We recently connected with Sara Gonzalez and have shared our conversation below.
Sara, appreciate you joining us today. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?
First of all, thank you for allowing me the opportunity to share some of my journey! While no man (or woman) is an island, I am mostly self-taught both as an artist as well as an entrepreneur. However, I owe my grandmother the credit of teaching me the basics of sewing at an early age, and my mother the credit of instilling in me the basics of managing finances. Both of these aspects are absolutely crucial to the business I run today. One thing I’ve always wished I could have had at one point or another under my belt was the opportunity to attend long-term focused classes at a college or a trade school for either fashion, costume design, or even business. There were several times I attempted to make plans to do such a thing, but at each opportunity, time and finances ran thin, and there didn’t seem to be something that quite fit exactly what I wanted and truly envisioned for the journey ahead. I think perhaps this deep, never-fulfilled desire within me is the driving force behind what I now offer young students desiring the same thing. If I had during my college-age years the specific niche opportunity from someone else that I now offer to those climbing up the same ladder, I believe that could have been what I always dreamed of, and I’d likely be at a higher level now!
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
Oh, where do I begin?! I believe my love for elegant fashions started, as is typical, as a young girl drawing out ballgown dresses at a young age. But it wasn’t until I was twelve, after several years sewing basic things with my grandmother, that I picked up an 18th century pattern and, with the brief help of a friend, made it myself! That lead into sewing more and starting my official business, Ensembles of the Past, sewing for others when I was eighteen. Creating completely bespoke clothing pieces is the soul of my business, and perhaps always will be. It’s something that has taken me around the globe, meeting with clients as varied as the garments I make for them. My clients currently include re-enactors, brides & bridal parties, dancers, actresses, musicians, film production companies, theaters, museums, and so many others! I specialize in creating clothing from the past (both historical and vintage pieces from costumes to museum reproductions and restoration) as well as modern garments and custom-designed, individually-fitted wedding gowns and menswear.
Along the journey of designing and creating for others, I was often asked by fellow creatives where I got my materials, which then lead into opening my own fabric store and managing & sourcing high-quality reproduction materials and goods to sell alongside my brand. In addition, I’ve also branched out into offering patterns and kits for the same fellow creatives, as well as specialized classes on garments, fabrics and techniques. And, as if sewing for others and teaching others to sew wasn’t enough, I also learned there was the middle ground of clientele who were not in the market for a custom-tailored piece, but also did not wish to make it themselves. So, I started offering costume rentals. Which is now a truly growing aspect to my business, serving customers and production companies across the USA, and hosting events for which my rental costumes can be worn!
In addition to all of this, in more recent years, I’ve begun my official apprenticeship and internship programs. This is where I give young adults the exclusive focused opportunity to learn time-tested traditional skills in the dressmaking and tailoring world, as well as education with textile and fashion history and hands-on practice on real-life projects, all while combining daily tasks with key elements of running a business. It’s the program I once dreamed somewhere existed, and now it’s tangible for others!
I take pride in offering something for practically everyone interested in historical fashion and classic attire: From materials to finished piece, education to events. I believe the varied aspects to my business and brand is what sets me apart. It’s something that I don’t think, as a young twelve year-old girl walking around in my very first dress so many years ago, I ever could have dreamed! But, by God’s grace, He has taken my first steps as a creative entrepreneur so much further than I ever dared hope. I am eternally grateful, and I know this is just the beginning!
Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?
I believe the bottom line for an artist, especially a creative entrepreneur, is that a good artist will make things look easy. But what you don’t see behind the finished piece are the countless hours of thought, research, and careful placement. And even if you have considered it, have you considered the time and hours it took to learn each stitch, each stroke, or the time in sourcing materials or speaking with customers or clients before the first step in the building process was ever made?
The thing I struggle with most on a daily basis is the cost of time. It seems simple and straight forward: Time is money to most of you. If you work a 9-5 job, 5-days a week, your pay is reliable, typically by the hour or by salary. Most of the time, you know what you’ll do and what is expected. And how much you’ll make. It’s pretty straight forward, most of the time. But being an entrepreneur isn’t like that, at all.
I think the most difficult thing for creatives to hear from non-creatives or those unfamiliar with your trade is the all-too-frequent comment (whether it is to our face or through a third party) inferring that we charge too much, or that somehow we are making a fortune. I realize in this day and age of fast-fashion and cheap goods from China, spending more than $95 on any garment sounds pretty ridiculous to the average person. However, while there are YouTube videos and numerous articles on this very subject, let me attempt to shine some light into what I face on a daily basis. For me, a basic custom gown will typically take a minimum of 30 hours start to finish in actual construction time. A pair of custom-fitted, well-tailored, hand-crafted dress trousers takes me closer to 40 hours (yes, you heard that right). More elaborate gowns will take up to several hundred hours or more. When calculating a garment quote prior to the customer’s acceptance, I’ve learned the hard way to double my hours. That is not to say that I underestimate that much (although I used to), it is to say that as a business owner, there are numerous things I have to do to keep my business running that don’t “pay.” Those tasks include (but are not limited to): taxes, social media, photography, client correspondence, bookkeeping, organizing, business research & shopping. That’s right… things that large businesses have full time positions and departments for! But I’m responsible to do all of this myself in order to keep my business running, and I have to accommodate in revenue for the time spent on these crucial aspects of my business or I and my business will fail.
So, to the customer that receives a quote for their garment and assumes I am committing highway robbery… I’m actually, on most days, making less than the minimum wage worker at McDonald’s, for skills (more than what you see at face value) and a trade that has taken me over 20 years to learn and curate. On top of that, more weeks than not, I work 6 days a week and often live on 4-5 hours of sleep a night.
As a creative entrepreneur, it’s not uncommon to get met in the same day by the potential customer that is appalled by the price you charge, and the loan officer that turns you away at the first meeting as he tells you to “make more money.” It can sometimes feel like a horrid rat-race that you’ll never win.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
With everything I just said about the difficult aspects of running a business, what actually keeps me doing it? To be honest, I hardly have to ask myself that question at all because I’m doing what I love. And I’m LOVING what I’m doing. I LOVE the varied aspects to my business, and the ability to choose where and how to reach and bring in new clientele. It takes strategy. And careful thought. And I thrive on the details. But the most rewarding aspect of being a creative artist in the field of bespoke garments is the moment when my client puts on their garment for the very first time, or receives their custom piece in the mail. It’s the smile, the happy tears because they feel beautiful, the immediate over-the-moon excitement in a response, and the awe-inspired genuine compliments in their words. It never ceases to make my day when a client asks to hug me at the end of their custom-garment experience because they wish to share their gratitude. The reward for all the late hours and days or months when I literally don’t make a dime is in the feeling and knowledge that I have surpassed the expectations of my customers with the product that I have designed and crafted especially for them. The crowning moment that brings me the most happiness is in knowledge that I have not only made my clients appear beautiful or look handsome, but I have made them FEEL that way…
At the end of the day, I might be making more money working for McDonald’s, but at the end of the day the average McDonald’s employee certainly doesn’t have the pride, satisfaction and reward I obtain every day in doing what I love and am called to do.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.ensemblesofthepast.com
- Instagram: @ensembles_of_the_past
- Facebook: Facebook.com/EnsemblesOfThePast
- Youtube: @ensemblesofthepast4808
- Other: Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/shop/ensemblesofthepast Telegram: https://t.me/ensemblesofthepast Email: [email protected]
Image Credits
Taylor Franta Portraits Veda Gonzalez Photography Laure Jacquemin Photography Celize Czichon Photography Barbara Neely Designs Ross Victors Photography