a half ago and did a video with him and him telling us what he did. And we featured him in Voices of Our Community because our core community, it's, about sustainability, like what we realized about that made South Florida so special and such a niche market is Our designers are very conscious and sustainability is very important to them So when we started to create these different like events and talks, we knew we had to put sustainability at the front and our business models changed a little bit because our community was telling us like Not saying it, but just by the actions and things that they were asking for, we have to change our core to be sustainable, like we have to support them. And he came up and was like, okay, so he's someone in our community. We need to find out what he's doing and how can we support him and share what he's doing to our community. And that's how we found Moe. I was hands off with Moe, I was just like, he's doing sneakers and, he's probably reselling sneakers people have a lot of, when they hear like you're it's used sneakers and I was one of those people at first, I didn't understand what he was doing until I actually saw the video and he spoke about it and and then I guess early last, late last year I was able to meet him and then he just kind Schooled me and I was like, Oh he referred you today to me. He said, Martu is the face of apparel sustainability in South Florida. And so that's quite the he gives these titles, right? But the introduction, I know he gives these titles and I appreciate it, but I only do what our community wants Like a hundred percent, we listen to what they want. I'm not going to say I'm this sustainable, like a hundred percent, but I know what we're doing to the planet and I know what's the part I play. Yeah. And I know what how important our industry needs to take responsibility for what we're doing. And the fact that, I'll say 75 percent of the people in our community, Are a hundred percent about being sustainable. That's what we are. Wow, and we stand on that seriously. So like recycled materials or upcycling We have reusing things. Absolutely looking for solutions with fabrics and textiles just being with circular fashion Like just that whole world is a part of our community here using waste and repurposing. People like we have someone in our community who does embroidery, but she, like her specialty is redoing your wardrobe. So you can bring, I have blazers that she's done that I've never, I haven't worn in years. She'll put her embroidery on and now it's this fashion piece. So just circular fashion. We have a lot of students who are now upcycling and we're helping them make it into a business and make it make sense. Fabrics for us, we, during, to my heart, that's my background. So building a fabric library where there's sustainable and organic fabrics and you don't have to go to the. Stores that we have here and buy this fabric that you would not, you don't want to use But that's the only option. It could be from a sweatshop. Exactly. Or a place that's using, polyester and Fabrics with plastic and all these. Fair trade too. Paying the original fabric. Yeah. We don't have those options here in South Florida. No. So you would have to source online for those types of fabrics and that's something that we're Because there's not manufacturing down here as much? There's there's not wholesale. So you would have to buy retail and the retailers that sell fabrics are selling, the most basic, generic un, Sustainable fabrics, they could find the cheapest the better and they're not really thinking about their audience here who are young Startups that are looking for sustainable options, they don't have that those We have mood which they're doing a great job. But again, there's not a lot of options for our designers yeah how has Sneaker Impact gotten involved with your organizations now in the last year? I heard that we were recently at the St. Thomas University's fashion show. Yeah, absolutely. That was amazing. You guys did an amazing, they took recycled shoes and made the tops, is it called fashion wear issue? It was art. Like for me, it was art. We're going to put a video in right now, actually from our Instagram of the Models on the catwalk. Yeah, it was art. It was amazing. It was so beautiful. It was so well done That was it just shows you how for me that's art and fashion merging and it makes sense But what Moe does with can I show this? Yeah, is now it could be a piece of apparel, And it was just so beautiful. Like I said Beautifully done. St. Thomas University did the fashion show, but Miami Fashion Institute did a project around towels from hotels. So the old towels, and they repurposed the towels and made garments. So like swimwear, bodysuits jogging suits out of the old towels. Towels. Wow. So that was like and that's what the schools are doing Like they're teaching sustainable how to be sustainable how to repurpose, how to think outside of the box You don't have to use, the traditional fabrics anymore You can you know virgin materials exactly there's fast fashion and then there's sustainable fashion, right? So if we want everything cheap and on sale. It's not going to be sustainable. It's not going to be from the best quality of