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

Jenna, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

The idea to start Pro Hac Vice was borne out of my own struggles shopping as a petite woman. I’m 5’1 and I was tired of the constant disappointment of finding an item I loved, trying it on, and putting it back on the rack because it didn’t fit my petite frame. I found petite options to be boring, low-quality, or an afterthought of a brand’s primary line. I felt like I was always either settling for a subpar fit, buying something I didn’t really love, spending a fortune on tailoring, or simply attempting to accept my very limited wardrobe.

One moment in particular, that made me think seriously about starting my own petite clothing brand was after I had ordered a new dress from one of my favorite independent fashion labels. I had been so excited to receive the dress, but when I tried it on, it just didn’t work at all. Given the unique details on the dress and how it was designed, I couldn’t just take the dress to a tailor and have it hemmed so that it would fit me well – the whole dress would have needed to be re-worked. The dress was already quite pricey and I couldn’t bear to spend another couple of hundred dollars on tailoring (tailoring especially for big projects is very expensive). Unfortunately, I had to send this dress back – I was so disappointed.

In that moment, I knew that I needed to start my own brand. I figured there must be other petite women who want to wear interesting, high-quality clothes as well. Women, like me, who wanted more choices than what was currently available (basic workwear, small collections from big brands, fast fashion)

I’m a very analytical person, so I did not jump in headfirst. I spent several months doing my research to see exactly what was out there and I spoke to countless petite women to confirm that they shared similar experiences to mine. I learned that there weren’t really any petite brands in the market that were addressing a more contemporary, sophisticated consumer.

I was most passionate about creating a brand that would offer clothing with feminine silhouettes, unique details, high quality fabrics and where the fit was perfected for the petite frame.

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 don’t have any prior experience in the fashion industry and I started my business because I strongly felt that there was a big opportunity to fill whitespace in and revitalize the petite clothing market. Petite women are often overlooked by fashion and in my view, petite clothing often is associated with negative connotations (it’s unfashionable, boring). I wanted to change that by making petite clothing that modern women will actually be excited to wear.

I designed the two dresses that we launched this this past June 2023 and all of the concepts for the brand; however, since I didn’t have prior industry experience, I worked with a consulting firm that assists emerging designers and fashion startups bring their products to market. Now that Pro Hac Vice launched, I’m involved in every aspect of the business and spending a lot of time on increasing brand awareness, social media, marketing, as well as planning ways to incorporate in-person events. We’ll actually be popping up for a month in August 2023 at the Little Market in NYC’s NoHo neighborhood.

Our brand offers clothing for petite women who want something a bit more feminine or unique. As a petite woman myself, there are brands that offer workwear and more minimalist designs and that’s great because we need that too, but I found that if you want something a bit more fun, feminine, and unique – there are very few options (although that is starting to change and I’m thankful there is a growing community of petite brands with their own unique point of views as well).

So far, I’m most proud of our first designs – so much thought and detail went into the design process and fitting the garments. We fit everything with a petite fit model during multiple rounds of sampling. Our dresses are made from fabrics derived from natural fibers which make them more breathable for the summer months. Additionally, if you take a look at our designs, we incorporated unique details that make them special (the corset-inspired details on the bodice of our midi dress, and the unique strap design on our linen/cotton maxi dress) I’m also proud that I was able to design, develop, and produce this first collection right in NYC, my home, with women-led teams.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

I’m bootstrapping my business and currently, it’s funded with my own capital. The initial funding came from savings that I accumulated from working a full-time job over the last 12 years. I’m actually still working in my full-time job and plan to continue to self-fund my business for the foreseeable future, but would be open to outside investment at some point. Self-funding can be tough, especially if you’re creating a business like a clothing brand which is very capital intensive, but for now it seems worth it. Self-funding allows me to have complete autonomy over creative and other decisions.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

My favorite book about entrepreneurship and running a business is The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz, the cofounder of venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. The book has a lot of examples from his experience founding and running tech startups, but I think the lessons are applicable to anyone running a business. In particular, the lessons I think about most when running Pro Hac Vice are to embrace challenges rather than shy away from them and that it’s best to be decisive/action-oriented.

Another favorite is the podcast How I Built This which interviews founders of many of the businesses and brands we know and love. I find it fascinating to hear their origin stories and often learn that some of the companies we may think of as “overnight successes” took years and years and lots of challenges to build.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://shopprohacvice.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shopprohacvice/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shopprohacvice/
• Linkedin: linkedin.com/shop-pro-hac-vice

Image Credits
Portrait Photo of Founder: Photography: Angela Altus; Brand photoshoot photos: Models: Tiana Marcano and Gabriella Scerbo; Photography: Ruthie Darling; Hair & Makeup: De Leon Galloway