We were lucky to catch up with Sarah Hamilton recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Sarah, 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.
My name is Sarah, I’m the Founder & CEO of Holen Apparel and I’m a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
It was in the Summer of 2016 when I decided to go to my church’s temple and receive my garments. I made a vow to wear these religious garments under my clothes as a reminder of the covenants I’ve made with God. I decided to have this clothing that consists of a short sleeve top and knee-length bottom remind me of the gratitude I have for my body and to continue to respectfully take care of it.
Although I’m happy I’ve made the decision to dress modestly it hasn’t been a walk in the park finding clothes that make me…well…feel like me.
A year in, I’ve already donated or sold 80% of my clothes because none of them worked with the garments. I’d stand in my closet looking for something to wear to a night out with my girls and silent tears would stream down my face because I had “nothing to wear” (dramatic but true).
Two years in, I was getting ready to attend my sister’s 21st birthday celebration in Las Vegas and I needed a bomb dress to wear. I found a sassy sequin dress at my local Nordstroms Rack and tried it on with high hopes…it was of course, too short. I headed home defeated and packed a church dress.
This was the final straw for me. I vented to my friends about the difficulty I was having with dressing modestly and wanting to look unique, sexy, and not basic. They agreed and vented about the same thing. I realized that I’m not alone in this and I’m too stubborn to stand aside and not do anything about it.
A couple of years later, I started a clothing company called Holen with my sister Mary Jane (the Las Vegas Birthday one).
We will sustainably design and ethically manufacture small batches of modest womenswear in Los Angeles. Our goal is to serve other women with a selection of clothing that would be modest, unique, and dare I say…sexy.
This is just the beginning.
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 back background and context?
Made for women, by women who don’t want to compromise. We want it all.
This is to our fashionista girlies who have struggled to find flattering modest clothing. We’re about to solve ALL your problems.
Into sustainability? So are we! We stand to pave a better future in the fashion industry by focusing on being environmentally conscious, limiting our waste, using deadstock fabrics, and ensuring our workers are safely earning a living wage.
Have you ever had to pivot?
It all started when my little sister, Mary Jane, sent me The Global Uprising Against Poverty Wages, a book that featured garment workers in Bangladesh.
Mary Jane was studying Cultural Anthropologie at UCLA and one of her classes highlighted this book. It featured a series of interviews of (mainly women) workers who made clothes in poorly kept factories getting paid next to nothing. These women would work tirelessly on beautiful garments for large companies like Zara and H&M. The hardship that these workers go through, the lack of pay, safety, and workers’ rights were eye-opening for me.
Like most of us, I grew up feeding the fast fashion monster. I’d go to Zara almost religiously to check out what their latest drop was. I’d score a $25 dress, wear it for a few months, throw it away when it ripped, and then go buy another one in a new style. This was the norm.
It wasn’t until I started the boutique side of Holen that I got a behind-the-scenes view of the fashion industry. I’d visit beautiful showrooms filled with cheap clothes made out of mircoplastics. The sales reps would brag about how their big accounts like Nordstrom and Anthropology would buy their clothes and 4x the price. If a wholesaler sells a pant to Anthropology for $23 and Anthropology sells them for $135…how much is the person who made that garment getting paid? Pennies I’m sure.
A year into business Mary Jane sent me that book, it changed my life (dramatic I know, but true). It made me cry, and to be honest, writing this blog now…thinking about the contents of that article still makes me tear up. I realized that as a business owner I have the reasonability to…well…be responsible. I came to the conclusion that I didn’t want to add to the waste and harm of the fashion industry. I wanted to be and do better.
This is when the change started.
Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?
It was the summer of 2018, I was fresh out of college with excitement for my new chapter of life. I had no school (for the first time ever) and could do whatever I wanted with my time.
I felt the weight of what I should do (work a steady 9-5 job) and what I wanted to do (start my own business). I started out on the safe route, the 9-5 job. Months in, I was miserable and would dread going to work. With determination to change my reality I would listen to self-help books during my morning commute. One book in particular changed my life (literally).
That book is called “You’re A Badass” by Jen Sincero. It was funny, to the point, inspiring, and helped me realize that I really do have the ability to achieve whatever it is I want in this life.
After finishing that book I decided that I would start my clothing company!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://holenapparel.com/password
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/holenapparel?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
Image Credits
All images are taken my me (: