Gabby Loftin on Life, Lessons & Legacy

We’re looking forward to introducing you to Gabby Loftin. Check out our conversation below.

Hi Gabby, thank you so much for joining us today. We’re thrilled to learn more about your journey, values and what you are currently working on. Let’s start with an ice breaker: What is a normal day like for you right now?
A normal day for me looks like I wake up at 5:00 to go workout with my trainer. After I workout, I go home and take a nap before my 8:30 class. After my morning classes, I either sew, sketch, or do something productive and creative. I do this until my afternoon classes. After I’m done with school, I go to volleyball or basketball practice, come home and get ready to wake up early and do it all over the next day.

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I’m Gabby L. I am DC’s youngest celebrity fashion designer at only 12 years old. I have been sewing since I was three and made history by becoming the youngest fashion designer to show at a major fashion week at only 5 years old. My brand, Gabby’s World Designs was created so my clients can express themselves creatively, which is why my tag line is “Creatively Me.”

What makes Gabby’s World Designs interesting, special, and unique is that everything I sell, I created. From my clothes, to my accessories, to my candles, to my soaps and sugar scrubs, to my nail polish and lip glosses, even to my books. I create everything that I sell. I want everyone that shops Gabby’s World Designs to know their items or clothes were created just for them.

What else makes my brand unique is that I use the money I make to give back to my community through fashion.

Thanks for sharing that. Would love to go back in time and hear about how your past might have impacted who you are today. Who saw you clearly before you could see yourself?
I feel like my mom saw me clearly before I could see myself. She let me embrace my creativity at a very young age and never told me I could not do something. She always creates a space for me to embrace my creativity and even helps me figure out what I want without forcing the ideas on me.

When I was two and told her I wanted to make lipgloss, she didn’t tell me I was to young. She purchased the materials I needed and promoted me. She helped me see that I was a creative and could make a business out of being creative.

Is there something you miss that no one else knows about?
I miss creating just because it was fun. I love that I have my business but because of my business and being an AAU basketball player, my schedule does not give me the time I use to have to just create knowing it’s for me and my expression not for someone else to purchase or wear.

So a lot of these questions go deep, but if you are open to it, we’ve got a few more questions that we’d love to get your take on. What would your closest friends say really matters to you?
My closest friends would say spending time with my family and my relationship with God matters to me the most.

Before we go, we’d love to hear your thoughts on some longer-run, legacy type questions. Are you doing what you were born to do—or what you were told to do?
A lot of people that have not met me but seen my clothes in the runway think my mom sews my clothes, or assume that my brand was created so my mom can make money off of me or because she told me to. However, that is not the case. I started my business because I wanted to. Everything I created is because I wanted to.

I have always been ambitious and creative since I could remember, so I am definitely doing what I was born to do not what I was told to do. Using my business to help my community is something that I feel I was born to do. At the beginning of every year, I sit down with my mom and tell her my goals and visions for the year. These aspirations, goals, and visions don’t just come from thin air. I am doing what I was born to do so my ideas are inside of me.

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