We were lucky to catch up with Carmen O’conner Jackson recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Carmen thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. How do you feel about asking friends and family to support your business? What’s appropriate, what’s not? Where do you draw the line?

I feel that asking family members and friends to help support is very challenging. Sometimes I can’t come up with the proper way of asking them to support me because some make me feel uncomfortable or I’m scared my feelings might get hurt from their answer. I met someone who believed in me, she has her daughter in a lot of fashion events and then she introduced me to more people that was part of fashion events. So, I turned them into my fashion family. They have supported me for the past year. Don’t get me wrong I do have a few family members that believe in me and support me the best way they can. My four sons and my little sister are my biggest supporters, and my mom was shocked when she seen how good I was with sewing. But my fashion family has helped me fulfill my dreams of things that I’ve always wanted to do.
I’ve had someone tell me that just because I have a business doesn’t mean my family and friends have to support me. That really hurt my feelings. I thought about it and told myself I would try not to ever ask a family member or friend to spread the word about my experience in sewing and customizing clothes. So that is why I created this fashion family. I’ve been so happy with them. I’ve also achieved a lot of goals since they have been a part of my life.

Carmen, 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?

I’m known as Carmilita Jackson when I’m in seamstress mode. I am the cofounder of dElic`. I’ve always loved fashion and one of my dreams was to become a fashion designer. When I turned 25yrs old I was talking to some of my friends (from Ethiopia) and I mentioned that I wanted to make clothes. They bought me a sewing machine, fabric and patterns. In return I made a few dresses and pants that they sent over to their family in Ethiopia. I am a self-taught seamstress. Like I said I made dresses and pants then, I started making pajamas for my sons and their friends. I took on a challenge by designing coats and my biggest challenge: creating a wedding gown for my cousin.
Fashion is my passion, and it runs deep in my veins. I was inspired by mother, who was also a seamstress. I would watch her sew and make all her sister’s wedding gowns and the bridesmaid dresses. I love the early 40’s to 90’s design looks.
One of my challenges was time management, I have made plenty of customers nervous or mad. Once a co-seamstress shared her contract with me, my cousin and I created my own contract and that helped keep my management time in control and be more professional. Being on time with making my garments not only improved the quality but also made my customers happier.
I love mixing patterns and colors. When you wear my garments you will get a feeling of sassy, confident and ready to take on whatever feeling you have for the day.
My brand name dElic` meaning is an inspiration of my sons they are my motivation. I combined all of our initials of our middle names. It represents an amazing look that shows how incredible you look and feel when you wear my designs.
I also teach children ages 6yrs to 17yrs how to sew and become young designers.
I’m so happy that I achieved three of my goals. 1. My time management has become better. 2. I finally came up with a brand name. 3. I was part of New York Fashion Week this pass September.
While I was in New York I did some networking and got plenty of followers on my Instagram which is carmilitajacksoncustomwork. My TikTok is blackbutterfly1975.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

My reputation was built off a negative aspect, which was very weird. One year I had a prom client whose mom tried to put bad image on my name. But all it did was make people wonder who this woman was.
This young lady got a prom dress made by me. It was so beautiful but, the only way she could this dress on is if someone help put it on her or she get a zipper put in the dress. The young lady chose to have someone help put it on her. She came and tried on the dress 3 times and all 3 times I helped her put it on. I reminded her that she needed her mom to help her put the dress on and she said OKAY. Well, the night of prom the young lady decided to put the dress on herself and ripped the mesh on the side of the dress. She called me an hour before prom to see if I could fix it and I told her yes. She comes to my home in the ripped dress meaning she had to sit in my bathroom naked. I asked her did she want a zipper in, and she said yes. Well, while she sat in my bathroom her mom called her and told her it was an emergency and needed to come home. So, I gave the young lady a big t-shirt to put on and told her I would call her when I was finished fixing the dress. Once I was finish, I tried to call and didn’t get an answer at all. The next day her mom sent me a text message asking for a refund I told her she couldn’t get a refund because I fixed the dress. She said well I went and bought her a new one for prom. I told her that wasn’t my problem and that her daughter chose a dress that she would need to have your assistance of helping put the dress on and she did not follow those instructions. The mom told me if I didn’t give her the refund that she was going blast my name all over Facebook about me stealing from a teenager. She followed through with what she said she was going do started bashing my name. She told everyone that I was a thief, and I stole from a hardworking teenager. She shared lots of my pictures off my Facebook page saying I didn’t have style and over and over she kept saying I steal from children and don’t get nothing made by me. I’ve never been through nothing like this in my entire life of fashion. She did this for a whole week. Someone told her that needed to stop because I could sue her for defamation of character, and all of this was unnecessary. I stop sewing for 6 months because I was so hurt from this situation. My clients were so upset that allow them to win with this situation. I go look in my Facebook Messenger and I had so many requests on making custom outfits. I was in shock.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

This continues off my horrible story. Once I came back from the time out, I had with the horrible situation. I had talked to other seamstress and one of them said I needed to get contracts. So, she was nice enough to send me a copy of hers and so I sent it to my cousin, and she retyped it and added a spin to it in my version. I also request that all parents come to all fittings or at least communicate with me concerning their child’s event and custom outfit so that I won’t ever have a situation like this again. I right down all changes that my customer agrees on if I can’t find a certain material or a gem all the way to a certain applique`. Everything is based off this signed contract.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: carmilitajacksoncustomwork
• Facebook: Carmilita Jackson
• Youtube: Social Crew
• Other: TikTok: blackbutterfly1975