Today we’d like to introduce you to Merin Guthrie.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Merin. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
As someone who always struggled with the fit – I’m pear-shaped – I usually ended up really bummed when I tried to get anything new to wear. Nothing fit quite right, and it seemed like such a small but glaring problem for me: all women wear clothes, but most clothes only fit 20% of the population decently. Why was that?! I get obsessive about problem-solving (I’m dorky that way), and so I started looking into it. Basically, it boiled down to this: clothing companies are built around products, not customers. They design their products to their fit charts, regardless of what women’s bodies really look like. That’s why a size 2 in one brand fits like a 10 in another.
The more I learned, the more I thought this was ripe for change. So, I waited for someone to change it. And… crickets. I thought, “Why not me? Why not take a chance?”
I set out to build a clothing company around what women actually needed and wanted out of their clothes: impeccable fit, great construction, beautiful fabric, classic style, and, most of all, an experience that is empowering and customer-centric. In short, the type of clothes and shopping that I personally wanted!
Three years later, we’ve stayed true to that mission: we make every garment to order, reflecting that customer’s fit and style preferences. That literally allows our customers to build exactly what they want and toss anything they don’t. Want pockets? Add pockets! Want a longer hem length? Then that’s what you’ll get.
We’ve done a lot of fine-tuning over the years, adding things like free in-house tailoring and the ability to order fabric swatches. Since I am my own customer – which is true of our all-female team – we spend every day trying to figure out how to adapt our model to the needs of our customers. Because we always work directly with our customers and we make everything here in our Houston workshop, we’re much more accessible than traditional ‘fashion’. And, I think that gives us a very different perspective.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Starting a company is never a smooth road, and there are so many bumps along the way!
I think the first major obstacle I encountered was a fear of failure. I’m a really type-A, over-achieving personality, so failure is scary for me. Here, I was starting a design-focused company and I had no design background and very little entrepreneurial experience. What could go wrong, right? In my mind, pretty much everything. But, ultimately, it was a fear of failure. What would I do if I failed? What would people think of me if I failed?
Running and growing a company is full of little failures, it turns out. And I’ve learned that I am much more resilient than I thought. And that it is an acquired skill. In the early days of Kit, any bad news would throw me, even though I told myself that I needed to be thicker skinned. But then, I began to see how, over time, some of those small screw-ups or minor disasters led to better products and better processes.
Success doesn’t actually teach you anything. The only failure forces you to really learn a lesson, and so I really had to learn to face those tiny, daily failures and use them as a pivot: what do those lessons tell us about how can we improve upon what we are doing? And over the months, I became thicker-skinned and more able to actually channel failure into positive change.
The other thing is balance. I have an eight-month-old and absolutely no semblance of balance in my life! I work and I spend time with my daughter. And then, collapse when my husband and I put her to bed every night. I’m definitely still trying to figure out that whole being a mom and being an entrepreneur thing. There are so many times when they feel utterly incompatible! Entrepreneurship or at least how we do it now, wasn’t really built for women with kids.
I know that sounds kind of negative, but here’s the upshot: it is a really wonderful time to be a female entrepreneur, because women are, quite literally, the future. We compose the majority of the population; we are getting educated at higher rates than ever before; traditionally female industries (health care, education) are our growth industries. But I think something else is happening. We’re in the midst of a technological revolution that has and will continue to dramatically change the implications of ‘work.’ The pace of change has quickened. Skills like creativity and problem solving are becoming more important. I’m cautious about making blanket statements, but, in general, women are really well suited for this future. So, don’t doubt yourself – dive in and figure it out!
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into Kit story. Tell us more about the business.
Kit is a modern dressmaker. We make everything from our own customizable women’s styles to fully custom special projects. Every garment we make is made to order and made here in Houston. There are so many things that set us apart because there really aren’t many companies that do what we do! Our customers get to choose their fabric, fit, hem length, sleeve length, and so many other details! I think what really sets us apart is the experience: you get to work with real people. Sometimes, women like to just order from our website, which is totally fine, but other customers love to email us or call us to run ideas by us. Some of our favorite customers bring us really creative projects. We have one customer who has a different vest made every month. She finds awesome printed fabric, I source vintage buttons to match them, and we make these really cute, special vests for her that are totally one-of-a-kind. Other customers come to us with a vision for the perfect bridesmaid dress or mother of the bride/groom dress and we find special lace or beautiful silk from our silk mill partner just for them.
I think it’s important to note that we do our best to do all of that at a price point that is dramatically lower than typical made-to-measure. We worry a lot about pricing: we want to be available to as many people as possible all while paying our staff a living wage. Making something in American is dramatically more expensive than making it overseas, but it allows us to fully control the process and the quality level. Our seamstresses are amazing: resettled refugees who are highly skilled and amazingly hard working. They’re the heart of what we do.
Who do you look up to? How have they inspired you?
I’m inspired by SO many women, particularly the women in my family, who have overcome a lot to make opportunities for themselves.
I went to an all-girls high school and it was the best possible experience for me. I was surrounded by smart, talented women who are out in the world doing awesome things. I love learning about what they’re doing, because its such a diverse universe of things: lawyers, college professors, neuroscientists, filmmakers, magazine editors, you name it, and my high school classmates are doing it. I’m so inspired by them because everyone overcomes their own challenges. Whether its financial or personal, whether they’re trying to navigate life as a working mom, a single mom, a single woman, or a woman in a male-dominated field, they put in the work.
I think that’s the thing that really inspires me: women who do the work. It’s that extra effort, that thoughtful touch, that little thing that makes all the difference.
Contact Info:
- Address: 5200 Mitchelldale Street, Suite F23
Houston, TX 77092 - Website: www.kitmade.co
- Email: merin@kitmade.co
- Instagram: @kitmadeofficial
- Facebook: @kitmadeofficial
- Twitter: @kitmadeofficial
Image Credit:
Kit
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