We were lucky to catch up with Liz Sobol recently and have shared our conversation below.

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

So, Crimson started out as an outlandish idea I had came up with one day while staying home sick from work. I was online shopping for clothes on my favorite boutique’s site, and thought to myself, “Hey it would be real cool if I had my own site!”

I have had been in love with fashion since I was in elementary school, and particularly obsessed with alternative styles. I love expressing my personality & creative side with my own style, I also love seeing others do it as well.

I have a background in graphic design so I knew I could do a lot of the branding and whatnot myself. I also took some coding and web design classes, so that also was extremely helpful when design my site with Shopify.

When it came down to what to name my business, I had a notebook page filled with a list of names. I then narrowed down the probably 30+ names to 10. I sent the ten names to a few friends and family to see which they liked best. All of the them picked Crimson Closet, which already was my favorite. So yeah that was it. I checked to see if it was trademarked and fortunately wasn’t so I did!

Side story to why I came up with Crimson Closet; well while I was creating that list of names. I had been listening to one of my favorite bands songs. Its called “Behind the Crimson Door”. I remember be like oh crimson is a good color lol (designer in me) and then like Crimson Closet kinda sounds cool. Plus, I’m a sucker for some alliterations.

But after I did all the legal stuff to create a business, I didn’t take the steps to make it actually happen until about a year later.

I had absolutely no guidance or idea on how to start an online store. I got some “advice” from Pinterest articles and YouTube. Everything else I figured out by myself.

I won’t lie all that was very hard, but I was determined as hell! I like to tell people if my attention deficit brain could figure it out than anyone can. You just have to be very Determined and patient with yourself , & just roll with the punches.

Nothing in life is easy, and that’s the damn truth!

Liz, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Hi, so I’m Liz! I am the Owner along with the buyer/social media manager/ photographer/ website developer/ marketing team, and everything else here at Crimson Closet. My online store crimson-closet.com went live on May 23rd, 2021!

I turned 30 last June! I live right outside of Richmond, VA with my husband David. Along with our 2 dogs & 2 cats. I am originally from New Jersey, but moved down to Virginia 9 years ago.

I have been working in the graphic design field for 11 years. I worked in Manhattan at the New York Daily News Newspaper for a few years in the circulation department as a designer. I work as graphic designer at my current 9-5 job.

My online boutique, Crimson Closet is a one-woman owned and operated, alternative women’s boutique based out of Virginia!

At Crimson Closet, we specialize in what we like to call, “Rock Chic” inspired alternative fashion. It’s a curated collection of affordable and edgy pieces for badass babes who love to express their personalities & individualities with their style. We offer clothing, shoes, jewelry, and a ton of accessories that are trendy, but are also unique & make a statement!

Crimson mostly gears towards the ladies, but all are welcome to shop with us!

One of our most popular and ever-growing sections at Crimson Closet is our Band Tees collection. Our shop is half-heavily influenced by music. Which meant that music merch was a must! Right now we have a lot of classic rock musicians and bands, but we plan on offering a wide range of musicians/bands/groups of all types of genres in the future.

The second half of Crimson Closet focuses a lot on the spooky & macabre. We love horror movies, True Crime podcasts/ documentaries, dabbling with the occult, and other supernatural topics. Halloween is our favorite holiday of the year! We actually have a collection dedicated to Spooky Season which features an array of cute, but creepy clothing & jewelry.

As you can probably tell, we are not your average clothing boutique.

Nor do we want to be

When not I’m not thinking about what my next move is going to be for Crimson…
I really enjoy going snowboarding. I am obsessed with anything related to Halloween, horror & the macabre. I really love beach days at the Jersey Shore, drunken karaoke, SHOPPING, watching stand-up comedy, and going to concerts & music festivals!

Music has been always been an important part of my life, since I was a kid, thanks to my awesome parents. It feeds my soul. But my music taste is literally all over the fucking place, so I won’t even try to go into it.

When it comes to my own fashion sense it happens to be almost as erratic as my Spotify playlists. I like to think Crimson is a mixture of Goth, Punk, Boho, Witchy, Y2K, Emo, Western, Rave, 70’s, Grunge…Alternative I guess? If any of that makes sense.

My biggest fashion-music icons have to be Debbie Harry, Stevie Nicks, Gwen Stefani, Bowie, Siouxsie Sioux, DOLLY & Cher.

My favorite part about creating Crimson Closet has been being able to connect with people who share similar interests as me. I also love being able to express my creativity & being my own boss.

Random fact about me is I’m the biggest goof. I enjoy just joking around, and trying to make people smile & laugh.

Can you open up about a time when you had a really close call with the business?

I was almost killed by my mannequin,”Miranda”. True but silly story.

So I had her in a tiny office and I was trying to undress her to take product pictures . Well Miranda is very heavy, to the point where she slipped out of my grip and had me pinned up against one side of the offices wall.

Since the office was so tiny, the other end of her was stuck against the other wall. So the pressure on me was getting intense.

She had me pinned by my throat / neck then cheast area for a few minutes.

I finally managed to wiggle myself loose from her crushing me….Thankfully.

Miranda and I have not been on the best terms since the incident.

Though a very on brand way for me to die. I wasn’t trying to be crushed my own mannequin.

So yeah be careful with mannequins in small spaces.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

I think what helped me was just being myself. .

Not giving a shit about how other viewed me anymore or my business.

Had I cared what others thought I wouldn’t have gotten anywhere with this.

Crimson is not for everyone and I completely get that. It’s okay not to like my stuff!

But I remember being disappointed a few months after my site launched. With the lack of sales & orders. And going to dinner with my cousin & talking about it. She said well your stuff is unique and “out there”. So maybe try to stuff that is more normal. I straight up told her no. Nope.

My whole life I tried to fit into what was considered “normalcy” and I have hated it. Because that is not who I really am. I knew I had customers out there that would like and respect my stuff. And with time, I did find them.

So moral of all this, is stick to your gut and don’t do anything because it isn’t deemed “normal” or whatever the fuck normal is. There will be people that like your stuff!
Do you, baby!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://crimson-closet.com/
• Instagram: @shopcrimsoncloset
• Other: I have tik tok but suck at it. My handle though is: shop.crimsoncloset