How to Cultivate the Life of Your Dreams:

 

So often we believe that the life of our dreams can only be fulfilled when we attain certain societal standards. We tell ourselves stories like, "I'll be confident once I have that body, "I'll have no worries once I make six figures", or "I would be happier if my life looked like that". When we tell ourselves these stories repeatedly, we begin to believe that who we are and what we have today isn't good enough. These comparisons start to lessen our confidence and make us believe that in order to be successful, beautiful, and worthy, we've gotta look like the supermodel on IG and have the Pinterest perfect house, car, office and vacations too. Girl, let me tell ya. I know models who actually do have all of this and guess what? They aren't confident, worry free, or any happier than you. It's actually quite the opposite. They are stuck further in comparison traps and riddled with anxiety from the unrealistic expectations society puts on us. So how do we get out of this messy self consciousness and into strong self confidence? First, let's affirm that confidence isn't selfish or conceited. Self confidence is self empowerment. As our queen of confidence Lizzo says, "When I'm shinin' everybody's gonna shine!" And that's a fact babe! When you immerse yourself in self love and positivity, you radiate and spread that energy to others. Your self love helps others cultivate self love. So, let's get it girls. Let's cultivate that confidence mindset NOW. You don't have to wait on these "achievements" to validate your worth or your potential. You have the power to live the life of your dreams today by letting go of the limiting stories, choosing confidence, embracing yourself and just doing the damn dream. Long lasting confidence doesn't come overnight, but believe me, the more you practice a confidence mindset, the more you will come into the powerful, confident, and fierce person you are.

Below is our lookbook in celebration of CONFIDENCE! Shot at the beautiful Bend Goods studio! Huge shout out to this fellow small colorful biz for helping us out with this shoot. All the artwork and fabulous furniture shown is by them!

www.bendgoods.com

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The Confidence Collection

The Confidence Collection is all about affirming your worth, your beauty, and the incredibly unique perceptive you bring to the table. These new Dazey sayings and graphics are here to hype you up in all you are so you can GET IT GIRL! This collection was made to encourage you do the damn dream, work that confidence and show up fully as the fierce female you are. Remember babe, confidence is a cultivated mindset. You've got to practice it and preach it to be it. At any given moment we have the choice to show up confidently in life rather than in fear of judgment, self doubt, or shame. But how? It's not easy, but girl, it's powerful AF. It's learning to choose self confidence over self consciousness. It's ditching comparison traps or “not good enough” mindsets and knowing that you can accomplish any damn thing you dream. It's learning to go against the grain and stand up for yourself. It's the ability to thrive in positive self affirmation and show up fully for yourself. Confidence is the ultimate glow up, queens. Let's bloom with confidence and show the world what a fierce glow up looks like.

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Self Confidence > Self Consciousness

Growing up, self consciousness consumed so much of my time. There was always a part of me worrying about what other people thought of me, what I looked like, if I was cool enough, etc. It was a debilitating process that stopped me from expressing myself and being fully me. As I became an adult, I observed that people aren't just confident naturally. Confidence was cultivated by choice. People become confident, powerful, and fierce by choosing that mindset and allowing that positive energy to carry them through work and life. So to get my confidence blooming, I did the same. I chose confidence over self consciousness, allowed my wacky ideas to shine, worked towards my dream, and stopped caring what everyone else thought. I allowed self assurance to guide me towards being less self absorbed by self doubt, and it's probably the most powerful & freeing thing I've ever done for myself.

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Dance Parties Create Confidence

Think back to your first school dance. You probably were nervous at some point thinking, Am I really about to dance in front of everybody right now? Do I even know any dance moves? Ugh, this is so embarrassing. People are going to laugh at me. Trust me, we've all been there. To be honest, at my first middle school dance I was so awkward! I didn't know what to do with my limbs or how to start moving my body. I kept thinking of how I wasn't girly enough and how I felt like such a boy as a late bloomer. I was just standing there so nervous, too stunned by my own negative thoughts to actually let go and have fun. This is probably true for a lot of us. Dance parties can be nerve wrecking and make us socially anxious, especially now with all the new internet trolls & insta storying opportunities. But you know, once you get comfortable with yourself and start to let go of what other people think, that's when the party actually starts. You can live, let go and move confidently. You can start to embrace yourself in your quirks, wackiness and all. You can be bizarre, be who you are and laugh it all off. Coming into confidence at a dance party is a powerful thing because once you start moving, there's no holding back. Now I'm notoriously first on the dance floor and bust out my wacky white girl moves with pride LOL! So when Naohmi came up with the dance party theme for this collection, I knew it'd be perfect. Dancing is the ultimate form of self expression and takes true confidence to actually take part of. When planning this lookbook, I added a few bottles of champagne to our set list because I thought all us gals would need a little confidence booster, but to be honestly the energy and excitement in this amazing group of gals was intoxicating enough! If you followed along on our stories, you already know we did not even need a sip of it start the Dazey dance party. Seriously, every gal showed up and beamed with confidence from the get go. It was the most freeing and fun thing!  I am so proud to have connected with truly confident babes for this collection and spread their radiating self love & confidence back to you. Who's ready for the next Dazey dance party?! *cue Juice by Lizzo"*

