Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jennifer Kofler. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Jennifer thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Are you happier as a creative? Do you sometimes think about what it would be like to just have a regular job? Can you talk to us about how you think through these emotions?

As I become more proficient with the style and designs for Vivian Blooms Millinery and as they evolve and elevate I become more secure in my choice to work as a creative in the fashion headwear space. But, if I am completely honest, there is always a worry and a question about if I chose the right career path as a solo entrepreneur. That is a substantial part of my motivation to press on and continue down the path. Failure is not an option.

There is a feeling of happy playfulness I associate with the problem-solving that goes into every headpiece I make.
I find that my best designs come out of the process of making them. For me, I find the most joy in the discovery of what it turns into and do not like to plan it all out before I begin the process.

Each one presents new puzzles and questions to be answered the joy comes from solving the puzzle and a bit of surprise at the end of the process.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Vivian Blooms, enables clients to celebrate life’s moments with fanciful headwear. Vivian Blooms helps clients, stylists and fellow designers find headwear for special events with an enchanting collection of handmade millinery filled with fun and whimsy for all ages. Explore the intricate details, elements, and seasonal trends that are captivating the attention of the world’s elite designers and stylists. Kofler comments that “A hat is magical the moment someone puts it on their head, it changes how a person acts and feels. The hats are decorated with crystals, feathers, and bows. Hats are a wonderful outward expression of a person’s inner truth and personality. They have the power to both enhance and transform the wearer. Amazingly versatile, hats can be a celebration of style, frivolity, and fun, conversely an acknowledgment of somber events. The millinery helps to create an elevated atmosphere for participants on many occasions. From weddings to funerals, headwear play’s role in the declaration of the event’s importance. Worn headpieces can be seen as a tangible reminder of life’s most momentous and significant events.”

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

BACK STORY VIVIAN BLOOMS As I watched my kids park their bikes behind their school in Guangzhou, China I wondered to myself again about what I was going to do today. Yes, the kid’s television show “Phineas and Ferb’s” existential question of existence, meaning of life, and purpose.
“Go and learn something today,” I said to them, and as they passed by me I kissed their foreheads in turn. I then returned back to a messy but completely quiet apartment and let out a long sigh. Is this really a “gilded cage” as my mother had described it to me? Well, metaphorical or not, my cage was again in a state of mess and disarray that only parents of young children could truly understand. In what universe do bubblegum toothpaste and a mini version of a monster truck really go together? Well, I can answer that: mine. Maybe my old friend Anderson Cooper has something interesting to tell me today on CNN, my portal to the West.
At this time I was trying to sell handmade beaded earrings, crystal tea lights, lounge pants, feather bookmarks, and sock animals. I had socks transformed into elephants, hippos, zebras, dragons, and much more. This was just another attempt at self-fulfillment in the long hours that stretched out before me. I had in previous attempts considered a reusable shopping bag concept, each one made out of up-cycled material sewn by a disenfranchised part of the population and then sold at the eco-friendly, and environmentally responsible local market back home in Colorado. Before that, it was a website for custom-made jewelry, where you could design your own metaphysical beaded jewelry, where each design element would be specific for the intended wearer. Pearls for purity, aquamarines for communication, talismans for protection, evil eyes, and hands of Fatima would dance through my head. But it all slowly fizzled and faded away. Put out by more pressing matters like soccer practice, what’s for dinner tonight, and figuring out a good method of cleaning bubblegum toothpaste out of sofa cushions.
But I continued on in my fruitless pursuits of small business viability, this time with a sale in Hong Kong. Yes, I was taking my show on the road. If nobody wanted my products in Guangzhou, I was packing them up and pitching my tent somewhere else. I believe it was the great American writer Mark Twain who once said, “To succeed in life you need two things: ignorance and confidence.” And I was pretty sure I had plenty of both.
With my daughter Vivian as my assistant, we went to Discovery Bay in Hong Kong for an outdoor sale in May of 2014. I had my usual array of handmade goods but I had also included a few last-minute headbands that I had managed to glue together mere moments before leaving from Guangzhou. Unfortunately, as we were soon to find out, doing an outdoor sale in May in Hong Kong during the rainy season, is really not a good idea. After we arrived at the hotel, I turned on the television to get an update on the weekend’s weather. And whereas gale force winds smashed against our windows and the sky grew ever darker, we went down to the in-house dining room for afternoon tea.
And what to my amazement did we see? A Parade of cute hats and truly fascinating fascinators. There was a wedding taking place in the hotel and I was overwhelmed by the lovely array of beautiful ladies with feathers, crystals, bows, and flowers being worn on their heads. I was hooked. This was my destiny. Making pretty things for ladies to put on their heads. I am home.
As for the typhoon-soaked sale, I’m afraid, I didn’t have a record-breaking day. In fact, the only sale I did make was the flower-covered headbands.
The train back to Guangzhou was canceled due to flooding. We had to cross the border by foot at Shenzhen instead, then wait under an overpass for two and a half hours for our alternative transportation: a bus back to Guangzhou. We arrived home at 3:30 a.m., exhausted but with a new spark and direction I wanted to go with my business. Vivian Blooms, a line of handmade millinery and accessories had begun to bloom.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

Joy! I want clients to feel joy!

The hat-buying journey:
This is for the people walking into trunk shows or pop-up shops featuring Event Head Wear. The millinery curious, people who may feel shy, or even timid at the prospect of making such a special purchase of an Event Wear Headpiece. The table is always eye-catching, piled high with millinery, each one individual and unique. A cacophony of flowers, feathers, ribbons, and bows are adorning the hats and headpieces. To a certain extent it is a Style Rorschach’s test, where people may question what they are looking at and project onto them, but maybe what’s more important is who they see when they try it on and look in the mirror.
A client who is either encouraged by the shopkeeper or perhaps a friend, will soon be emboldened to put a headpiece on. There is always an immediate reaction to seeing their reflection for the first time transformed by the adornment. Positive or negative, a joyful smile immerges or perhaps an awkward, “Immediately No.” Regardless of the reaction, there now may be a desire to go forward down the path and see how different headpieces make you look and perhaps more importantly make you feel.
The wearer should feel. Playful, beautiful, enchanting, dramatic, etc. The wearer will hopefully experience the headpieces’ special power of transformation.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.vivianblooms.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/jennifer.kofler.vivianblooms/
• Facebook: jennifer.kofler.vivianblooms
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/jennifer-kofler-3798593a/

Image Credits
photographer: Richard Cummings Model Agency: NXT Model model: Jacquelyn Pierce model: Latasha Dunston Greene Makeup Artist: Samantha Scheitler special thanks to Callahan House in Longmont, Colorado for letting us take pictures in their beautiful gardens