We recently connected with Isabel Wilder and have shared our conversation below.
Isabel, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Innovation comes in all shapes, sizes and across all industries, so we’d love to hear about something you’ve done that you feel was particularly innovative.
Learning to use a computer program called Adobe Illustrator and taking a course to design fabrics. That is what I have felt has been the most innovative thing I have done in my career. Working with computers to draw and design has been a challenge for me, but I also see it as a new skill that offers a world of possibilities. Besides learning to design fabrics, I have used Adobe Illustrator to create pdf files for sewing tutorials and patterns that I am now selling on my Etsy shop. With the possibilities a digital drawing offers, I have many ideas for my business. I believe this new skill will help my business grow. Also, it allows me to sell from any place I am living since my designs can be sold on print-on-demand platforms and I do not have to worry about shipping. My goal is to sew clothing and accessories with my fabrics as well as to sell fabric collections with patterns for different sewing projects.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
My name is Isabel Wilder. I am an Ecuadorian-American artist currently living in Lima-Peru. I was born and raised in Ecuador, a small but beautiful country in South America. Life and destiny brought me to live in the United States after getting married to an American guy I happened to meet in my country while he was a Peace Corp Volunteer there. And since 2007 my family and I have moved around the world every few years. We have lived in Argentina, Vietnam, Ukraine and now in Peru.
Creativity has been part of my life since an early age. I really can not remember a time when I have not been working with my hands. As a little kid I was constantly drawing and coloring. Then when sewing came into my life while watching my mother sew, I began sewing and designing as much as I could. Later I pursued a career in fashion design and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in fashion design in Quito-Ecuador.
I worked for the City Museum of Quito Ecuador, creating a collection of period costumes on display there. I owned a small business where I designed, hand painted and screen printed fabrics to make clothing and accessories sold on the Galapagos Islands. In the United States I had the wonderful opportunity to work for the Washington National Opera in the costume department as a First Hand. In 2009, I opened an Etsy shop and created my brand called Gypsy Tailor. I thought the name would be fitting for a traveling artist that moves around the world with her sewing room! At that time we were living in Argentina and I started using the beautiful leathers found in Buenos Aires. Eventually I designed a small product that became the best seller in my shop: “The Mini Gypsy Coin Purse” Since then I have sold thousands of mini coin purses and other accessories to customers around the world! I use leathers or faux leather, vintage fabrics, recycled neckties and fabrics I find locally in each country where we have lived. I like playing with different textures, colors, and contrasting color thread to create unique pieces that are well made with high quality materials. I love working with an idea, designing, and bringing that idea to reality using my sewing skills.
I also love teaching people to sew and how things can be made, and I especially like to inspire creativity! With that in mind, I created sewing tutorials and pdf sewing patterns of my own designs to sell in my shop. And my latest adventure has been to create my first online sewing class on Skillshare. I believe sewing is for everyone and creating something with our hands has a special magic!
Since I move constantly from place to place every few years, I am learning a new skill that will give me location freedom and also help my business to grow even more. I have learned to design fabrics and I am incorporating them in new accessories like t-shirts, stickers, washi tape, etc. This skill is new for me but I am slowly learning more!
I am proud and happy to have embarked on this journey. It has been a great learning experience working on my business, being the hands and soul of Gypsy Tailor! Something great that comes within this creative journey is the connection with other makers and customers that give me feedback and also provide new ideas. My family are my biggest supporters and my twin sons are my inspiration to work harder and stay on this creative path where I feel I belong and would like to continue!
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
Keeping my Etsy shop open while moving to many countries has been a lesson of resilience and to not give up! I was working full time as a new Etsy seller after we returned back to the United States from Argentina. I loved waking up every morning to create and work on orders. I sewed at home and went to the post office up the street to mail my orders. It was great! And then our move to Vietnam came! I remember thinking and asking myself, “Can I keep doing this? Can I still be an Etsy seller all the way from Vietnam? How will my customers take this move? How am I going to mail my orders? Where is even the post office in Saigon?” On top of all those questions, my sewing machine arrived broken in Saigon…I made the huge mistake of putting it inside my checked luggage. In transit, my luggage had been opened, and it had not been put correctly back inside its case. When I tested my machine my fear was confirmed and it was indeed broken! I was in a foreign country with no sewing machine and not even knowing where to go to buy a new one!
