We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Shauntee Edwards a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Shauntee, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to go back in time and hear the story of how you came up with the name of your brand?

The idea behind Daily Thread Thrift is that most of us wear some basic things every day: socks if the weather permits, underwear (or not; this is a judgment-free zone) This is a universal truth unless you live in a nudist colony. (Again, be free to be you.) When we get dressed for a big date or a wedding we are very intentional about what we put on, however, our “everyday clothes” are not chosen with as much intention. We often don’t realize that our everyday clothes speak the loudest about our physical and mental state and our identity. As unique as we are, clothing is a thread that ties us together. Every day, we as a people must get dressed, and I love that commonality.

Shauntee, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I grew up in Las Vegas NV, watching musicals and film noir with my mother. Glamour was never far away whether in fantasy or the closets. I remember drooling at the clothes my mother and I would find thrifting. I know thrifting is trending at the moment but trust me when I say I’ve been an OG thrifter since 1994. I had the highest hopes that I’d go into costume design and work on the sets like the movies I’d binge as a child. But like most, I got scared and banked on my perceived ability and not my purpose. I went into Fashion Marketing instead of Costume Design and spent 20 years in fahion retail management. Not glamorous at all. No matter what kind of warmth and magic I tried to infuse into my work, fashion retail became impersonal and transactional. And then Covid happened. Trapped inside I began binging my childhood favorites, Stormy Wheather, Funny Face, The Opposite Sex, and Gentleman Prefer Blondes with my daughter. We would dress up like we were attending the Met Gala only to sit down with a bowl of popcorn in front of the TV. This led to me purging my closet and my kid’s closets and curating stylish capsule collections using online second-hand platforms. Why? We weren’t even going anywhere. I didn’t know why then, but I do now. Something in me was preparing for Daily Thread Thrift.

The pandemic changed every familiar landscape in my life. Even as the pandemic settled it brought lifestyle and body changes for me and everyone around me. I began purging and curating any closet that was open and available. Closets are such a personal space and I’m so incredibly grateful to my friends and family who allowed me to come into their closets and help them discover who was really living in there. Friends who needed help finding the perfect wardrobe to be back in the office were getting rid of date night clothes. Friends who’d been living in sweats and online dating needed date clothes to meet their match in person. I started to see that we were all connected by our clothing.

Through my retail expertise and my love of simply getting dressed, I launched Daily Thread Thrift, a sustainable alternative to impersonal retail and fast fashion. We work within a buy, sell, trade model, to keep quality fashion in circulation, giving a stylish, eco-conscious alternative to traditional retail. While we are at its core a thrift store, we’re also a creative space where personal style and sustainability meet. Inspired by pop culture, timeless beauty, and the value of enduring quality, I’m dedicated to redefining sustainable fashion retail for the modern shopper. I hope to also offer after-school programming and summer camps for kids in upcycling, costume and fashion design, styling, and fashion business.

Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?

Working in retail management taught me more about people than anything else! There are usually two types of people you work with as a manager. Folks who believe in the collective goal you are trying to achieve and folks that believe in you, and your ability to lead. Yes, you may have some folks who just don’t want to be there, trust me I’ve been there too. I’ve found that encouraging input from your team whether its about your goal, or you as a manager, or even the fact that they may not want to be there is an opportunity to grow.

My key to keeping morale high is to feed the beast. If your team believes in your mission, create a mission-driven environment. Set goals that are in line with your mission, keep speaking to your mission and encourage your team to speak about it often as well. I love going to work if I believe in the work I’m doing. If your team believes in you don’t give them a reason to stop. Be intentional about growing and learning and showing up for them. I cannot say this enough praise, praise, praise your team when they are doing well. Even if it’s a small victory, a little praise goes a very long way. Condemnation is never a good motivator and it mucks up your morale.
Managing a team is like cooking a meal. It’s so important that you see value in every ingredient or person you’re working with. Fresh ingredients make the best meals. Unkempt ingredients can lead to food poisoning. As a manager you are the salt. Your job is to prepare, enhance the flavor and serve.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

I truly believe my hippie genius mother intuitively knew that her children were destined to go against the flow in our adulthood and that the world would tell us what we could not do instead of solidifying what was possible. There wasn’t a time I can remember when we weren’t reading a book or parable about our purpose, our destiny, how to be wise in the marketplace place, or how to invest our time, talent, and treasure in things that would last. To that end, here is my mother’s recommended reading all of which I read before I graduated high school. This list does not include the Encyclopedia Britannica which she recommended every single time we had a question about anything, pre-Google.

1. The Bible (we started with The Message version. She wanted to be clear that we knew what we were reading)
2. The Greatest Salesman in the World by O.G. Mandino
4. The Richest Man in Babylon by O.G. Mandino
3. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
5. The Bible… I’m just saying it is chalked FULL of business acumen. Jesus was a prophet but before that, he was a businessman and so were his disciples. IYKYK

I’ve also just completed Anointed for Business by Ed Silvoso, it focuses on the hearts of the cities where we operate our businesses. Often times we open a business for our own benefit. This book teaches how we can be a benefit to the communities we’re serving.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://dailythreadthrift.com
• Instagram: @dailythreadthrift