We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Johnnie Chace a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Johnnie, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?
Lisa Limer, my business partner actually started BelaMonde a few years ago. We joined forces during the pandemic. She was feeling like a transition and I was excited to see her work. We began a collaboration and initially thought we would design fabrics that would be used for a small houseware brand. It’s a long story but we ended up traveling to Peru, where she had lived many years before, to source alpaca and where we thought we could create custom colors. When we were introduced to the factory in Arequepa we saw an opportunity that we had not considered. The factory sewed high end clothing and we imagined putting our fabric designs inside as the lining in classic coat silhouettes. Once we realized we could not only choose a custom color but we could have our designs inside the coat it seemed like a twist on an otherwise old idea and we were excited by the idea. So we came home and reorganized our approach. Our first coats arrived a year ago and we have not looked back!
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?
My business partner Lisa Limer was a travel Photographer most of her professional life. I was part of an Historic Preservation Development team repurposing old buildings in downtown Providence into housing and first floor retail. This is not a career we “trained” for. Rather it is one we both felt drawn to. We both were looking for a change. Lisa had begun to take some of her images to create unique designs she was printing on silk. We considered housewares but quickly evolved into the idea of sewing our images into linings of classic silhouettes. We traveled to Peru, found the perfect partners there who cared as much for the process as we did. They were a sustainable group, raising the Alpacas themselves in a conscious way and then they used that fiber to weave the material and sew the products. It all felt right to us. We found a fabulous studio space in the Old Jewelry District in Providence where we invite folks to stop by to see what we are making and to see the other artisans we have partnered with. We produce our clothing in very small batches with the intention of reducing waste while maintaining control of our inventory. I think we are most proud of our designs and the way each piece feels when a person wears it.. The designs are not trendy and our hope it that they become something that will last a lifetime. Thus adhering to the “less but better” philosophy that feels best to us.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
My business partner and I are over 60 which is a bit unusual for starting a new adventure but we both felt compelled to continue to follow our creative instincts and to challenge ourselves to continue to learn. We were not ready to slow down as others might have thought we should. Luckily for both of us we work very well together, and yes the learning curves have been steep! Who know? Having had completely different careers we both bring different skills to our process. And yes some of it is truly by the seat of our pants, as they say! One of the best aspects of being a two person team is that we can pivot quickly when we must. We can re design and reimagine quickly and make the call without a huge group to convince. We also have learned to multi task and basically do it all……….thankfully with the advice of good friends and family as well as a few essential consultants along the way.
How’d you meet your business partner?
It was through our son’s relationship that we met. They both happen to be film makers who grew up together but Lisa and I did not meet until several years ago, not when the boys were younger. It was actually after they made a film together that our paths crossed. Lisa was proposing to do a big fundraiser and had not actually done that much local fundraising when my son suggested she speak with me as I had been involved with fundraising for many years. So we got together to discuss her fundraising idea and we just starting asking about each others lives. We just hit it off and starting talking about her design ideas…..one thing led to another…….then Covid hit…… about a year into Covid we reconnected and began to discuss a collaboration.
It has been an amazing for both of us. Completely unexpected and a pure delight!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.belalmonde.com
- Instagram: belamonde
- Facebook: belamode
Image Credits
We took these photos @Bela Monde