Someone asked me recently at party if we might be like the Row one day, if that's what I would want. That's hard to imagine. No one can be like them. (Obviously I am aware my. brand is completely different, but it was the larger question, and I have also been asked this in a few interviews lately, WHO am I going to be like? And then names get thrown out.. But it seems like people want to know.. where are we going?)

Well. Truth be told. I don't know. A year ago we had 3 employees and worked in the apartment next to my house and 2 years ago, we shipped each box out of the garage. Now I have a beautiful office we have already grown out of with 9 people in it and 11 others in the field. I didn't picture that, but I like it.

Who am I? Well... Here is what I think.

I will be so lucky to have a business as successful of the people that I look up to, and I believe very much that I will. I recently read a newsletter by another female founder I look up to and she said something that struck me, she said that she always felt like she was struggling to fit into the fashion club, and when she realized she didn't have to and she could do it her way, it was very freeing. (I am paraphrasing - that's what I remember)

Even with all of the attention I have gotten, and all of the growth, I feel like that too, still an outsider. I feel like fashion is this club and you are always trying to prove you belong to, and you never actually feel like you do (Even if it looks that way on the outside.)

That might sound silly, that might just sound like life, like junior high. The idea that we can write our own rules is so appealing and so completely true, so I think that is where I am headed, to this idea.

One thing I say to people often is that I want to treat my brand like this cool club, but it's the kind where you are invited IN. I want it to feel aspirational and cool and fashionable but friendly, meaning we are nice, and you can sit with us (if you get the Mean Girls reference).  I would love if I could sit in my store all day and just talk to everyone and show them around. It's really the best part of having the store, is sharing it.

I love the community here, it means so so much in a way I didn't expect or project. I want more of that. I feel like the people here, with us, in this club, we all feel like this.

There was this time, I was wearing a pair of jeans I loved from another elusive brand, before I started mine. I was crossing the street in Atwater Village and in the crosswalk, the woman passing by on the other side was wearing the same jeans, and we clocked each other. We actually pointed and hurrayed to each other, we were in the club, both of us members. That memory is one, because it was special, to spot someone like me, someone from my tribe. I was just like that woman and I don't often come across MY people. So weirdly intimate but true.

And what is really special, is when I see YOU wearing my clothes. When I see you seeing ME wear my loafers. We are clocking it. I know we are in this club together. When two women both walk in wearing Jamie Haller Loafer's, it's a thing. And THAT, that is priceless. It's so so special, like "pinch me" special. I don't want to be anyone else.

Does any of this make sense?

So as this relates to me, who will I be... I will just be me, and that will likely grow even bigger, because I can feel it growing still inside me. A lot has happened in a year, but in comparison, I am still so tiny to the brands I might be adjacent to. For me, it's just one step in front of the other.

Will I open another retail store. I think likely yes. Will we make more bags, yes, I think so.. working on it! Will we restock the rings. Yes! coming! Will we make other jewelry? Yes! Will we get more loafers soon! OMG I hope so soon, I am wiped out again! Will we make a mens loafer? YES! It is in work now! Do we have so many new things? Yes! Because we have been having so much fun saying YES! Which was how this all started.

The beauty of having my own business is doing it my way, however it manifests.. None of it is happening with anyone else in mind. It's so insular, I'm so in my own world, I barely look up.  There is no fitting in a box of someone else's creation, I'm just going to be in my own box. But I do know I like it here and I want you to be here with me too.

xx 

Jamie