fabric. We have to take responsibility for the things we want, you go to Europe. A dollar, votes. Exactly. In Europe, people understand that if you spend a little bit more, you're getting a better quality and you appreciate it. But if we want everything, 75 percent slashed off, how are these businesses going to make money? If that's how they're you know, so they if you're looking to get a pair of jeans for under 5 it's not gonna be a very quality pair No, and we want more of that and that's what we asked for So I you know, I'm coming from a world where people want to just blame the factories, but we have to blame Ourselves, how do we shop and how are we teaching our kids how to shop? if You know, you have a 16 year old and you take her to Forever 21 and all her t shirts are 4 but you have to buy her a t shirt every two weeks because they get ripped or it's like, what are you teaching her? What are habits are you giving her? So we have to take responsibility too. We can't just blame these companies. They're just giving us what we ask for. And take care of what we do have. I grew up in an era where, you got cool stuff and you wore it and you could wash it and wear it and wash it and wear it and it was okay because it was cool. Oh, wow. Now, it's you wash it Higher quality, you're saying. Yeah. It lasts longer. You wash it and wear it and then you gotta toss it and get another one because, rips or holes or it's too small because you dried it. It's like We need you in the running industry because these runner shirts that we get at the 5k's tend to be Horrible, aren't they? They're like wearing plastic. I know. Why are they so horrible? Runners don't really like them either to be honest. The marathons are doing a somewhat better job because it's, 26 miles, like the Chicago or New York City Marathon. They're working with Nike or Adidas or New Balance. I ran the Chicago Marathon last year the free shirt you get were all from recycled material. And then they were selling in the Nike store apparel that was finally recycled material. Like either a hundred percent and then sometimes 50%. But the actual race shirt we got finally, and that's a big city marathon, but when it comes to the turkey trots, I really wish that they would, there's an option to not get a shirt and that's a more sustainable option. But all the serious runners never have the shirts on. No. And a lot of them donate them and a lot of them get thrown away, unfortunately, and a lot of them sit in closets forever because they don't feel good to wear. Even when you're, I wear them because I'm new and I'm just so excited to have this shirt, but they're just, it's like horrible. It's the worst material, even I mean What do you think about polyester and working out? Is that a bad idea? It's really bad. It's really bad. I'm transitioning to a lot of cotton and I didn't, because I'm in fashion. You want to look good or whatever, and then you start realizing what this stuff does to your body and, The chemicals can do when especially when you sweat. I don't know anything about what it does to my body and I'm a scientist I just haven't looked into it. It's horrible. It's like the worst chemicals. They can go into your body, your bloodstream Like it's not good for you when you sweat. It's just even after you've washed them. They still can still it's not real It's not a fiber. It's something made in a lab, and you're sweating. Plastics are involved too. Exactly. Slow transition, especially when you want to get dressy, but I'm trying to Go more towards cotton. How about the heat in South Florida? How do we deal with, when we're working out cotton? Is there a way to make cotton more breathable? Cotton is the most breathable. Breathable. It's breathable just how you use cotton, hemp linen. I love hemp. I grew up in Wisconsin and one of my friends at a hemp store. Exactly. Hemp is very durable. Exactly. It's better and sustainable. It's better than cotton, honestly. But we know cotton, so it's easier to put a hundred percent cotton than a hundred percent hemp.'cause people are like, what? Most people are like, what is hemp? So it feels good to mix it too, right? Cause hemp has a different feel. Yeah, that's an awesome fiber to have on your skin, especially in this weather, because it has the oils for your sunscreen. It's good for babies and it's good for any, if you're anything af athletic or sweating and moving around, then it's also really good for baby skin. Bamboo And what other things should we be looking for? Linen. Linen. Your cottons cotton blends. I know there's cotton poly blends cotton, if you blend cotton with polyester eter, and then it gets treated and all that stuff. If you want the feel, you're going to have to add some chemicals. But there's some amazing brands that are working on natural fibers like pineapple leaves. Yeah. Banana skins and they're making, yeah, they're making fibers out of those materials. So yeah, within the next five to six years, you'll see different options. It's just getting the public used to those options. Like people are still not used to hemp. People are still not used to bamboo because it's either a hundred percent polyester or. Blah blah blah that they don't even know these what these words mean and they buy it But if you put something like hemp or bamboo I think putting a percentage of hemp in too because like when I've had all hemp clothing like sometimes it feels so different than cotton And it even looks very different than cotton that it's a big change. Yeah, but if you Mix it with like linen or you mix it with cotton. Or do a bamboo hemp, pineapple blend. Exactly. Pineapple is actually being used for leather now, like a form of leather. Okay. This has been a really interesting discussion today. I'm getting a whole education on fashion. I have more questions. How do you live sustainably? One step at a time people are in this like race to be right and be like this perfect system, live in this perfect sustainable world and it's unrealistic. It's not that easy. If it's so forced, it's not. Real cuz you're gonna burn out soon. I say one step at a time like what? Be comfortable and then make yourself uncomfortable. If you're comfortable with all cotton clothes, now make yourself uncomfortable and do something different. Like what else can you add to this? Like I think it's a something you should progress, like progressively move towards, but it shouldn't be like you just shock your system, because I don't think that's realistic. And not make it right or wrong. Just make it your life's change because I know a lot of people do it and they want oh, you're so great because you're like, yeah, but do it and do it in private. Like it should be something, it should be like a life change that you're making. And I think that makes sense. But just do it one step at a time, what, whatever makes you comfortable. And when you're ready to be uncomfortable, take the next step and do something else. But yeah, I'm not I'm not into that whole, oh, I'm better than you because I, and we have to realize that sustainability is not a common word used everywhere. It's privileged. It's very privileged. People in the hierarchy of needs, people need food, clothing, and shelter. This woman that makes, Barrett that can barely feed her kids. She's not worried about the sustainable observable bag.

Bryan The Botanist: 46:43

to the grocery

Martu Freeman-Parker: 46:44

Okay, so composting when you can talk about this comfortably can you can spend you know money you have to live this way Just know that is a Privilege and everyone does not have that privilege. So when people, I'm sustainable and da because you're privileged. And even some poor people do live sustainably when they don't have the privilege like a farmer. Exactly. Yeah, that's her lifestyle. So it's natural. But now if you live in a certain way and you live, you're making a choice because you can but if You don't have any choice and that's just the way you have to survive. Like in the inner city, they don't have the choices for food. There's food deserts in the inner cities. Exactly, I grew up in a food desert. I had to travel, we had to go on three buses to get to the supermarket. Wow. But that was normal. Because otherwise it's just like a convenience store. Yeah, a bodega. That was normal, until I went to Virginia, and I'm like, there's supermarkets on every corner, like, how did that's weird, like, how did you guys get supermarkets? I traveled to take three buses, but again, for me, That was my life. That was what it was. It was normal. So you can't fault me for not knowing that, you can get fresh food at a supermarket a block away when I had to travel almost, 12, 15 miles and on a bus that's almost two and a half hours, so just real for people that are claiming to be sustainable just know that's a privilege on it and that you can do That you can be grateful and help others. Exactly. How do people recycle their clothes in Miami? A lot of them give the clothes a good will I go to the shelters. We don't are that close to the shelters. I have a son and a husband and in the shelters if anyone's listening, there's always a need for men's clothes and I know that So I make sure my son, I mean he started recycling. He started donating his toys, which was You know, I think he started at six And it was like you don't need it. That's really powerful. Oh my god I don't think I knew at six anything about recycling. He cried like a baby. You didn't want to give it up He didn't want to give it up, but you don't play with it. Can you imagine? Yeah You Being a kid with no he's So do you want to have a kid out there with no you have these okay, they can have this but I'm keeping this. Okay. Or he might have known someone who didn't have any toys personally like your friend. We, doesn't even have a mom or dad right now, and Matt, how lucky you are. I remember he was in the 8th grade. And his friend, lived with his family, his mother was with him. I'm going through chemo and she actually passed. And they were just good friends and whenever he needed a ride to school because they would take the school bus, the bus didn't come or whatever, I would just take both of them. And one day, his sneakers piled up and he just grabbed them, got in the car. It was raining. I said, I'm gonna have to pick him up too, so I'll just drive. He gets to the bus stop, the rain stopped. He grabbed the shoes and he just handed it to his friend. So I didn't. He just took him he put a pair on and put the