Now, just a couple years into Find Me Now, Su and Stephanie reflect upon the growth, both personal and milestone-related, that has occurred in the short amount of time that has passed since the brand’s conception.
The mother-daughter duo sat down with office to discuss their partnership and bond, Find Me Now’s development, and what it means to be able to bring the Asian American experience to the forefront of the industry.
What did you learn from your past in fashion and your previous family brand that you restructured and improved this time around?
Stephanie — We went through a tremendous amount of personal and obviously professional growth from our previous business. I think one of the biggest takeaways was that, firstly, we wanted to design a product that had fundamental wearability. In our previous business, we did not have the luxury of dictating what kind of products to make. We were basically employed by massive retailers and they would dictate the direction of the collections and the direction of the designs. So in that sense, we lost our perspective as designers and that freedom to be able to work in that creative space. So I think when it comes to us creating our own branded identity, we want to make products that have fundamental wearability. If we don't feel like we are wearing the product for more than six to eight months out of the year, then we don't feel it's that necessary. Of course, we do follow seasons throughout the year. However, our product collection doesn't change so much from season to seasons. We are not trying to sell aspirational fashion. We're trying to celebrate the extraordinary in the everyday. At the end of the day, Find Me Now is super attainable. It is also super important to us to provide a transparent and ethical product to our customer.
I really appreciate this idea of avoiding aspirational fashion. It's important to emphasize that we have the resources for these things today, right now, at this moment. Going through the shift of losing your company, especially during the pandemic, must have been devastating. How did you both find the drive to push through and create again?
Stephanie — In our previous business, to be completely honest and transparent with you, we did lose everything — financially, personally, emotionally. We kind of just let it all go.
Which I'm sure was tough.
Stephanie — Super tough. But it was an incredible opportunity for us to see the potential and what we could do with nothing.
Yeah. It kind of opens up avenues that you wouldn't have thought of or discovered before.
Stephanie — And I think at the core, one of the fundamental mantras that we follow and something that we experience firsthand is that you really need to lose yourself to find yourself. That's really where the name came from because we truly lost ourselves in our previous business. We lost everything, but that's how we were able to turn it around and start over.
Seeing that as a positive instead of a negative — it takes a certain mindset. So that's really cool that you guys were able to find that because it can also be super discouraging and then you can get stuck in that feeling. I know that you guys prioritize working with a lot of women creators, how do you continue prioritizing that in the brand’s endeavors?
Stephanie — Just from a team perspective, I'd say 90% of our team is made up of women.
That's amazing.
Stephanie — And I would say a hundred percent of our partners, whether it's suppliers or sales reps or any kind of third party, they're actually all women as well.