Eventually I was able to get a new sewing machine and by then I had re-opened my shop. I made sure my customers knew where I was located now and how long it would take for items to arrive. I researched local post offices and found the main post office in downtown Saigon. Mailing from Saigon was a bit of an adventure. There were no lines, just a crowd of people in front of the counters. They did not offer tracking numbers. I could not even close my packages until the post officer saw exactly what I was mailing. And of course, I did not speak a word of Vietnamese! When I mailed a package I had no proof I had mailed it…it was unsettling and I prayed that my packages would make it…and they did! So I started mailing from Saigon and my Etsy shop was up and running again. Since I was located near Australia, I was getting Australian and New Zealand customers while American customers still came to buy in my shop!
Then for my first Christmas overseas as an Etsy seller, I decided to try a new thing and created a small shipping department in the United States. I worked hard ahead of time making several items and mailed a big box to a friend that would be in charge of all my sales in the United States. Every item was individually packed and with a code and that is how I worked. A sale came, I sent the code to my friend, she grabbed the item, placed it in an envelope, added the stamps and put it in the mail. I also mailed to my friend all the shipping supplies, like envelopes and stamps, and I paid her a small percentage of each sale. It worked great! My small shipping department still exists today! Since Etsy created shipping labels I don’t use stamps anymore. Instead, I create the label at home, email it to my friend and she prints it with a tracking number!
I have mailed from the local post offices of countries where I have lived — like Saigon, Vietnam, Kyiv, Ukraine and now from Lima, Peru. It has been a different experience in each country. Luckily in Peru I can communicate with no problem, but here every time I mail a package my fingerprints are taken along with a picture of me. I do not mind it as long as my packages make it to their final destination!
I found a way to make it possible to continue selling from afar, while moving from country to country every few years. Instead of giving up I take advantage of what each country offers me. I make accessories with local materials, textiles or fabrics to set my shop apart from others. I also let customers know about my new adventures. My repeat customers have also traveled with me! With social media being such a big part of our lives I have been able to share more about my travels, new experiences and what I have learned in each place. I believe it is possible to keep working on what we love to do if we try hard and we believe we can do it!
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
In 2000, I had to leave my home country Ecuador to start a new life in the United States. I knew it would happen because I had been dating an American guy for four years. It was not only moving countries, but adapting to a new life as I was moving to the United States to get married. It was also leaving my family behind along with everything that I knew and loved. Besides leaving my home and family, I also had to leave my small creative business that I had for over a year. I was making clothes that I sold on the Galapagos Islands in small boutiques. I was busy every day. I had hired employees to help sew. My business was moving and growing. I painted fabrics by hand using batik techniques, while others were screen printed with my designs. I was in a world of creativity! My mind was constantly creating designs for fabrics, clothing, accessories, etc. But in the back of my mind I knew I would have to leave it all behind. I remember the day I was going to fly and the sinking feeling in my soul for leaving my family. Of course, I was happy to finally be with my fiance, but it was not an easy change. I was leaving behind a lot. I was 26 years old. The doors of my little business were closed and I walked into the unknown of a new country and a new language.
Learning English and driving were my biggest challenges! Next was to find a job. Once I got permission to work I started working at a fabric store. I hardly spoke English, so I was working before the store opened in the back room opening boxes and organizing fabrics on shelves. At the beginning I had little interaction with customers. But then I began working when the store was open to customers. That was another challenge: understanding what the customers asked! I remember running through the aisles with a word memorized to ask the store manager or another employee to point me in the right direction to find the specific item…I learned so much sewing vocabulary during those months and I also have funny anecdotes about that. After my time in the fabric store, and with better English skills, I went to work at a bridal shop’s alteration room. That was another experience, but not an easy one. This time the challenge was the amount of work. All the girls working in that room were foreigners like me, their speed at altering gowns was unbelievable. I felt like I could not keep up! It took me months to get up to their speed and then I was one of them! That experience landed me my next job: a First Hand at the costume shop of the Washington National Opera. My years in the costume shop were the best! I was surrounded by so many creative people. I was learning from my co-workers. It was like a new world that I didn’t know existed. The books, the research, how to sew period costumes, sewing techniques, learning about Opera, so much enlightenment for my career. It was amazing. Three years had passed since the time I had arrived in the United States to when I was working as a First Hand. Now, after 22 years since I left my country, I look back to all those experiences and I do not regret any of them. Every one of them taught me invaluable things. From each I took the best and each has helped me to be where I am now.
I left my wonderful job at the Washington Opera when my husband got his first work assignment overseas…and then more new adventures and challenges came!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.etsy.com/shop/GypsyTailor
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gypsytailor/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gypsytailor
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2SYQqFJuz3e0jkmAPvSmEA
- Other: Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/gypsytailor/ Website: https://www.gypsytailor.com/