We were lucky to catch up with Shannell Thomas recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Shannell thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Naming anything – including a business – is so hard. Right? What’s the story behind how you came up with the name of your brand?

The Picassew Firm was born while completing an art activity with of of the children in my family. The assignment was to create a story board for the child’s life that included core memories, significant family members and their favorite things. The child needed some guidance on how to spruce up their board, so I happily jumped in to assist. By the end of the assignment, they were in awe of how creative, colorful and fun their board looked. The child turned to me and asked, ” Are you Picasso or something?!” When rebranding my business, that moment popped in my head. Since I am a seamstress by trade, it was only natural that I changed the last few letters to include the word “sew”. Hence the name Picassew.

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.

My name is Shannell Thomas, owner of the Picassew Firm. I began my career as a business owner in 2019 sewing in my attic. At that time, I strictly did alterations, custom clothing, sold retail items and hosted a few one on one sewing classes. In 2022, we were able to move into our first commercial space, where we were able to expand our product and services line. While we still offer custom clothing, alterations, one on one sewing classes and sell retail items, we also offer group sewing classes, garment branding (embroidery, digital heat fx & silk screen), as well as workshops for each service that we offer. We are proud to offer these services to everyone, but we are most proud to have youth organizations who trust us to teach their participating youth.

What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?

The foundation of my business is built off of my sewing skills. Those skills were born from necessity. As the youngest of 5 children, growing up in Baltimore City, there wasn’t much room to buy new clothing. As a result, I was given the clothes that belonged to my older siblings. Always grateful for things given to me, one day I decided to take matters into my own hands and alter my newly gifted clothes. From there, I fell in love with the construction of garments, how they drape on ones bodies and how you can manipulate its shapes. That was at age 8. I went on to attend The Baltimore School for the Arts, Theatre Production program, where I graduated in 2011. I freelanced for a few years, until I got serious in 2019. Once I made the decision that this is what I wanted to pursue, things moved quickly. We officially moved into our commercial space in July of 2022 and have been rocking and rolling ever since.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

A lesson that I had to unlearn is that ignorance is bliss. For a long time, I would ignore certain parts of my business, because I did not want to take on those responsibilities and it was easier to say “I didn’t know.” Only later to have to deal with those issues but on a much larger magnitude and stress level. This caused me to spend unnecessary money, time and energy, when I could have solved the problem before it became that much of an issue. Ignorance is, in fact, not bliss; only an excuse.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.picassewfirm.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thepicassewfirm/