But I just created my own balance and it's been great so far. So I got an office space, and then things actually got a little weird because everything was very divided. There's something very peaceful about it. But I was like, “I don't want to have my team here when my son is born.” So the first thing I did was separate the spaces, which I had never really done before, because I do love working from home. We used to work from my apartment in SoHo, that's where we started the brand. But because I also work for myself, I do have flexibility. Now I feel like the only thing that has really changed is the way that I have envisioned the hours that I work. I remember even having contractions and being on a fitting and I was like, "It's fine, it's fine. Luckily, I had a great pregnancy so it was very easy. Has the way you design and approach your work changed since becoming a mother?īefore I had Alonso, it was just carrying some more weight around. Everyone just made me feel like I could really have both things together rather than two very separate things, which I don't know if I would like that as much.”Īhead, the four designers share more about their experiences navigating motherhood in the fast-paced industry of fashion. It was really actually nice to have the support of the team to really incorporate him into the life of Fashion Week. “I would be nursing him as we were having a fitting. “My son was born on January 31, so Fashion Week was in the corner and we were finishing up a collection - I really never felt the need to fully stop ,” the designer says, remembering the months right after her son was born. “This limits the people and places I can engage with but that suits me just fine.” Rojas agrees, noting that she has enjoyed the merging of her identities as the founder of her eponymous line and a mother. “I have no boundaries between parenthood and work,” she states. But I look back now at the decade before and I was like, ‘What was I doing? I was wasting so much ’ I would just linger on things.”įor Velez, efficiency often means blurring the lines between family life and her self-named brand. “I've taken that lesson from motherhood actually into my business - maybe that comes with age and experience also, having this be the second time around. She muses on the transitional moment in her life when she both broke away from her first label Cushnie et Ochs, which she jointly ran with a co-founder, to create her own brand Et Ochs, and became pregnant with her now oldest of two. “You're forced to be efficient with your time,” she explains. Parenthood also, emphasizes Ochs, brings both professional and personal priorities into stark relief. Whether it’s from friends or family, you need help so you’re able to manage your time wisely.” “But I've managed by really leaning on my support system. “I remember at first thinking how I was going to handle both - and that I might have to quit this fashion business because you have to put in so many hours,” says Noel, the founder and creative director of Fe Noel, as she recalls having her son six years ago. And while these creative talents hardly purport to offer sage wisdom on finding perfect balance (an impossibility, as any working parent will tell you), they have cultivated ways to survive, perhaps even thrive, during this beautifully chaotic moment in their lives. Buzzy designers Alejandra Alonso Rojas, Elena Velez, Michelle Ochs, and Felisha Noel - all of whom became mothers in the midst of their rising fashion careers - understand the challenges of juggling both jobs in tandem all too well. But you know what else is 24/7 work? Raising children. Launching and sustaining a clothing brand is a constant hustle for capital, attention, and an innovative edge.
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