We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Ashley Mitchell a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Ashley, thanks for joining us today. One of the things we most admire about small businesses is their ability to diverge from the corporate/industry standard. Is there something that you or your brand do that differs from the industry standard? We’d love to hear about it as well as any stories you might have that illustrate how or why this difference matters.

The Yellow Morning isn’t just another vintage shop, it’s a curated fashion journey. What makes us stand out from other vintage boutiques is that our clothes are organized into a color scheme and collection, based on each piece. A lot of vintage shops organize their inventory based on the style or era, instead we carefully curate our clothes to compliment each other within the collection they best fit. You’re currently able to shop four different collections, each offering their own color palette and unique style. This gives the customer a whole new experience when shopping secondhand and vintage.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your background and context?

I’ve loved fashion for as long as I can remember, so it wasn’t hard for me to decide what industry I wanted to work in after school. From sales associate jobs in the mall to managing upscale boutiques in Southern California, working with fashion was fun and something I always wanted to do. Throughout the past 15 years of this retail journey, I’ve seen and learned a lot that shaped my business into what it is today. The problem was that regardless of the job, I didn’t feel fulfilled, even though I was doing what I loved. It took me years to figure out why. Corporate retail has a very clear strategy, sell clothes and make money, but that’s not the problem. The problem started in the late 90’s-00’s and has only grown worse, fast fashion. Examples of fast fashion can be seen in almost every clothing store we shop. Their marketing has slowly conditioned us over time to have an unhealthy relationship with buying things. This affected me on many levels, making me realize I couldn’t be part of it anymore. That’s how my business, The Yellow Morning, was born. A fashion boutique that curates modern collections of vintage and secondhand clothes.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I ultimately decided to wait until August 2020 to launch and used the extra time to refine my branding, while continuing to learn more about running a small business. I had a enough pieces for each of my four collections and had been working on my website for months, then the pandemic hit. Everything was suddenly uncertain and my brain was flooded with a million questions. What if I launched my website and everything sold? How would I restock my inventory with everything being closed? When were stores going to open back up? What if my launch was a flop because people don’t want to buy clothes when they can’t leave? I ultimately decided to wait and used the extra time to refine my branding while continuing to learn more about running a small business.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

I knew from day 1 that I wanted to be able to sell through Instagram and Facebook because I knew that’s where my customers are. I use social media to showcase what I sell, educate my customers and build professional relationships. I’ve built up my following slowly, gaining loyal customers along the way. I’ve learned to utilize social media as a tool for running my business and can’t imagine where I’d be at today without it. The key is consistency when you’re just starting out. Build up an online presence by posting regularly and give your customers a glimpse into all aspects of running your business. They want to support small so that means showing them what you do, not just what you sell. Try to also incorporate some personal moments within your business and show them you’re a real person that’s passionate about what they do. Some of my best advice would be to find the right social media platform for your business—mine is Instagram, remember that everything you do for your business can be used for content online and try to be yourself as much as you can—it will make things way easier in the long run.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.theyellowmorning.com
• Instagram: @theyellow.morning
• Facebook: The Yellow Morning

Image Credits
Ashley Mitchell