Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Malisha Shields. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Hi Malisha, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.
I know this will sound super cliche, but the infancy idea of styleMbellished was birth out of my love of fashion from my days as a young girl from dressing my Barbie doll and wanting her to be flyer than all of my friends’ dolls! LOL! As I continued to get older, my passion for fashion intensified to me at various points in life wanting to be a model and having my grandmother take me to a modeling agency, all the way to me attempting to learn to sew in high school thinking I would be the next hot runway designer.
Forty years later, that passion remains the same. As a result of the pandemic, I got serious about starting my online fashion brand. styleMbellished was created out of the desire to give women who look like me a voice! Fashion is the voice of the invisible. The power of fashion is the ability to tell a story… YOUR STORY whenever you want! Being a woman of color & often times being the only one who looks like me in a room full of others who don’t…can be daunting! But what’s often the most difficult thing to deal with are the comments that suggest that I (or we) somehow aren’t equal and/or can’t afford to be at the table. This is why styleMbellished is so true & personal for me! We should all be able to sit at any table we desire! We can impress with the best! styleMbellished is more than a clothing boutique…it’s a feeling!
Another reason why styleMbellished was created was to eliminate the fear that many women have when shopping online. Fear of…will it fit? Will it rip after one good wear or wash? In the early days of the pandemic, like many women, I encountered packages arriving at my door continuously. I returned a lot of things as well, either because of poor quality or a poor fit. At styleMbellished, I educate women about how to take their body measurements. Because I hand measure every item that hits our website, we are able to provide accurate measurements. I want each and every MUSE (this is the official name of our tribe) to feel confident and comfortable that her fit WILL fit! This is unfortunately something that general size charts can’t provide/guarantee. In addition, I check and inspect each piece of inventory to ensure that the seams are intact and that there are no loose or missing threads, etc. For so long, quality has been seen as an exclusivity feature reserved only for those with a certain price range. I, however, believe that quality should be an integral component of inclusivity.
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 background and context?
At styleMbellished, our mission is to save women the frustration and guesswork of not knowing how to create those standout fashion/style moments in their life. We aim to offer women quality pieces that will allow them to feel confidently sexy and that will aid in creating these standout moments. These pieces will allow women to create ensembles to give them ready-to-go full looks for any occasion. Because after all, standing out doesn’t have to be complicated & just fitting in isn’t fun!
What sets us apart from other online brands is our willingness & wanting to provide detailed (accurate) hand measurements. Let’s be truthful. How many times have you ordered based on that general size chart thinking you made the right choice, only to be disappointed upon receipt of your item(s)? Here’s the thing, with those general size charts, it’s in the name. Their general. Most of the vendors that big box stores or even us clothing boutiques are obtaining our clothes from are being sourced from various manufacturers. As such, each manufacturer has their own technique in how they cut, how they sew, how they stitch, etc. You get the idea. As such, there is no way that a general size chart can guarantee you that any particular item that you’re purchasing from any said store/boutique will necessarily fit based on those guidelines. This is how and where styleMbellished differs.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
This is a great question and honestly not a story I often share/talk about. However, I feel that it may free someone from shame. I have my Masters’s degree in Physical Therapy (PT). I took the national certification examination 3 times and each time I took it I failed it progressively worse each time. The first time I missed it by 3 points and in all honesty and hindsight likely should have rescheduled the exam as my car had broken down on the way to take it. I however opted to walk a mile to the testing center to take the exam and quite honestly was panicked but was more worried about having to pay the reschedule fee over the thought of failing the exam. Go figure. Nonetheless, the additional 2 times clearly were mental blocks coupled with the imposter syndrome of me telling myself that I was not good enough to be a PT. I was a single mother of a then 8-year-old who was depending on me to provide for her and so I needed to quickly figure out how and what I would do in life. At the recommendation of a friend, I took a temporary position as a call center representative for a company to explain to people about their employee benefits. That decision to take that position catapulted me into an 18-year career in the world of HR benefits that I still enjoy today. It is that career that has allowed me to travel internationally & afforded me opportunities beyond my wildest dreams. It is also how I am able to fund my business until it is in a place for which I can officially do it full time.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
The biggest lesson that I had to unlearn was the thought that just because I had “cute clothes” people would magically find me and want what I had. And that even if I found them that they would want it. When in reality, I’ve had to learn the hard way that the know, like and trust factor is truly real. There isn’t’ a backstory to this per se other than on my launch day I truly felt that I had created all of this hype, all of this buzz and I literally sold NOTHING. It was chirping crickets and still, there are days, weeks, and months in which this is true. In reality, e-commerce is one of the most difficult industries this side of heaven if I’m being brutally honest. However, I refuse to give up because I believe in my vision and the women out there who I know are waiting for me to find them. I believe that there are voiceless women waiting to be found, freed and given her voice through her FIT!!
Contact Info:
- Website: stylembellished.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stylembellished/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/styleMbellished/
Image Credits
All photos courtesy of me via my Canon Rebel. :)