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

Valerie, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

Fields of Green is a women’s wear clothing brand that currently sells all one-of-a-kind pieces that are all handmade. The patterns are garments are all made by hand which makes it a really unique and creative design process for me. Working strictly with organic materials has always been an important component behind the brand because of their health benefits and the hope is that these garments will be passed down as heirlooms to someone the wearer loves and wants to protect.

As Fields of Green grows, I would like to extend the brand by making collections overseas so I can make higher quantities in a wider range of sizing. The fashion industry can be a very dark place so it was really important to me from the beginning to start a clothing brand that worked exclusively with fair-trade factories.

Valerie, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My name is Valerie Wildes and I am the owner and designer behind the bohemian women’s wear brand, Fields of Green. Fields of Green is a slow fashion brand where currently every garment is one-of-a-kind and handmade. I make the patterns, source the fabrics and trims, sew the garments, create the photoshoots and sell on my online shop and at pop-ups. It’s been an extremely fun and creative process for me while I’m able to devote the time to it as I’m also a stay-at-home mama to two toddlers. However the brand is growing and I’m going into production with my first dress at a fair-trade factory in India for this spring which is super exciting for me.

I knew I wanted to become a clothing designer at age twelve and set my heart on working in the fashion industry. have had the wonderful opportunity to live and work in Morocco, New York and Los Angeles during my twenties which were super formative for me as a designer and person. I’ve worked in technical design, production, women’s wear design and concept design at both small and large companies, all within ten years.

I then moved to Nashville with my husband while I was pregnant with my first child and we love it here. Nashville has been a great place to raise a family and also work as a creative independently, as there are so many other resources and creatives doing the same. About a year and a half ago I started making a collection of garments for fun and my husband encouraged me to host a pop-up to see if anyone would want to buy the pieces. I got a great response and that’s when Fields of Green began.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

I love reading and actually find a lot of design inspiration from books. One book I read recently is Ina Garten’s Be Ready When the Luck Happens. It was so interesting because even though Ina has grown her business in a completely different field than me, a lot of her anecdotes were super helpful in considering how I should present myself as a brand and in sales. Her Barefoot Contessa brand feels effortless but the reading the stories behind all of her hard work has been super inspiring.

One of Ina’s stories was about selling rotisserie chickens at her cafe in the Hamptons. She initially tried displaying them on silver platters but wasn’t selling any. Since the Hamptons is a beach town after all, she decided to try and display them in paper containers instead, and she said they sold out everyday since. This made me realize you can have a great product but it won’t sell unless you present it in a way the customer can relate to.

I understand my handmade garments are an investment piece for a lot of my customers and so Ina’s story was a great reminder to showcase them in a versatile way at my pop-ups. To not just share their story and talk about their fabrics but to emphasize their versatile fit, comfort and display and explain the many ways you can style them.

Okay – so how did you figure out the manufacturing part? Did you have prior experience?

Designers keep their manufacturers close to their chest because a good one is truly hard to come by. Thankfully though, I did find my fair-trade factory through word of mouth and some other supplies through lots of research. Communicating with vendors was a big part of my job in the past so I got to know the questions I should be asking when trying to decide if it’s a good fit.

I think when choosing a supplier or manufacturer the best advice is to have lots of communication back and forth and to be honest with expectations. To also not rely on just one factory to do everything for you because if they closed, you’d be out of business.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://fieldsofgreennashville.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fieldsofgreennashville/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61567566097558

Image Credits

Joe Randall