other one in His book bag. So when he got home the next day, Said why did you do that? And like in front of mom He was like, what are you like? That's me Born in the 70s raised in the 80s and 90s where it's hush, Yeah, he didn't want to make he wouldn't be humble about it. I don't want to embarrass his literally put the sneakers on And put the other one in his bag and they would and I'm sitting in the car like What just happened? You know what just happened? But that's just This is the world we live in. These kids are very conscious. He knows we don't throw away clothes. He knows that you raised him well because I met him for a little bit. I took him on a tour of the facility I showed him the families working on refurbishing the shoes. I showed him the workers doing the sorting He did a whole tour. I showed him the grinding area. Yeah, and he's just so polite You And you don't know I'm a high school coach and I have to say my kids that I coach in Miami Beach are polite, too And but it does you don't not all kids are polite and not all kids are focused and some kids don't even want to be Here like you can tell he actually asked me to take him on a tour. Yeah, he wants to be here You know yeah, I can't wait till my mom's on this podcast so I can go play video games or something You can tell that he's thoughtful and that he's kind and that he cares. So he does care. He does care He's a thrifter What's he into? What's his passion? He draws. He had a sneaker business, but it was too much for mom. Cause I was the one that was doing the packaging, going to the post and then he had a, he was doing sneaker logos for people customizing. Yeah. So he, during the pandemic, he made a lot of money. I was like, what are you doing? So we did a photo shoot. He had a whole, as a teenager. Like he's only 16. He was like 13, 14. That's incredible. Yeah. So this coming here was like his dream. He wanted to be here. Yeah. I think his eyes were wide open when he saw the mountains of shoes we have out there and apparel. That's really cool. I think he will work for sneakers. Mom life, like we were going to have a little section on mom life. I think we talked a lot about mom life, but what are your dreams for your son? That you wanna leave to his generation? I want him to be responsible, just a responsible adult, just responsible caring. I want him to be kind. I just. Be I always tell him be mindful of other people like mindful decisions you make affect people I love the word mindful. Yeah, just be mindful. Yeah, and he's always been a cool kid, right? And like now that he cool kid. I don't know how I feel about that But in my mind, he's always been like a cool kid. Even like he's always had his own identity And I love that about him. Like he's not afraid to be himself Whoever that is, he doesn't It's not, yeah, I came from a world where you had to fit in the box and I always pulled away from the box, but it was a conscious decision to pull away and not be like other people because it was like you had to be. But he's not in that space at all. And I love that. And having a really strong mother figure who's been successful, I think is important in a child's life as well as a father figure. Yeah. Yeah. And he has both so he's doing great. And He has his father, he has two. He has two dads. So he is cool. Two is even better. He has a stepdad and a dad. Yeah. And I think their, I, both of their identities in him. But I definitely see that he has carved out his own little space for himself where it's the Eddie world And he's a great track runner. I heard too. Do you know what distances he likes? He said he likes long. Long distance. So that's more like the 800 or the mile. He likes to run. He likes the marathons. He likes the long run. He even, I heard you guys are doing 5Ks like we talked about earlier. That's great. We'll invite him. And we do a lot of races that we collaborate with. So we'll keep you guys both on the guest list. What are some of your favorite things to do in Miami with your family besides being a fashion? We like to eat. We're eating. We like to eat. So we, like finding new places. And we like, we're beach people. But not like tanning and like hanging out. We're like late night go to the beach, sit on our lawn chairs and like meditate and reflect and talk. So we, that's let's go to the beach. Take some food and some stuff and just hang out in the chairs. Yeah. So that for us, that's Oh, that was fun. We're okay with that. Yeah, and we vacation like we try to do extreme vacationing we did Colombia. We did Morocco LA was a venture when we during a pandemic we did that we're like, let's go to LA So we just try to that's really great that he's getting a global perspective, you know being from Your family being from Liberia, Sierra Leone, and then taking them to Morocco and like you said, these are a lot, wow. I don't think I traveled internationally until I was in my twenties. he's really getting, two years ago. That's amazing. Yeah. What's going on this summer for you? Any projects that you're really With MANA, we slowed down in the summer. We realized that everyone it's hard to have events. So personally I have some projects and clients that I'm hoping to go to the Olympics. Oh, wow. So hopefully I'll know