We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Laura Cerri. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Laura below.
Laura, appreciate you joining us today. What do you think matters most in terms of achieving success?
I think my idea of success has changed some over the last 6 years, since I started the brand. Before this I worked for one of the largest fast fashion companies in trend forecasting and also merchandising. I was paid pretty well, with health insurance and paid time off, but I wasn’t happy most of the time and had little control over stressors. Now I work for myself, create what I want and focus on what I think is important. It’s a slower lifestyle but I’m able to pay my bills, although sometimes it’s very tight, collaborate with my friends and do what I love. For that I feel successful!
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I’m a slow fashion designer, focusing on upcycling with second hand and vintage pieces. I try to use everything and have bins to store scraps for later projects, like earrings, bags and bra tops. My personal style is a mix of masculine and feminine, a little maximalist and a little punk, and that shows in my brand. I’m the owner, designer and maker, a one woman show. I’ve always loved fashion and grew up both thrifting with my mom, and sketching designs for fun. My grandma would hang them on the wall and was always very supportive. Growing up, especially in high school, I always wore thrifted clothes, tie dyed my tights and put together jewelry, repurposing pieces. We didn’t have a lot of money growing up and my mom is a true hippy and always encouraged us to be one of a kind with our own style. She goes against the grain in every way imaginable and some of that has rubbed off on me, luckily. When my previous job downsized, this path made the most sense to me. I also ran an online vintage shop with my best friend from 2010-2014, so I had an idea of how to begin, although things have changed much since then! The first 6 months I just sold vintage and a small collection of hand-crafted jewelry, and slowly over the years it’s turned into mainly my designs as made to order pieces available in sizes XS-8X. When a customer orders on my website, they often leave notes in their order with specific measurements, color or style requests and even sometimes just a nice hello, which I love. Then I’ll email them with options and ideas, unless it’s straight forward. My next step for the shop is adding a second business model option, for customers to send me pieces from their closet to be made into styles that I offer in my upcycled pieces, at a discounted price. I’ve been doing this on the side whenever a customer requests it, so I know there’s a demand for it. We all have things in our closets that we don’t want to let go of but maybe they don’t feel special enough. So I’m really excited to get that going.
Some things I’m most proud of are two moments when I designed pieces for Berriez. Emma and I work together often but these times were special. The first was for her NYFW F/W 2022 show where I designed 9 pieces. It was incredible to see the show in real life and how the pieces looked on the models. We didn’t get to do fittings since I’m in Pittsburgh and there was a time crunch, so I was going off of measurements but I think they all came out great. The second was also for Berriez for a recent editorial in Mildew, a second hand fashion magazine. I upcycled 3 looks from secondhand sweaters and afghan blankets. The whole piece features multiple designers and it came out beautifully. I have it in print!
What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?
Definitely becoming more size inclusive. It’s really important to me, and not something I was doing when I started. Through my friendship with Emma, she has helped me see how impossible and unfair it is for plus size bodies to find clothes that are their style and fun or cool, let alone go shopping in person at most places. A few years ago we increased our tights sizes from XS-XL up to an 8X, so we further expanded everything on our website. Through this we’ve created new relationships with amazing customers, and I couldn’t be more grateful. We did this to be more size inclusive but in turn we expanded our clientele, so it was a win win. I want to create clothes for everyone, and for them to feel good in them!
What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?
We’ve recently been focusing more on wholesale and in person pop-ups. Both have been great for the brand and me personally. Wholesale has helped get our brand name out there, and often those stores customers will find us and become our customers too! One of my goals this year was to do more in person events. I’ve been able to meet new customers, and old, while forging new relationships with shop owners. I often work in silo, being a micro small business where I’m the sole employee, so both have brought me a lot of joy. There’s nothing like building new relationships and community, so I want to always work toward that.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://shopjournalvintage.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shop_journal/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shopjournal/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauracerri
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/shop_journal
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@shop_journal