Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Emily Smith. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Emily, appreciate you joining us today. Finding those key vendors can often be make or break for a brand. Can you talk to us about how you found your key vendors?
Before I could choose vendors, I had to define what “ethical fashion” meant to me. There are many interpretations and I wanted to make sure I was consistent in my vendor relationships and with how I communicated to my customers. I spent a year researching “ethical fashion”, “fair trade ethics” and “sustainability”. Once I decided that my definition of “ethical fashion” was to first treat the humans who make our things with dignity and respect, and second to care well for the world, I was able to start researching vendors whose manufacturing practices matched my definition. I made some mistakes, wrongly took some people at their word, and learned some hard lessons, but I eventually found a core group of transparent brands and was able to rely on them for seasonal core pieces to ground the store. I kept researching, and still do. I am always finding new groups who are committed to care well for the humans who make their products and love to bring new brands into the store to see how my customers like them. I get approached daily to carry brands and have refined my initial questioning down to just one question to determine if it’s worth spending any more time on the brand. I ask, “Who makes your clothes?”. If you cannot tell me, I’m moving on.
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?
I am a Registered Nurse by degree. I worked for 19 years in healthcare and in 2015 was very frustrated with where I was. I didn’t want to stay in Nursing, but I didn’t know what else I would do. I prayed, and God answered. I asked Him, “If you have something better for me, now is a really good time to tell me about it. If not, I need you to change my heart so I can honor this work.” Within two weeks, through a series of answers to that prayer, I came to understand that God was in fact inviting me into something that was designed to bless His children around the world. I said, “yes” and in fall 2016 I quit my career and opened Adored Boutique. Since opening, we have paid almost 9000 monthly salaries for people in vulnerable circumstances who otherwise would not have an opportunity to earn a dignified wage. Often, these are survivors of sex or labor trafficking and as they go through recovery, and learn they have value, they are also learning new skill. These transferable skills help them care well for their families and communities, and break the cycle of poverty and exploitation. A heartbreaking reality is that over 90% of the global garment industry exploits its makers. Can you imagine how the world would look different if every brand decided to pay their makers a living wage? It would only increase the average product by 1-4%, almost indistinguishable to the average consumer. Yet, they don’t do it because consumers don’t demand it. We keep buying their products. I believe we can change the world if we just start paying attention to who made our clothes. Additionally, Adored Boutique contributes to local efforts to fight human trafficking. To date, we have contributed over $40,000 toward boots on the ground efforts to help victims recover safely and successfully and to remind them they are adored.
Have you ever had to pivot?
When I first opened Adored Boutique, I had a SCORE mentor who told me, “Every woman is no women.” I disagreed. I wanted to be able to have any woman walk into my store and find something she loved. For the first few years, I stubbornly persisted in that, until I realized I was not having the success I hoped for. I connected with another mentor and she told me the same thing as the first. This time I agreed with it. I began walking through a long season of deciding my style and landed on classic. Then I began eliminating everything that was not classic. I had athleisure, boho, and edgy styles in the store, and pre-ordered product that we had to cycle through. It took several years to get that concept off the ground completely. By late 2023, I had significantly better direction about how shopping trends had changed, who my new customer was, and how to integrate a classic style well. God brought a few women with gifts of strategy (that I don’t have) and they were amazing helpers. By fall 2024, we were 80% there and by February 2025 we had arrived at goal. Rather than trying to meet every woman, we focus on minimalist, neutral and classic styles with pops of color–all things working together and easy to integrate into any classic wardrobe. I love it.
Can you open up about how you funded your business?
My capital approach was not at all conventional. It was absolutely a walk of faith. When the Lord said I would be starting a business with Him, I prayed for a while about where the funding was going to come from. In July 2016, He instructed me to open a bank account and credit card and to start preparing to open in the fall. I did this, while being very uncertain where the funds would come from to pay for all the product now scheduled to arrive in September. I was able to secure a small SBA loan in early September which helped cover the initial costs. In early October we signed a lease and shortly there after I received an unexpected inheritance that provided the rest of the start up capital. On November 1st we took over the space and on December 1st we opened. I made several mistakes in that process–not knowing much about retail, there was a huge learning curve about seasonal garments, when people buy things and when they don’t, and how much product I’d actually need to fill my store and replace sold out items. I was very wrong about most of that and closed our first December with $70,000 in unsold product. Gulp. I ended up marking it all down to cost and slowly sold it over the next two years to get my investment back. My mentor helped me accomplish that and by 2019 I was without any business debt and had no backlog inventory. It was amazing to get there but the journey was so humbling and challenging.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.adoredboutique.com
- Instagram: @adored.boutique
- Facebook: @adoredboutique
- Twitter: @AdoredBoutique
- Yelp: Adored Boutique
