Products made in India, sport my new "Fashion Tiger" label and those made in Illinois, my traditional "Mrs. Emily" label. 

Mrs. Emily Fashion Advocate — #DebunkingTheFashionMyth

What I'm Up To Today

What I'm Up To Today

Headed to NYC for spring break with my daughter, and to stock up on fabrics and notions. Any requests??? . I moved to NYC after college, having won an internship with @amsale . I started my business there and sold things like this maxi skirt. . I had my daughter there. And spent the first 4 years of her life pushing a stroller and then riding scooters to neighborhood parks and the grocery store. . I’m really thankful for my backyard in Illinois. And really thankful for my NYC memories. . . #MrsEmilyFashionAdvocate #DebunkingTheFashionMyth

What I'm Up To Today

What I'm Up To Today

You know what takes guts? Putting out work that is ‘just ok’. And yet that’s the only way to get to the point where you’re putting out work that’s great. . I spent the weekend in tears because of some parts of my new store in St. Louis that are turning out not quite perfect. . Generally, the way to do a new thing right, is to first do it wrong. That’s been my journey the last 3 years trying to sell fashion. Every step I take is the wrong one, and also, leads to the right one. That takes guts. . I just got off the phone with The Amy that #theAMYskort is named after all her words were right, but hard to hear. . The gist of which was: “sometimes it doesn’t work out”. . There were also a lot of: ‘don’t you dare quit’s’ and ‘you’re so close’. . And then the kicker: “don’t overextend yourself if it’s unhealthy for you or your family.” . So Happy Monday - the punches to the gut mean we’re going in the right direction. We don’t want to be comfortable, because then maybe we aren’t making any progress. . . #MrsEmilyFashionAdvocate #DebunkingTheFashionMyth

What I'm Up To Today

What I'm Up To Today

Did you know that #theAMYskort was only supposed to be made out of 1 fabric? When I originally started selling this skirt a year ago, I bought tons of this denim. . I was going to offer the skort in 3 lengths and only 1 fabric to keep things as simple as possible for me. Because with each new fabric comes new thread colors, new machine settings, different elastic, different amounts of fullness for the skirt. . But days before the show, I opened up the denim fabric and found it was covered in stains and holes and it reeked of formaldehyde. . I took a deep breath, and went shopping. I picked out a million different fabrics and let clients choose which length and which fabric they wanted. . I tried to start slow and steady and the fabric disaster caused me to speed full steam ahead. . Because I added all the different fabrics, #theAMYskort sold really well at my home show and then online. I’ve been making it for a year now, and I’ve seen it in so many different fabrics. . Big intimidating roadblocks can lead to some very cool alternatives. I’ve been learning that lesson over and over in my journey these past few years. Check out my stories today for the original post from a year ago talking about this headache! . . #MrsEmilyFashionAdvocate #DebunkingTheFashionMyth

What I'm Up To Today

What I'm Up To Today

Yesterday I was out roller blading with my daughter, when a box of hand-made-but-not-by-these ✋🏻🤚🏻 skirts arrived at my home. . I’ll be honest. I’ve been as cool as a cucumber 🥒 for a couple of weeks about my upcoming shop space at @rfhomeco in St. Louis but the moment those skirts arrived, my tum started to rumble. Because now it’s real. It’s happening and SOON and what if people don’t like my babies?? 👗👗👗 Link at @rfhomeco 👈🏻 profile for all the deets. . HOWEVER. Let me not gloss over just how amazing it was to be roller blading with my daughter AND making progress on my business. . This wasn’t a step I was expecting to make. I was planning on sewing every beautiful skirt myself for the foreseeable future. But in an amazing turn of events I met a couple of wonderful women online right before my daughter was out of school for a week and I had no choice but to reach out for help sewing. . Because of it, I feel like I can breathe after a about a year of being underwater. . 👆🏻 Soon to be trading in my leather #theAMYskort for some new spring ones but I can’t get past how empowering it is to wear clothing that makes me feel lovely AND goes with rain boots. . . #MrsEmilyFashionAdvocate #DebunkingTheFashionMyth

What I'm Up To Today

What I'm Up To Today

I sat on my tuckus this morning with my journal and read until I remembered JUST how far I’ve come. . This past year has been the story of me getting to a scalable model with my business. The process involved so much stress and heartache, as I constantly battled discouragement about my progress. . So I will NOT allow myself to believe anything other than this: . I HAVE ARRIVED . I’m not saying there won’t be frustrations on my journey in this next season but OHMYGOSH after years of trying I HAVE A SCALABLE MODEL FOR THIS BUSINESS. . I’m able to spend spring break with my daughter and also prep for my first ever brick and mortar location because of it. . So queue the emoji suit 🕺🏼🕺🏼🕺🏼🕺🏼🕺🏼 and all the awesome, er, terrible weird video effects because THIS MAMA NEEDS TO CELEBRATE!!! . . #MrsEmilyFashionAdvocate #DebunkingTheFashionMyth