We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Renata Gasparian. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Renata below.

Renata, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Often outsiders look at a successful business and think it became a success overnight. Even media and especially movies love to gloss over nitty, gritty details that went into that middle phase of your business – after you started but before you got to where you are today. In our experience, overnight success is usually the result of years of hard work laying the foundation for success, but unfortunately, it’s exactly this part of the story that most of the media ignores. Can you talk to us about your scaling up story – what are some of the nitty, gritty details folks should know about?

It all happened organically…
We moved from Sao Paulo, Brazil to Charlotte for my husbands job, and I wanted to find a way to stay connected with the fashion world. In Brazil I had worked for the most prestigious fashion company, and fell in love with everything in the industry!
The idea of starting my company happened at the end of 2019, before anyone could ever anticipate what would happen in 2020. I’ve always enjoyed getting dresses, and everywhere I went, I’d get compliments on my outfits. With that came the idea of, “well, if everyone loves what I wear, I might as well start my own clothing line…”
So we got in touch with a factory in India, I got started with sketching and picking out fabrics, and my first pop up was in February of 2020.
We started very small, only a few pieces, and I used my bonus room as my office and studio, where I would have my clients come and shop. After that we all know what happened… March the world shut down, and we weren’t sure how we’d continue. Everything was both good and bad… as everything shut down, but people were still wanting to shop, I found that little space in between for my advantage, and could schedule clients individually to come shop – of course always with masks etc..
We also suffered with our factory in India, as our tailors had to take being in the factory, and then clean up for the next tailor to come and continue the work.
Wi that being said, June 1st I surprisingly found out I was pregnant with my 3rd child. Then I really didn’t know how I’d continue, since so much of my business depended on me. But well, we stuck to it.
From my bonus room, and with my daughter almost 6 months old, we eventually decided it was time to move somewhere, outside of my house, where my clients would feel more comfortable coming to shop.
And that was right when the biggest tragedy happened, my sister passed suddenly one day before my move in date to my new studio. With the strength and love from our friends, I gave myself a month to try to heal some from such a tragic loss. Little by little we came back, and in 2022 we grew tremendously! We continued our pop ups in and outside of Charlotte, as well as having the clients come into our studio.
We’ve continued to grow, with the same small factory in India, a very dedicated manager over there, strengthened relationships with our suppliers, and most of all continuing to grow via word of mouth amongst our clients. It brings me so much joy to get pictures and messages from my clients wearing our pieces, and all the compliments they receive. We’re extremely detail and fit oriented. My pieces are so well made, you could wear them inside out.
And now 2 weeks ago we’ve opened our first brick and mortar with our name out front. Our clients are loving what we call our “new living room”, as we make sure to always have the feel of coming into a home.

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.

Worked for the most prestigious fashion company in Brazil, starting in sales at the age of 21, and quickly moving into managing, marketing, PR, and head of showrooms in Paris.
That was my school in the fashion industry!
After moving to Charlotte, and wanting to continue in fashion, I started my brand, and little by little grew organically. It’s always very important to work on your connections and relationships.
I’m a self taught fashion designer. I’ve always been on the communication side of the business and found myself in the position where I had to do both in order to make my business a real business. I learned to sketch, to create my own designs, explore different fabrics and how they drape, and of course, create the desire to own a piece of RENATA.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

When I started in February 2020, the world shut down the following month, in June I found out I was pregnant with my 3rd child, and in September 2021 my sister passed. With everything that could bring us down, we kept going

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

I believe connections and relationships we build are extremely important in any field you want to work in. Since I’ve always been so used to working amongst 100+ women, talking to people has always come very easily to me.
How you present yourself, carry yourself, will also help you gravitate/attract the people you’re interested in building solid relationships with. Coming from a different country, I rely greatly on word of mouth

Contact Info:

• Website: https://renatagasparian.com
• Instagram: @renata_gasparian