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CREW OF QUEENS

Special Thanks to all our models: Natasha Ward, Sydney Louise Williams, Alexa Phelece, Olivia Cupp, Carly Compton, Oby Grace, Champagne, Grace Peters, Kennedy Slocum and Cloe. Huge thanks to our Dazey dude Phillip & our cinematographer Michael Greenwood, who is currently working on our fun Dazey dance party video soon to be released!

Thanks again Bend Goods for graciously letting us have a dance party in your gorgeous space! (follow them HERE!)

And of course biggest shout out to our Dazey Content Queen (official title) Naohmi Monroe for coming up with the idea, casting the most marvelous crew, shooting the whole thing, and truly putting all this together! 

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HIGHLIGHT REAL, NOT HIGHLIGHT REEL

A collection designed to celebrate the REAL things in an ever increasing digital world. Whether it be spending more time IRL or being more transparent online, we are HERE for it. As women, we are constantly bombarded with unrealistic ideas of perfection and #goals through never-ending “highlight reels” in media. We're done with that. We are ready to highlight REAL moments, emotions, and conversations that matter and can better our human connections with others and ourselves. We are ready to transform the negative effects of a highlight reel by highlighting REAL life as much as we can. Who's with us?!

 

How we are Highlighting REAL

The Highlight Real lookbook is a dreamy portrayal of what media does everyday. We're here to show you, just like every one else, models done up, retouched, and in gorgeous spaces caught in moments of beauty. But we're also here to show you that this isn't real. Here are photos of our models, Morgan, Rachel, and Claire, before and after the shoot. They're still insanely gorgeous before, just not Photoshopped to "perfection". You see, perfection isn't real, the highlight reel isn't real. What is real is the amazing human behind it all, and that's what we're here to celebrate. We choose to be highly transparent about this whole process in the name of keeping it REAL. We recorded the process of creating this entire production just to show you how much work and people go into making images like this. We are lifting the veil on the highlight reel photos and showing you what's actually REAL. It's time to embrace the other side, once and for all.

 

The Highlight Real collection was inspired to create conversation on how we can better our mental health, human connections, and overall image of self by stepping away from the filters, reassessing our valued #goals, and getting real with one another. When you cut the b.s. and share the BTS on life, work, love, and all that good stuff, you build strong bridges for human connection. There is power in that courage to let others in. 

 

Along with a new collection of graphics and styles, we're launching a new YOUTUBE channel dedicated to giving you all the BTS behind the brand. Check out our first video filled with what it takes to launch a collection, create a lookbook, and what actually goes on behind the brand day-to-day. Get a real look at the day in the life of the Dazey team as we get fully transparent on the highs and lows, the creations and frustrations, and show you the full process unmasked. 

 

 

 

So here it is, both the highlight reel and the REAL of our newest Dazey collection. See the months of planning, long hours of creating, and the full progression of this production unmasked. When you see everything as a whole, you realize how perfection is really just a fictional reality we've been conditioned with. It's time to block that bullshit and embrace the realness. Use the hashtag #highlight real to follow along on this season of unfiltered realness and share your own stories.

Special thanks to the wonderful team who helped this amazing shoot come to life!

Photographer: Champagne
Dazey team: Dani, Phillip, Megan, Naohmi
Models: Rachel, Morgan, Claire
Hair and Makeup: Amber and Maura
Set Design: Tess (florals) and Paper Moon Shoppe
Accessories: Santa Venetia Clogs, Sigfus, The Little Avocado Shop, Dear Survivor, and I'm With the Band Headbands

 

 

 

Celebrating and Empowering Women Globally

After months of planning and sharing snippets of behind the scenes our collaboration with Known Supply is here! This is our very first collaboration with a Dazey Dude, Kohl, but he is a man who wholeheartedly believes in empowering women and shining a light on what they are doing. In fact it's the whole mission behind his brand, sharing the stories and faces of the women who make your clothing. They operate their own facilities in Peru, Africa, and India. These are places where garment workers are often paid pennies and forced to work in terrible conditions. Known Supply provides them with great wages, good working conditions, and actually empowers them as the artisans and makers they are.