in the next couple of days and I'm going to take the kit. That's incredible. Exactly. It'll be cool, right? July 20th through August 11th. I'm sorry. And I've always wanted to go to the Olympics. I've never been to one in my life. Oh my God. I'm so excited. And if that happens and we'll know, we're, I'm packing early. And it's so new. I know how things are aligning because I've met we had an event live for SWIM and I met a, he's a designer, he's an author and he was like, Oh, I just want to pick your brain, Martu. So we started talking and. And he's yeah, by the way, I'm going to the Olympics. He's doing the track, he's doing the track suits for Barbados and another country. Oh, wow. And I was like, seriously? He's yeah, he's I'll be there. He's I'm gonna be there for the opening But they're wearing my tracksuit. So he's like showing me the suits. I'm like, are you serious? He's yeah, this just happened He started a brand last year. So it wasn't collaborating with a big known brand It was his own brand that he got to outfit the Barbados national for track and field. Okay, let's keep an eye on that guy. He's at the Olympics. Barbados in the 100, in the 200, in the 400, in the hurdles and That's awesome. Any shout outs you want to give to people? Shout out to my man of fashion team, Alexandra, Dominique, Matilda, Moishe, the owner and Frank and just everyone in Miami come see what we're doing. Come to Mana Fashion. We're on Flagler Street, 15 West Flagler. We have our office there and we can show you our showrooms our designer suites. We have open house every other Thursday. Every first and third Thursday of the month you can, so twice a month, they can just pop in to the suites Thursday, any time of day or from 12 to about seven, you can come in and visit our designers. They usually have their suites open. They usually have things for sale, or you can just come and chill with them. I want to check it out. I haven't been down. I know the downtown has been transforming a lot. There's like a jewelry district downtown as well. Yeah, that's been there for a while. I haven't seen the fashion district yet, but I'd heard the rumblings of Moishe buying some of the properties down there. He bought a lot down there. So this, we just started this little one of the buildings that he owns was all lawyers and now it's a combination of fashion, designer, and lawyers. So it's a nice combination. You might get off the elevator and be like, whoa, but then you go down and there's like a design studio. Everyone's super cool. Interacting together. Yeah. What, we talked future goals for your son, but what are your future goals for yourself and the industry and for, what are your dreams to turn into in Miami? More community building. I don't know if it stops here at Miami. I'm a hundred percent African and I would love to do something in West Africa. Both places, Sierra Leone and and Liberia, but really just keep, I just want to keep supporting designers and the fashion community. We're in a space where AI and all these things can just come in, turn it upside down. And I just want to make sure that fashion is strong and we can survive and creative people have an outlet and we're still, needed for the world to create. The art of sketching is going away, the art of pattern making, you can speak it into existence now. But as far as fashion, It's an art, and it's a talent. It's a gift. It's like singing, you know It's a gift when someone can just sketch something and it's unbelievable or sing something, you know when that goes away like AI music and AI films and like you see what happened to the film industry when Writers aren't needed. Writing is an art, so when you take away these gifts, like that's what outlets will we have for these people? These are artistic people. These are left brainers. So what do we put in them out of, I'm a, I have a left brainer in my house. I'm a left hand writer, so it's like How would how do we expect these people to survive? You can't

Bryan The Botanist: 58:11

have

Martu Freeman-Parker: 58:11

many proper The value, the individuality of people. that it's a unique, it's like a signature, a Polo Ralph Lauren. Yeah. That, that's an identity yeah, I could try to replicate, but it's not quite there. He did it without needing AI. No, it was all him. Like he, he imagined that, like he said, he imagined, he went to was, he loved Audrey Hepburn and he loved all the black and white movies and, so he imagined that world and he didn't come from that world. He's Jewish. grew up in the Bronx, and like he created this world that he lives in to this day and when you work for him, you live in that world. come in, you don't use paper cups, you use a glass, you eat out of a plate you live at a certain standard in his buildings. You have to operate in that way, you have to be Ralph Lauren, you have to live that lifestyle to understand the product and to understand the brand and, you come in there and it switches on and you're at Ralph Lauren and this is how you have to think and this is how you operate. The culture is important. So that was something that's taught, Period. If I go into any project, I have to embody that project to understand it. That's just, that was taught to me and I can't fake it. I