But HOW? The Never-Answered Question
Where to begin? We don’t know now and we didn’t know then, that’s for sure. When PWR WMN began...or should I say when our itch to become entrepreneurs intensified, we didn’t really know what to do, what to sell...what to create. PWR WMN was born simply because we NEEDED these blazers for work and for our life in general. And so, we made them (not as easily done as said).
It was August 2018 when I (Kimberly) called Miriam and cautiously told her I wanted to do this and that I wanted to do it with her. I say cautiously because up until then I hadn’t vocalized what I was planning to do (only to my mom, keeper of all secrets) and I didn’t want my baby idea to be rejected or shut down. I knew I needed someone like Miriam, someone I could trust, someone that could HUSTLE, by my side. So I called her while she was in the car with her husband, Chris, and spilled my guts and brains out to her. Almost IMMEDIATELY she said yes--and not only her, but her amazing husband too! She had also wanted a remedy to the constant nagging statement “let me go get my purse” so this was only natural for her. Her and I got to work brainstorming, putting together all of our ideas...what we wanted to see in the market, who we wanted to be, what we wanted to offer.
At first it was literally just conversation after conversation, narrowing down our concept out of fear we would get lost in our many ideas. That November, I found out I was pregnant (that’s another blog post) and I decided that if I was going to do this I had to go in 110% or else this baby would come and I would be in the same spot I was then. So in January, I quit my job and jumped head first into PWR WMN. In the back of my mind, I've been preparing for this for years. Every paycheck and bonus I got I would save as much as possible, not knowing exactly what for but preparing never-the-less. And I’m so glad I did! I'll admit, I'm scared, very scared, but it feels amazing to be constantly creating solutions and using my brain in ways I never have before.
(I had to write down that I was going to quit or else I would’ve chickened out)
Next, we sat down and talked about what we wanted our clothes to have and what was important to us and begin drawing our ideas. Full disclosure, Miriam and I are NOT trained designer or seamstresses, but we are modern business women who know what they like. Our first drawings were…cute lol. Luckily my husband, Jack, is incredibly good at drawing and anything that has to do with aesthetics, so I gave him my drawings and told him to make it look pretty, and he did!
Then we got to googling. We googled how to make fashion drawings, how to make blazers, how to make designs for a manufacturer, how to order, etc. Our first hurdle was finding a manufacturer. This was probably the hardest part, once again...we googled. We found a manufacturer whose designs we liked and literally sent them a message through WeChat and then they immediately video called us which us terrifying and embarrassing because as usual I was in my underwear and had no makeup on (I was pregnant folks, it was not pretty). I straight up just asked them “can you make this?” and sent them pictures of our designs (like the one above).. I remember feeling so incompetent because I didn’t know any of the official lingo. They would ask me for things and I’d have to google it or worse... ask them. I’ve noticed that once you do what you’re most embarrassed or scared of...it just gets easier and you stop overthinking it. I realized, WE are paying THEM, they better answer my damn questions (snap+neck roll)! Luckily they did and they were super nice about it too.
When we finally got our samples, we had to do a lot of editing. Miriam and I are not small. We’re hella cute but we’re not small, nor do we really care to be (boobs and butts are awesome....but so is everything so whatever you have, STUNT). So when we got our samples and our mediums and larges were TINY we freaked OUT. For a second, we almost thought “oh well...I guess this is normal?,” then we were like hell no! This is OUR brand and this is what a medium, large, and extra large SHOULD look like! So we sent samples back and forth until the fabric, cut and fit was just right. We are eternally grateful to all of our friends, who we made try on our samples over and over and OVER again!
Looking forward, this is what we want from all of this: to style PWR WMN in a way they WANT to be styled...with functional, powerful, and on-trend pieces, but most of all, to SHARE this experience with you all. My biggest frustration when I’m on instagram is seeing these incredible women with their amazing businesses and not being able to figure out the HOW. I just want to learn, I want to know HOW! I don’t want a “you can do it” quote, I want to know where you got your info, what your first step was, what an LLC is, how you built your website, did you take a class? That’s essentially why we’re writing this all down...because we want YOU alongside us. Us helping you up, isn’t going to bring us down. Let’s get to the top together PWR WMN!
