We recently connected with Jill Palese and have shared our conversation below.

Jill , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

Working is a creative field for 25+ years means thinking deeply about color, pattern, proportion, textile innovation, etc. As a professional clothing designer, helping women to feel comfortable in their clothing is a particularly challenging, especially when the area of expertise is swimwear.

Over the years, I have spoken to hundreds of women about their needs in swimwear and clothing; bra fit, leg heights, fabric, style, and disguising unwanted lumps and bumps.

When Covid was in the early stages, a friend who was employed at local hospital stumped me! There was a PPE shortage. My business partner and I committed to pausing the launch of our own company to produce PPE for our community. It know it would be no easy task, but it turned out to be far more difficult and much more meaningful than any fashion garment ever created.

Jill , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I am a person who has always loved every form of art and design; clothing, textile, landscape, interior, jewelry, architecture. Falling into a creative career required no soul searching or major shifts; it simply was an obvious pathway for me.

The work of a swimwear designer is the most challenging of all women’s clothing categories. A small “canvas” means that the work must be precise; one eighth of an inch makes a big difference to the fit of a bra. My brand falls in the luxury product category, where you can expect high quality fabrics, time spent on fit, design, and attention to detail.

When asked why the price of something so small can be quite high, it’s because no less than 25 people have put time into making the garment. My pieces are not mass produced. In fact, I personally know each of the people who are involved in the creation. They each have spend many years in clothing manufacturing and take great pride in their particular skills.

As an environmentalist and a problem solver; time is spend daily in search of new ways to make modern clothing produced as gently on the environment as possible. Knowing that we can’t go backward in time, the solution for green apparel will be innovation and new ways of thinking about our clothing. I”m fully committed to this and the reason that I named the company “Call to Action”.

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

Resilience is necessary for entrepreneurship, something learned early in my design career, while working for major brands. Even the largest companies struggle during challenging economic times. Companies and brands compete to stay relevant. Quite a bit of pressure to innovate falls on Design and Creative teams, especially during lean times.

I gave birth to my first child during the time that I was the designer for one of the largest swimwear companies. Eight weeks after my baby was born, there was an “emergency design meeting” scheduled with the expectation that I would present within 72 hours. The design challenge: “To create THE NEXT BIG IDEA”.

Those next 12 hours were spent caring for my infant and sketching ideas, building the presentation, booking plane tickets for myself and my 8 week old newborn and traveling to the meeting at company HQ, 7 hours away.

The collection was presented with my daughter strapped to my body. When she fussed, my colleagues and the CEO of the corporation took turns passing her around and caring for her until I finished.

One year later, the collection turned out to be a tremendous success! The “challenge project” delivered a profitable new category to women’s swimwear.

My daughter, who often traveled to meetings with me as an infant and toddler, who learned to roll over in an art studio. is now a creative force in her own right. I enjoy seeing that same resiliency grow in my daughter, my sidekick and travel colleague as she applies what she’s learned to her own life.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

After years as a designer for major brands, I’ve seen that apparel industry first hand. Now that I”ve started my own company, I I keep a “to-do” list of innovations I”d like to improve on behalf of the environment. My mission is to keep pushing ahead to find solutions for problems that exist in modern apparel.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.CallToActionClothing.com
• Instagram: @CallToActionClothing
• Facebook: CallToActionClothing
• Other: We have used both Call To Action Clothing and @C2Aclothing. Just this week, we decided to clean up branding and mainly use @CallToActionclothing. Our main insta account is in the process of switching over, but I thought it is important to mention it. Our followers are currently on C2Aclothing

Image Credits
@Alyssamfortinphotography @GulnaraNiazArtist @matteophotographs