We were lucky to catch up with Mallory Muddiman recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Mallory, thanks for joining us today. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?
* Let’s roll the tape back to my early childhood. My mom is basically a warm version of Martha Stewart. She can sew, craft, garden, decorate, cook, & bake anything. And it will look nearly perfect. I was (probably still am) a clingy youngest child who just wanted to be by her side at all times. I started creating with her as much as possible.
I started hand sewing small projects like tiny pillows at pre-school age. I think Mom first sat me on her lap while she sewed when I was around 5 years old. I was sold immediately. I continued to sew and craft with her and my maternal grandmother as much as possible.
I stole my older sisters’ catalogs and magazines and would re-design the outfits on the pages by tracing or collaging a few years later. Fashion has been my main passion since then. It was a no-brainer to choose fashion design as my college degree. I honed my other design and art skills at the University of Cincinnati, College of DAAP.
* It would have been impossible in my case to speed up the learning process since I started so young.
* I think the curiosity and creativity my mom and dad instilled in me are the main building blocks for my career as a fashion designer and master sewist. The “we can figure it out” optimism that comes with constantly creating & witnessing my parents create – crafts & home projects for my mom, woodworking and building for my dad – prepared me for a creative field in more ways than I can explain.
Mallory, 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?
I’ve always had my own unique and colorful personal style, paired with wanting fashion to be a wearable celebration of the person donning it. My business was originally a brand that brought high quality, handmade, and unique pieces with this point of view to customers. Customers, who like me, struggled to find pieces that weren’t mass produced & boring or incredibly expensive. I started this slow fashion brand right out of college in the spring of 2013. A few years in I started doing alterations and custom projects for customers as well. This enabled me to run the business full-time, starting January 2020.
Since having my second child in 2024 though, I’ve been in a stage of discovery and pivoting. I am at a point where I want to spend less time sitting at my sewing machine doing production on my clothing line and alterations for customers. I want to spend more time doing the creative work that feeds my soul. Sewing has become a chore instead of a joy. I want to bring back my excitement.
In the last few months I’ve been feeling energized, working towards becoming a freelance fashion designer and fabric print designer for other brands. I’m still creating & selling printed fashion items like bags and shirts for my brand ‘Mallory’ Mallorykatestyle.com and selling some of my fabric print designs on Spoonflower https://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/mallorykatestyle
I also love sharing fashion pieces I create or upcycle, for myself and my children on Instagram. Through all og the business changes in 12 years, my main goal is still to empower others to celebrate their individuality & beauty through their fashion sense. Now I’m just doing it through social media and other brands as well as my own!
Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?
I wish small business podcasts had started earlier and that I would have started listening to them earlier. They often have communities that come with them, of people who are in your niche. Community is everything when you have big & specific questions about things like marketing, legal jargon, or e-commerce. There are a few I’ve learned tons from in the last few years. It only takes a little research to find helpful ones!
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
If you just work harder you can do it all. Hustle culture did a number on a lot of us.
I had a second baby in 2024. With having two kids splitting my attention, the mental load another kid adds for mothers, and almost no sleep, I was running on fumes when I started working again. I was unable to work after “bedtime” anymore because the baby was up so often, and I was too worn out to focus the way I had been able to when I had time to work. I was burnt out and emotional: constantly exhausted, behind schedule, and stressed. Honestly I’m still catching up on a few random things from that time!
Cue a video a friend shared on Instagram from a psychologist doing a talk about how ADHD presents in perfectionist, high-achieving women. I saw myself in every symptom. Then a few weeks later my brother-in-law made a random comment about how I “have ADHD too.” So, I quickly got assessed. After diagnosis I cried in relief. I saw that so much of what I struggled with in business & as a child as just parts of ADHD, not personal failures or character flaws. ADHD is not something you can overcome by simply working harder, hustling more.
As I educate myself more about it, I am also unlearning this need to constantly be productive. I spent a few weeks mourning that I hadn’t been diagnosed & treated for ADHD at a younger age. I thought I could have been “so much farther by now” if I had been. However, the awareness of how symptoms presented for young women who thrived in school, just wasn’t there when I was younger. I started cognitive behavioral therapy to help manage it and have learned how important it is to give myself guilt free rest so I can thrive when I AM working. I give myself more understanding & grace now too. It has been such an affirming & eye opening few months.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://mallorykatestyle.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mallorykatestyle/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mallory-muddiman-00358b78/
Image Credits
T.J. Bitter
Jesse Byerly
Harris Media Co.