Meet Shawnie Grant of Tailored Boutique

Thanks for sharing your story with us Shawnie. So, let’s start at the beginning, and we can move on from there.
My professional journey into the fashion industry started in 2013 when I opened a custom garment shop, Tailored Boutique, offering custom clothe-making to men and women living in the United States. In 2015, I decided to focus on designing and selling B2B which led me to closed Tailored Boutique’s physical location, transforming the company into a full virtual boutique. This business plan allowed me to move to Shenzhen, China, where I started producing my women’s clothing brand, Tailored, using local manufacturers throughout Guangdong province with a mission to sell wholesale garments to fashion buyers in America.In 2017, I was the lead fashion instructor for Fashion Beyond Boarders: Exploring The Global Fashion Industry summer course at New York University Shanghai for the NYUSPS program. I also taught Fashion Beyond Borders curriculum (my 3rd curriculum) in Morocco during the Fall/Winter semester of 2017. Teaching fashion classes in different countries allowed me to grow as a fashion designer and business woman because I learned how-to design clothes with cultural fabrics as well as learned to negotiate production cost with different currencies which played an invaluable role in keeping the overhead cost down.In 2018, I decided to write and publish a course book for Fashion Beyond Borders curriculum and made it available for purchase (sold in TSU Barnes & Nobles bookstore and on Amazon) to those who can’t attend my course due to it being in a different country or for time and cost purposes. This book consist of every thing that I learned while working as a designer/consultant in America, China, and Morocco.

I’m currently creating an after school, career development and training program at a low-income school in Houston, Texas to teach valuable skills such as fashion design, sewing, basic accounting, along with marketing & selling to students in grades 6th-8th. Our mission is to change the way our students learn by merging technology with fashion, which allows the students to prepare for future careers that are currently being dominated by the tech world. My company Tailored Boutique is also a registered vendor for HISD school district providing students and staff with stylish, inspirational, school apparel.

Lastly, I’m the founder of a 501 (c)3 charity organization, Tailored Hearts, which donates clothes to teenage girls from low-income families and those suffering from natural disasters. We also host career and character development workshops and at different schools around Houston, Texas. www.tailoredboutique.com and www.tailoredhearts.com.

No, there were many obstacles throughout the years. I thought I was losing my mind at some point. I faced challenges such as losing an experienced seamstress weeks after opening my business doors for Tailored Boutique, which offered custom clothe making services. There was also a time when I exhausted business funds for marketing and had to create innovative marketing plans and strategies to continue operating the business.

Tailored Boutique – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
My company, Tailored Boutique is a virtual fashion store that offers our clients a wide range of exclusive fashion services. We are a B2B (business to business) company, but we do offer virtual consulting services and in-person career-training workshops to the community B2C (business to consumer). What sets us apart from competition is being original with our ideas and mission, as well as selling garments and educational material to help others achieve their goals within the fashion industry.

We offer the following:

1. Consulting Services over how-to start and manufacture a fashion brand
2. Wholesale fashion, work uniforms, and school apparel
3. Fashion curriculum’s and course books, and career-training workshops

The company is known for providing project management and consulting services to clients who want to manufacture a fashion brand. I am most proud of as a company to help change the way students learn fashion by developing and selling innovative, digital curriculum’s to learning centers, schools, and universities worldwide.

What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
My proudest moment of my career so far has been, recognizing the opportunity to change how students (all ages) learn about geography, cultures, and the English language through my passion for fashion.

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