We were lucky to catch up with Rachel Walters recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Rachel, thanks for joining us today. One of our favorite things to brainstorm about with friends who’ve built something entrepreneurial is what they would do differently if they were to start over today. Surely, there are things you’ve learned that would allow you to do it over faster, more efficiently. We’d love to hear how you would go about setting things up if you were starting over today, knowing everything that you already know.

When I was starting my womenswear brand, Rachel Walters Collection, there was a ton of hype around taking the e-commerce consumer direct approach. I fell into the trap of believing it would be easy to put up a website and instagram and easily generate sales. After trying to exclusively sell online for a year, I knew I needed a different tactic. So I started having in-person pop ups at markets so my customer could shop IRL. It turns out sales far surpassed my expectations and blew the e-comm approach out of the water. If I started over today, pop-ups would be my first priority from the very beginning.

Rachel, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Becoming a fashion designer starts with having a great eye for color, composition, and proportion. It helps to be already good at both 2D and 3D art. For example, if you feel you are equally strong at painting and sculpture, you will probably make a great fashion designer. I feel it’s important for all designers to pursue classical training; as much education as you can receive, you should. This is because it’s a complex art form and to create something original in this field, you need to understand in depth how garments are engineered. It helps as well to have all the computers skills that may speed up your process: knowing how to create a technical sketch in Adobe Illustrator and a technical package in Excel, are two highly important knowledge assets that make you a strong fashion designer. A good fashion school will give you this knowledge and these tools. I went to Virginia Commonwealth University’s fashion design program and was very satisfied with my education.

I am providing clothing for my clients that is a unique market niche: my client is a grown woman but still cute. She possesses sophistication and an eye for fine clothing, so she is probably over 30, but she’s not ready to look frumpy yet. She still likes her body. In my opinion, there aren’t many designers serving this niche market of 30’s, 40’s and 50’s clients who have fine taste and like body-con clothing and love to look feminine. There’s a lot of contemporary, boxy clothing on the market that is masculine and shapeless. That does not appeal to my client.

I would say I am most proud of brand’s appearance in Vogue, which was a huge accomplishment, but to be honest what makes me proudest is receiving messages from customers that they absolutely love to wear my clothes on repeat. That is the true test of good design: is the customer actually using the product over and over and extracting tons of joy and excitement from wearing her purchase? That is my true benchmark for success.

Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?

This is a painful story- ha! I started the business with only $500, no savings, and one roll of fabric. I’ve reinvested every cent of revenue earned over the past four years to grow the business. It has been quite agonizing, but the business continues to either triple or double in revenue grossed year over year. It’s working, but it’s really slow. I don’t know much about seeking outside funding. I did try to raise capital from angel investors, but they were not interested in investing in a woman-owned apparel business. One told me I should focus on motherhood and another told me the business was too risky.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

When Covid hit, I was living in Manhattan on the Upper West, which was the hotbed of the virus in the US at that time. I was living in 600 square feet with my husband and two little boys and sewing all my products out of my children’s bedroom. It was definitely a nightmare when we started to realize no women would likely be buying nice “going out” clothing in the next several years. Rachel Walters Collection was only six months old at the time. I had to think and act fast to pivot. For safety reasons, my husband relocated the family to a friend’s home in Watertown, MA. I couldn’t even bring my sewing equipment. When we arrived, I ordered a sewing machine and some cotton and got to work sewing masks. I made over 700 masks in April 2020 and had my best sales month ever in business in the first and second year. It helped me finance my next steps as a business.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.rachel-walters.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/rachelwalterscollection
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/rachelwalterscollection