Today we’d like to introduce you to Emelia Natalicchio.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
Ever since I was a little girl, I have been drawn to creative pursuits. My mother is an Art Director and had an art closet filled with all kinds of supplies, paintings, and sketchbooks brimming with artwork. It was my favorite place to explore, and I spent my free days pulling down sketchbooks to study and practice drawing from. My summers between high school years were spent in the Northeast attending college-level programs at Parsons New School of Design, and Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. I guess you could say drawing was my first love, and I was never without a sketchbook. Soccer was also a big part of my life, so it took until my senior year of high school for me to really get into fashion. I began looking for internships and filling sketchbooks with clothing designs. I was very lucky to connect with Katja Cahill, a stylist in Los Angeles who happened to be running the wardrobe department for the Grammys that year. That was an incredible experience to have so young and only pushed me towards a fashion career even more. I attended Syracuse University in upstate New York, majoring in Fashion Design and minoring in Entrepreneurship and Emerging Enterprises. Throughout college, I continued to work with Katja at the Academy Awards and America’s Got Talent. I also worked backstage at several fashion weeks in New York and Paris. My favorite internship was with designer Wes Gordon (now Creative Director for Carolina Herrera) in New York City and is where I learned a lot of the skills I needed to pursue my own path. After completing my degree, I decided to move back to Houston to start my own womenswear brand: OF MYTH + MUSE.
Over the past few years OF MYTH + MUSE has become a collaboration between myself and Kendall Hanna. We have transformed it into a season-less brand of dreamy minimalist clothing for women. Kendall and I are inspired by a love affair with far off places, soft natural fabrics, poetry, sculpture, and hand-drawn prints. Our focus is on ethically made, small batch production, planet-friendly materials, and versatility. Designed and made with love right here in Houston. Our romantic designs will fit effortlessly into your wardrobe and life.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
I don’t know anyone in the fashion industry who hasn’t had some bumps in the road along the way. The challenges are the best learning experiences and only make you wiser in your business decisions. I have struggled with every collection for one reason or another. Creating clothing is not a simple or easy process. It takes months to develop a collection from sketch to final product and then depending on your manufacturer, it could take a few more months to produce your final pieces. Starting a fashion label isn’t cheap and requires a lot of patience. The best advice I can give someone looking to start a clothing line is done as much of the patterning and sample making as you can yourself, have crystal clear technical drawings of each design and only make 2-3 designs when just starting out. Each design will cost you a lot of money to produce, so less is truly more! I learned that the hard way by producing too many pieces when I started and ran out of money fast. I also learned that going to textile trade shows is a fantastic way to understand your material options and a great way to build vendor relationships.
Please tell us about OF MYTH + MUSE.
OF MYTH + MUSE is a seasonless brand of dreamy minimalist clothing for women. The brand’s focus is on ethically made small batch production, planet-friendly materials, and versatility. Our clothing is designed and made with love right here in Houston.
I am the owner and lead fashion designer for OF MYTH + MUSE. I specialize in pretty much everything for the business because I’ve had to do all of it at one point or another when building the brand. Today, I currently focus on collection design, patternmaking, sample making, collection material sourcing, styling, and content creation.
I am most proud of how much our customers love the brand and our products. It’s an incredible feeling seeing someone happily living their life in your designs. I LOVE whenever we get tagged on social media in customer photos or get wonderful comments and messages. It’s a huge validation for a small business owner and gives my team the drive and positivity to keep designing.
What sets us apart from other brands is our desire to produce everything ethically, locally, and really focus on making clothes that work in the Houston climate. We produce in small batches, use eco-friendly fabrics, and hide poetry in our seams. Yes, actual poems, written by my co-designer and writer/poet Kendall Hanna. We want to infuse every design with a bit of magic, and we want customers to feel cool, comfortable, and confident in our clothes.
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
If I had to start over, I would have produced fewer designs in more colorways during the first season. I would have done patterning and sample making myself. I also would have pursued wholesale as well as retail in my financial structure faster. There are many things I learned along the way that I could have tweaked in the beginning to make my business run better. All you can do is roll with it and be better for tomorrow!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.ofmythandmuse.com
- Email: info@ofmythandmuse.com
- Instagram: @ofmythandmuse
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ofmythandmuse
Image Credit:
Kendall Hanna and Emelia Natalicchio.
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