We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Diana Nguyen. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Diana below.
Diana, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Owning a business isn’t always glamorous and so most business owners we’ve connected with have shared that on tough days they sometimes wonder what it would have been like to have just had a regular job instead of all the responsibility of running a business. Have you ever felt that way?
It’s not so much happier as a business owner, because being a business owner or entrepreneur comes with a whole other level of stress, it’s feeling more fulfilled which in turn does feed into your happiness. That’s why they say having purpose and passion for what you are doing is important as it will drive you on those days that you want to quit. Ask any business owner/entrepreneur how many times they want to quit in a day! I think it comes through my mind at least twice a month. I actually thought about what it would be like to just have a regular job two days ago when I was going through my finances, budget for 2023. Do I have enough to make it through the year? Where am I going to get the funding to expand my inventory so I can scale? To the world it may seem on social media, the highlight reel, that it is all glamorous, but behind the scenes especially if you are bootstrapping it’s a lot of sacrifices. It takes grit, discipline and purpose to pick yourself off the floor and keep going because it isn’t an overnight success. It’s years of grinding, budgeting, sitting at home figuring out how to fund your next production or how much longer you have in the bank while everyone is on their two week European vacation. Of course the thought of going back to a corporate job so you have a steady income and finally go on that European vacation and nice dinners cross your mind, but that’s when you have to remind yourself of WHY you are doing this. What is your purpose? What is your why? I always say, your WILL will pick you up off the ground and your WHY will carry you forward. Sacrifice, anxiety, doubt, finances all play a role and it would be so simple to go back and get a regular job, but then you would be wondering WHAT IF. You didn’t give your dream a chance to prosper, your baby (your business/company) needs to learn to crawl before walking, walking before running.
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 back background and context?
Madison / Savile is a Los Angeles-based label offering luxury women’s blazers and pantsuits designed to last. Believing that the most essential element of any long-lasting garment is its fit, we spent 2 years researching and iterating to develop timeless jackets with a bespoke look and feel: jackets that fit like your favorite pair of jeans, move in harmony with your body, and accentuate your silhouette—today, tomorrow, and years from now—thanks to impeccable tailoring and extra seam allowances that make for easy adjustments.
During my time at corporate, I noticed a lot of women around me at work and in my network (including myself!) that would talk about how much they love blazers, but how hard it was for them to find the right one. They eventually gave up on shopping for blazers as they believed blazers were uncomfortable and lacking the right style. I saw a gap in the market. I love how a suit with the right fit looks on a man, so sharp and powerful. Fit is everything, not only can it make a garment look amazing, but it allows for comfort. I wanted the same for women. I feel the older we get the more we value comfort, but still want to look polished and there wasn’t really a comfortable blazer out there.
However, that still wasn’t enough for me to take the leap from a successful career I built in corporate until it aligned with my passion and purpose to help and empower others, to inspire a more beautiful world inside and out. Thus, the name Madison / Savile. It is the definition of two worlds I’m combining; Madison means gift of God and warrior (inspiring others to bring out their inner warrior, reminding them of the gift that only they can bring to the world) and Savile is for Savile Row in London known for its bespoke suiting.
Because the purpose behind Madison / Savile is to impact and inspire, everything we do including the design of our blazers is to help inspire and raise up women. Each blazer has words of affirmation sewn on the inside. Our first collection is called Unstoppable & Fierce so every time you open your blazer you see those words to remind you that you are Unstoppable & Fierce. Another important feature of our blazers is the fit. They are so comfortable you can sleep in them, or a lot of our customers would describe it as buttery. Who doesn’t want a buttery blazer?! I’m all about function, if I can’t function in what I’m wearing, or it is distracting me from a productive day I won’t wear it. In this new era where women are wearing all kinds of hats, the last thing you need is your clothes distracting you. Aside from the fit and the words of affirmation lining the inside of our blazers, our blazers also have 5 functioning pockets including one for your lip gloss, chapstick or pen.
I love what Madison / Savile stands for and what it is becoming, armoring you from the outside and building you up from the inside. I love inspiring other women and making an impact through the designs of our blazers, our Madison / Savile Inspired Podcast (sharing stories from women in the community and experts to help inspire and empower our listeners) and giving back to our community through our charity partnerships.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
I think a lot of people can relate to 2020! After years of doing research and development to get to the perfect fit we were ready to launch in 2020, in March 2020 to be exact! As we all know what happened in March of 2020, I had to pause my launch because everything was shut down, the whole supply chain! No one was going to buy blazers now quarantined at home. My husband couldn’t find a job at the time due to COVID as well which meant I had to go back to corporate until I can get production going and selling blazers. For a good 18 months I was working both jobs, almost 18 hour days, but I knew that this was only temporary and I also knew that women will be wearing blazers again! Happy to say that we were able to get through our first production run and started selling! I am now fully focused on growing Madison / Savile.
Can you talk to us about manufacturing? How’d you figure it all out? We’d love to hear the story.
Our blazers are complex with 50-70 pieces per blazer which is why they feel like a sweater on, but still give you a polished look of a blazer. I had to find the right manufacturer/ateliers with the right skill set and experience of making tailored garments and willing to do a small batch. We are not a fast fashion label. The combination of the complexity of a tailored garment plus a small batch order made it extremely difficult to find the right manufacturer. I had a consultant at the time working for me that came from the fashion industry with a lot of contacts in manufacturing in addition I was searching on Maker’s Row. We tested one manufacturer that did not work out as they did not have the level of experience needed for a high end tailored garment to finally finding a manufacturer that was able to produce luxury quality pieces in a small batch. Always have a sample made of your prototype to test the skill/experience of the manufacturer first, have an agreement/terms of acceptable errors, delivery time, payment terms and do as much of the first production batch quality check yourself. It is good to do this with every new manufacturer to check their error rate. No one will catch as many errors in your own product then yourself.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.madisonsavile.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/madisonsavile/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/madisonsavile/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/madison-savile/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@madisonsavile6416/featured
Image Credits
The LA Look, Vadella Photography, Milan Fashion Photographer