We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Mia Zee a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Mia, appreciate you sitting with us today. Maybe we can start with a topic that we care deeply about because it’s something we’ve found really sets folks apart and can make all the difference in whether someone reaches their goals. Self discipline seems to have an outsized impact on how someone’s life plays out and so we’d love to hear about how you developed yours?
In my past life, I was a professional ballet dancer. Years of rigorous training taught me the value of self-discipline and hard work. Being on stage and performing was the reward that I earned through many early mornings, waking up and getting to the studio three hours before class to stretch and work on conditioning. My commitment to those extra hours, even when I wanted to sleep in and my body hurt, was what made my success possible.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
I am the co-founder and CEO of Claudent. Claudent is a women’s sun-protective apparel brand. Claudent uses only the highest-quality UPF rated fabrics that provide the most reliable sun protection, no reapplication necessary. We launched the brand in June of 2023.
Despite spending the majority of my career launching and building brands in fashion and beauty, launching my own brand was never really a goal of mine. I always thought that maybe I would do it if I came up with a good idea, but without an idea that I really believed in, it didn’t seem worth it.
Fast forward to a couple years ago, I was diagnosed with an allergy to the sun. While my allergy is only really a problem when I’m in intense sunlight for long periods, it spurred me to explore the UPF/sun protective apparel space. The clothing that existed in the market didn’t appeal to me. I wore it because I needed to, not because I wanted to. And that got me thinking, shouldn’t a brand exist that provides high quality, protective clothing, but also appeals aesthetically to a consumer like me?
Even for those who aren’t allergic to the sun, taking steps to protect themselves outside makes a lot of sense. Anyone who invests in their skincare, uses products like retinol or vitamin C, gets laser treatments, or is just generally worried about the damaging effects of UV rays (aging, skin cancer, etc.), should be protecting themselves. Sun protective apparel is a lower maintenance and lower waste option than SPF and let’s be honest, no one enjoys wearing SPF.
With Claudent, our goal has always been to create clothing that is not only protective, but that I would also be excited to wear. When you don’t have to sacrifice aesthetics for protection, wearing UPF clothing becomes an easy choice.
Our fabrics feel surprisingly different in the best way possible from other UPF that exists. All rated UPF 50+ and guaranteed to block out more than 98% of the sun’s UVA and UVB by independent third party labs testing to the American Association of Textile Chemists and Colorists’ standards, the fabrics feel like something you’d want to wear even if they weren’t protective. Our Claudent Rib Fabric is one I am particularly proud of. We wanted a rib with a rich hand feel and definition to it, but couldn’t find anything like it that existed with sun protective properties. So, we created it. It is now our first of hopefully many proprietary fabrics that will expand people’s understanding of what functional and protective fabric can be like. And while our fabrics use on average 60% recycled fibers, our Rib is made of 100% recycled fibers.
We will be dropping our second collection this May and can’t wait to share it with everyone!
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?
Three things that stick out to me that have been very impactful on my journey are having a clear understanding of what our brand is, previous experience building brands, and a business partner that I trust completely.
From the beginning, both my partner and I were very clear on what the look and feel of our brand should be. We understand the customer we are targeting because we both fall into that demographic. We know exactly what we are trying to build and can direct all of our focus into that as opposed to trying to figure out who we are and what makes sense for us.
Having worked in several early-stage startups in both beauty and fashion, I’ve been through a lot of what we are doing for our brand before and can draw on that past experience and the network I’ve built in the last decade. Having the right people that you can reach out to when confronted with an issue or task that you don’t know how to tackle yourself is incredibly valuable and something you can really only build through years of experience. Also, having observed other founders at work was really pivotal in inspiring me to take that plunge myself.
Even though I originally came up with the idea for Claudent, our brand wouldn’t exist without my business partner, Emma Gerber, who believed in it enough to push me to take the leap. She and I worked together at two different companies before we started our brand, and having that shared history and respect for each other’s work is invaluable as we navigate the challenges of starting our own business.
If you knew you only had a decade of life left, how would you spend that decade?
It is very challenging and expensive to build a DTC only business these days. Right now, we are pivoting our efforts away from our website to focus on building a robust wholesale business. This is a newer area for both my partner and I, but one we really believe in for our brand. We are targeting high-end resort boutiques as we believe that’s the time sun protection is top of mind for most consumers.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.claudent.com
- Instagram: @shop.claudent
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/claudent/
- Other: @shop.claudent on TikTok
