Meet Claire Chiaromonte

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Claire Chiaromonte. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Claire below.

Claire, so many exciting things to discuss, we can’t wait. Thanks for joining us and we appreciate you sharing your wisdom with our readers. So, maybe we can start by discussing optimism and where your optimism comes from?

I think my optimism comes from an innate belief that nothing ever stays the same. Change is inevitable and one of the only things that are constant in life. Change can be something that isn’t always welcomed and sometimes outright rejected, but it doesn’t mean that it isn’t coming. Change, like the turning of the seasons or the celebration of your birthday, brings about introspective observation and hopefully, hope. Hope for a better year, a better harvest, a better something. I think that when we allow ourselves to adapt and move with these changes, there is an optimism and an outlook on life that becomes positive.

Nothing that I have ever experienced lasts forever. Not to say that the problems, rejects, and downright heartbreaks aren’t very real and need to be recognized, but I’ve never had any one of them last for the duration of my life. Time and time again, I’m shown that storms can be weathered, hearts mended, and people changed, and that gives me the optimism that drives me forward in life. I have no choice but to be optimistic because I know that there’s more around the corner and I have the power and tools to face it.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

I had a passion for clothing and design from a very young age. Some of my earliest memories are of drawing outfits for events, school, and items that I saw in magazines. I loved walking the malls and seeing the beautiful displays and how with each season, new clothes popped up. My mom shares a story that encapsulates my earliest experiences well: when I was about 4, she had taken me around a shopping center and I stopped dead in my tracks, looking at one of the window displays at Nordstrom. She knelt down and asked me what I was looking at, and I started describing what I liked and didn’t like about each mannequin. What I wanted to changed and how I thought it could be better! She remembers thinking, “who is this girl going to become?”

Fast forward, my very loving parents advised me when it was time to decide what I wanted to do, post high school, that I probably shouldn’t go into Fashion Design, and that a business degree would be more advantages. I told them both that I wasn’t going to do that, and if they didn’t support me, I’d find a way. Thankfully, they got on board very quickly and I attend California State Polytechnic University, Pomona with a degree in Apparel Merchandising and Management.

As a senior, working as a design student and a personal assistant to a Fashion Designer, my career path took a bit of a turn. I realized that designing wasn’t where my passion was anymore. Frantic and close to graduation, I took the opportunity to intern at a fashion magazine while studying abroad, as well as work as a visual merchandiser in a local boutique. That brought me to my love of visual merchandising. Going as far back as I can remember, I had love the detail, the strategy, and the ever changing world of merchandising.

I knew that I didn’t just want to have a design background, but learn all facets of the industry. After a brief stint in buying, I wanted to incorporate the knowledge I had acquired in school with my personal style and try my hand at content creating, specifically within the niche of sustainability. One vital piece of information I learned in school besides design, was our extreme impact on our world. The fashion industry is the second largest contributor to waste, only second to agriculture. I knew that I couldn’t keep the knowledge that I had a secret, and so I decided to start posting brands that were sustainable and shop predominately secondhand, showcasing that fashion can be not only affordable, trend focused, but also wouldn’t contribute to our overconsumption problem.

That brings us to today! I currently work as a freelance content creator on Instagram and Youtube, a social media manager and a visual merchandiser for a well known large box retailer. I knew my career path wasn’t going to be straightforward but rather a tapestry of interests woven together to make a career that I was truly passionate about.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

The first quality that I believe is the most important for an impactful journey is to ask questions. Every single person that you look up to has once been in your exact place. As cliche as that sounds, it’s true. I think in our digital age, people only show their success, without sharing that they were once very new at the subject. Don’t be afraid to ask others questions about things you don’t know, want more information on, or to learn more from them. Seriously, there aren’t dumb questions. I ask a million so that I can gain a better understanding of what I’m doing and why I’m doing it. The people that have your best interest at heart and want you to succeed will have no problem answering them.

Another quality that I think applies whole-heartedly in my life, was to realize that one path isn’t the correct way. I loved my time in college, but one area that I thought could be improved was that my professors shared that there were two tracks – technical and design – and you stuck within those. For me, that never felt right. I didn’t want to just do one, I wanted to do it all! And I got a bit of backlash for that. In my opinion and through my numerous job interviews over the last 10 years, diversity and well-rounded experience is actually an advantage when you’re looking for the right next steps in your field!

Lastly, not being afraid to change your mind. I believe that your intuition is your guiding light and when something doesn’t feel right, it means it needs to change. I recently was 2 years into my social media career and I realized that I wasn’t happy with the way that it was going, so I started a new account. All that hard work and time I put into it, and within a minute, I knew I needed to backtrack and restart. Very shortly after that, I heard someone share a story on a podcast that I was listening to: a man is rock climbing up to the top of a mountain. One he’s always wanted to do. He gets halfway there and sees that on the next mountain, right next to his, is an area that he actually realizes will be better for his view. But the rock climber is already up half the mountain and did all that work to get there. But if he continues up the mountain, he’ll get his view, but it’s not the view that he’s actually wanting, and it’ll take him even longer to get to the one that will actually be better for him. Instead of continuing down a path that you know inevitably won’t be the right one for you, it’s better to pause, listen in on what it is you’re actually wanting, and pivot to what you do. It’s better to scale down the mountain and change so that you come up on the right view.

All the wisdom you’ve shared today is sincerely appreciated. Before we go, can you tell us about the main challenge you are currently facing?

One of the challenges the I’m facing is authenticity within social media. If you’re online often, especially with fashion creators, micro trends and pushing different products reign supreme. It’s not only about being relatable, have an innate sense of fashion, but also the accessibility of being able to be exactly like that person. Amazon storefronts, and discount codes are how content creators make their income, and I understand how important that can be, but it has created a influencer / consumer dynamic that has us constantly wanting the new things and discarding the old. It isn’t sustainable and constantly puts us in a “lack” mentality. I struggle to try to be in this industry and live authentically to what I believe in. I don’t always have the latest things or the latest trends. This is why I encourage others to shop small and find alternatives already made so that if you do genuinely enjoy something, you can have it without breaking the bank or contributing to more waste.
I try to surround myself with like-minded individuals who believe the same thing and share the knowledge that I do have so that others, even just one person, can be aware of these things!

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Claire Chiaromonte

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