Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Rachel Antone. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Rachel , thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?
My resilience comes from truly believing that you can do whatever you set your mind to in life! It’s easy to get knocked down or loose hope, especially when it comes to pursuing something creative in life. But if there’s one thing that I’ve learned over time is that everyone looses faith in themselves. Sometimes it can be very hard to find the inner strength or inspiration to guide you, but I think what matters most is trusting in yourself and gathering the hope that you have left to push you forward. I know that if it weren’t for my resilience in life I wouldn’t have accomplished all that I have up to this point! And I especially wouldn’t have started my own small business. My resilience really came from being able to make it through those tough days and wake up the next morning to focus on the future and what I want that to look like. Resilience is also being able to let go of all the negatives and train yourself to solely focus on all the positives!
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
My story begins in early 2021 when I made a huge decision in my life to pursue starting my own small clothing line here in LA! For many years friends and family had always told me I should start a line for myself, because of my great love for vintage fashion. I never really considered it until the job that I had up to 2021 didn’t go as planned. I didn’t feel satisfied in what I was pursing at the time, I had money saved and I decided to take a risk and start a clothing line. Most fashion brands take anywhere from a year to a few years to launch a clothing line, but I was so determined, financially and personally, that I started learning and creating at a rapid pace. After 4 months of planning, learning, designing, sourcing/shopping, and manufacturing; I launched my brand GIMMICK in July 2021. It is a slow sustainable fashion brand, all made here in Los Angeles. Everything is designed by me and my great inspiration for 1960’s fashion. After over a decade of obsessing over 1960’s fashion history and wearing/selling vintage clothing, I knew it was time to dedicate my brand to vintage inspired fashion for all the other vintage fashion lovers out there. What I find so exciting is sharing my designs and seeing how others get so excited too! It is a small niche, but a really amazing community of individuals who like to express themselves through fashion, just like myself! I am also very much excited about being apart of the growing community of slow sustainable fashion brands, not only here in Los Angeles, but all over the world. Slow fashion is all about creating garments in a small batch using fabrics or materials that are better for our planet. Slow fashion helps to reduce the amount of waste that is massively growing in the world with a focus on creating less, but producing them with a higher quality standard. This in turn helps people to shop less and be able to wear those garments for longer! And sustainably made garments are usually made with recycled materials, fabrics that are better for our planet, or deadstock materials that are leftover/recycled fabrics. I decided for my brand to use deadstock fabrics to create our dresses, so I could reuse the fabric that already exists in the world and not have to make or manufacture more! Right now I am focused on expanding the brand and creating new designs to hopefully launch another new collection in the very near future!
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?
I think the three most impactful areas of knowledge that I learned along my journey were: it’s okay to not have all the answers at first, don’t be afraid of the unknown, and don’t compare yourself to anyone else!
Not having all the answers at first became a huge area of knowledge for me when I started my brand and even now in life! When I started I was very afraid of things I didn’t have an answer to. I was so worried about embarrassing myself by asking questions that may seem obvious to others in the fashion world. I learned I had to let this go and be honest with myself and others by saying I didn’t have all the answers, but I was willing and wanted to learn! Stepping into the fashion industry and learning about manufacturing, patterning, and understanding the process was overwhelming at first because I genuinely didn’t know what the next steps were. But I managed to take things day by day and assure myself that its all a learning process and in life you simply just don’t know what you don’t know!
The next area of knowledge I found impact in my journey was learning to not be afraid of the unknown! Starting a clothing line from the very beginning was a scary experience. I found myself feeling fearful if I even had what it took to actually launch my own line. I was fearful thinking what if I design a whole collection and no one shops or no one understands me. It was a daily worry of the unknown that I feel put me down a lot of days. But I had to continue to remind myself that I can’t compare myself to anyone else! Which is the third and probably most important piece of knowledge I’ve gained in this journey. Like anything in life, we are constantly looking at others and comparing ourselves to them or their journey. But friends and family helped to assure me that everyone’s path looks different than your own. And you can’t compare yourself because no one is the same! We are all unique in how we go about creating and while you might be inspired by another person, it’s so important to believe in your own vision!
I’m really thankful for this journey I started and am still on as we speak! I am continuing to learn everyday and love to be able to share it with others 🙂
Alright, so before we go we want to ask you to take a moment to reflect and share what you think you would do if you somehow knew you only had a decade of life left?
The current challenges I’m facing right now are: remaining financially stable and keeping consistent.
It’s no surprise that owning a small business, let alone one here in Los Angeles is very expensive! Before I ever started my brand I was told how challenging it could be, but after close to two years in business I am now understanding what all that means! There are many financial struggles for small business owners here in Los Angeles and especially for fashion brands! Capital with any business can be a huge issue and that is one that I am really struggling with at the moment. After launching my first collection in 2021, later that year I designed 4 more garments, all becoming very expensive. I don’t regret taking the chances that I did, but I did learn a lot about being smart about finances when running a business. In 2022 I made the really hard decision to go back to work full time to support myself and most importantly support the business. We are still so small, so I knew that it would be awhile until the brand was able to be my sole source of income, but I am hopeful for the future. I am continuing to learn how to get creative and cut costs whenever I can, but my brand still needs time to grow in this process.
Keeping consistent with the daily list of to do’s is also something I’m currently struggling with! Nowadays there are so many forms of social media to keep up with to continue to promote your business and gain customers. And working full time plus also maintaining all platforms like instagram, tiktok, the website, and emailing; while keeping track of everything else is tough! I love having my business and it makes me so proud, but it certainly can be a lot and it’s hard to relax when you know you have so much on your plate. Multitasking has become my greatest weapon in order for me to be able to do it all. And like people say, the easy part is starting the business, that hardest part is maintaining it; and I couldn’t agree more! While starting a fashion brand was very challenging, keeping up with it has certainly been more than I anticipated! I’m still learning how to balance it all and be able to give myself a break when needed.
Contact Info:
- Website: www. shopgimmickclothing.com
- Instagram: @gimmick.clothing
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Gimmick.clothingbyrachel
- Linkedin: N/A
- Twitter: N/A
- Youtube: N/A
- Yelp: N/A
- SoundCloud: N/A
Image Credits
Photos with pink background: photographer Deisy Larios Photos with location background: photographer Hannah Dimmitt
