We recently connected with Michelle Farmer and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Michelle thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What do you think matters most in terms of achieving success?

I think that to be successful you need to love what you do and enjoy the process. You also have to have a firm belief in your mission and have faith in your ability to achieve your goals.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

In 2011 my husband Peter Farmer and I launched Michelle Farmer in Palm Beach Fl on North County rd. The brand soon expanded to add boutiques in Southampton NY, The Boca Raton, and at The Arizona Biltmore. Our designs are exclusively made by my team in our West Palm Beach based atelier. We are a sustainable, made in the USA brand and our collection can only be found exclusively in our boutiques.
Michelle Farmer boutiques are beautiful, light, airy with pops of gorgeous color and fabrics. Each piece is more unique than the next and the décor is a mix of modern with a twist of vintage. Customers are warmly welcomed, champagne is flowing, and everyone is encouraged to relax, enjoy, and have fun. It’s all about the customer, making long term connections and creating an exceptional experience.

Our focus is on fabrics that excite and entice! Gorgeous fabrics and beautiful quality are extremely important to me. The collection is colorful, playful, timeless, and luxurious. It is all about feeling great, having pieces with a beautiful fit, and knowing that you are purchasing something special. The collection can be custom made, pick your fabric and or add your own twist to the design, We also create bespoke evening wear and bridal gowns and have added several gorgeous creations for Spring 2022!
Included in the mix, is a beautifully curated collection of other exclusive fashion labels, accessory designers, home, and fine jewelry artisans from around the globe.
You can leave your luggage behind…our boutiques have everything you need to take you from the beach to a black tie.

Okay – so how did you figure out the manufacturing part? Did you have prior experience?

I am 100% self taught in clothing design. I started sketching and draping garments when we opened the boutique and then hired a seamstress to sew them for me. Now flash forward we have 4 stores and we make all of our pieces in house in our West Palm Beach Atelier. We have a bustling atelier with 8 people sewing and making patterns. It is such a creative and fun place to be! I learned the hard way about making clothing from trial and error. I pounded the pavement searching for manufacturers. I tirelessly looked for fabulous fabrics and hit a number of road blocks. In the end I had the best training on what not to do! lol! I had spent a lot of money making mistakes and learning the hard way. I feel like no matter what you want to do it is possible if you have faith in yourself and put your mind to it!

Do you have any stories of times when you almost missed payroll or any other near death experiences for your business?

When I opened my first store I was on a shoestring budget and I was designing my own collection of fine jewelry. . My husband had just purchased a building in Palm beach. After much debating I convinced him to let me open a “pop up” in the Palm Beach building …He gave me three months to rent it.. Once he finally agreed the season was upon us, and I had only three weeks to fill it with a beautiful assortment of clothing and accessory designers. So I cold called a number of fabulous designers that I admired and asked them to give us their goods on consignment. They all agreed! And a store was born. You are only as good as your word, I made sure that come hell or high water my designers were all paid on time every month . No matter what was happening in the world. Because of this, we were able to easily expand into more locations and now 10 years later Palm Beach is our Flagship location. I now design and create 80% of the clothing that we sell in our stores and also have a beautiful Atelier located in West Palm Beach. To this day we have been able to self fund our company and have never had to take a loan or get an investor.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.michellefarmer.com
• Instagram: michellefarmercollaborate

Image Credits
Images by Elizabeth Boriskin and Nick Mele