gotta understand it and I have to understand why I'm doing these things and how it relates to the product. I hope, I just don't want us to lose that. Right now, we don't really have a lot of fashion. We have a lot of So when you take, then you add AI, creativity is here, then you have marketing, then you have AI. Sure. not okay. Influencers nowadays, social media, little out of control. People, like right now, clothes aren't the right person to wear the clothes. and it doesn't matter if the clothes are good or bad, helping the planet or if it's even made well, or it. So look deeper the superficial Tik Tok Okay. This has been really incredible today because honestly, I mainly talk to runners. Today I got to learn fashion. So I wanted to ask you for a closing thought what inspiring message would you like to leave our audience don't be afraid to be yourself. That was something that I learned really early in life And I'm happy that I was afraid as an adult to be myself But as a child as a young adult, I was not afraid and I did so much so if people would just you know, especially our young adults if they would just not worry about the what other people are doing and the what's hot and what's not, what's trending and just be themselves. Just go for it. Follow your dreams. Yeah. Just follow your dreams, whatever you want. Like I said, no one ever told me I couldn't be in fashion. So there was never a no. The no was when I was an adult and people were like, oh you can't do that. And I would second guess myself like, can I? But 13, 14, 21, 22, like it was never a no. So and I loved that. I loved the young me. Ignore like the dream killers too, like people that might say, oh you're Not from that type of background. What business do you have being in fashion? No, that's what you When I got there people were like, what are you Are you sure? And I was like, Oh, I'm here. Fashion can be just part of your DNA. Yeah. What you're born with, because like you had, also so many different influences versus, some people who don't have as many influences. Like when I interviewed someone from Puerto Rico, he was telling me about how all the colors in Puerto It's a very colorful society. Yeah. Versus, like suburban America is not quite as influential in fashion as Sierra Leone or Liberia. One thing about African culture, clothes and how you dress and how you present yourself is very important. So I remember meeting this one lady and she said, I went to Sierra and she's I went through during a war. And she said one thing I noticed that these women had beautiful braids and they were all like if they would come to church they were always dressed even they were sad because that's a part of ours like yourself at always at your best. And I saw that with my parents and like my mom she was beautiful. She dressed really well. My dad was a mechanic. He would come home, take a shower, put this on, mounds of cologne and wear his like velvet robe and he thought he was like Billy Dee Williams and I saw that and like those are the things I was just like the dad that walked in the door with the dirty grungy clothes and the dad with the robe on and a cologne who thinks he's now you know Billy Dee Williams and like clothes did that like he changed his clothes and his You know his whole personality changes and I noticed that about and that's grabbed me I was like, you know close powerful very powerful and I was just noticed that and I'm like, wow I want to be a part of that. Like I want to be able to change people Feelings and make them feel strong or you make them feel loved or make them feel sexy or whatever And that's what I really noticed about clothes enough to really drove like How it made people feel and their reaction to people seeing people like my mom was see that I would smell him But my mom would see the robe and be like, oh, you know now her moods changing, you know Then it's like it's a robe. Go to Disney World and see the adults and like their costumes. Yeah, like that's their happy place and they're good and they're not Apologetic and there's just in their space like they're living their childhood They're in their happy place and it's like a t shirt with or whatever they're wearing. So it Clothes is very powerful and people oh, it's just clothes. It's just fashion But it's for a lot of people. It's everything and for all of us. It's something because we all have to wear it Express yourself. Yeah sometimes I like to wear black because it's just really strong like formal color. Exactly. And black is just, unapologetic. It's just gonna always be flawless anyway it's an easy run too. That was my color in New York. I wore black all day, every day. Even in Miami. I'm sure there's a meaning behind, that too, right? Like you had black versus red. Yeah, when you're in fashion, it's Clothes are just like you're in it all day. You just throw your black on. It's just easy. And it's not fussy. You're not fighting. You go into a space where you're seeing all this color and all this, and you just, black is and you'll notice a lot of people in the fashion industry. All black. Awesome. Yeah. Cool. I hope everyone enjoyed this as much as I did. I'm sure they will. Okay. All right. Thank you so much, Martu, for coming today. Thank you.