Each shirt has a patch inside with the signature of the woman who made it. It adds such a personal touch and humanizes an industry that all too often tries to hide the people behind it. @danidazey and @kohlgreyson are also so excited to share the entire journey of their collaboration in documentary called @newbreedmovie. It's all about young entrepreneurs running their companies with social good in mind. We all got together at Biz Babez awhile back and began planning. We wanted a design that celebrated the hands that would touch and wear the tee, all over the world, and  Kohl came up with the amazing verbiage "She is We." It reminds us that even if we are worlds away, we are are human, all equal, and all connected. I drew this design by hand and documented the whole process on our story that you can see HERE. I wanted it to represent women from all over the world and center around the idea of unity. The design in a single line drawing, meaning everything is connected and made by a single line. It was also done in the shape of a globe. These two details really bring home the idea of connection and togetherness. I also love that this design was hand drawn in LA by a woman and the shirt was hand sewn in Peru, like a collaboration directly with the maker! We wanted to take the Unite Women Globally concept one step further and found a wonderful female screen printer, Deluxe, to fuse the art with fabric. The shirt I'm wearing as I type this is made and signed by Frida, designed by Dani, and printed by Elsie. 

10% of Proceeds to be Donated to Women's Refugee Commission

Originally Kohl and I talked about donating a portion of the proceeds to a charity but decided against it since there was already so much to explain about the design and our collaboration,  we didn't want to water down the message or confuse anyone. But given our current state of affairs in America with families being separated at our borders it felt wrong not to donate. This design represents equality and unity across borders and backgrounds. We believe everyone is equal and everyone deserves a chance to live a good life. Sadly in so many places this is not the case and people, women and children in particular, need our help. We've decided from now until our event on July 1st to donate 10% of the proceeds to the Women's Refugee Commission, an organization dedicated to improving the lives and giving a voice to  displaced women and children. Right now they are actively doing all they can at the Mexican border to provide relief to the mothers and children who desperately need it. 

Shirts are in super limited supply so grab yours now! We also hope you can join us at our big collaboration event, which also doubles as the Dazey two year anniversary party! All the details are below and we are so excited to meet and connect with the people who support our brands.

 

SHOP AND SUPPORT HERE

 

The Shoot

Below is a photoshoot I did with gorgeous model Kelsey! We shot the new tees along with some other new Dazey items in beautiful Chinatown LA. I loved the juxtaposition of cultures in the shoot. It is really celebrating all cultures and backgrounds with color, life, and compassion!  

 

 

Introducing our Self Care Summer Line

This is the Self Care Summer Collection. So often we are told that success will bring you happiness and this collection challenges that. With social media that pressure has only become greater. We scroll through our feeds and see people that appear to be wildly successful, traveling the world, and have the perfect happy family. We all know deep down this is the highlight reel and not the REAL. But at the same time it can be so easy to get lost in daydreaming about that greener grass. These designs serve as little reminders that success is not what brings happiness. Enjoying where you are and consciously going a little easier on yourself. Choosing to be grateful about every thing you do have. Learning what is worth your time and energy and funneling more of those precious resources into yourself. 

I’ve always been driven to a fault and sometimes will work myself until I’m sick. I set large goals and daydream about how different and more fulfilled I will feel once I reach them. Then once I do I’m onto the next, not even taking a second to enjoy my accomplishments. Sound familiar!? I hear the same story over and over again from my peers. Even accomplished women who I admire and aspire to be like often talk about being unhappy. I’ve noticed this is especially true for female entrepreneurs, trying to balance everything and be super women. Desperately wanting to prove that we can and will have it all, yet losing ourselves in the process. Society tells us over and over again success is happiness. Even in the small successes I have had I’ve come to realize that’s just not true. Working yourself to the bone will only burn you out, it’s simply not sustainable. I was doing everything I loved for a living, but somehow still started to feel tired. When I began to feel the burn out coming I started working with our Biz Babez community manager Kasey Dreier. She is a self care coach for boss babes. I have been learning so many things about how to better take care of myself, and in turn take care of my company. As a self proclaimed "Yes Girl" I'm learning to say "NO" more and conserve my energy. Spend more time doing the things that make me feel relaxed and sane. Happiness can be found in the little things. It’s about hustling smarter, not harder, surrendering what doesn’t serve you, and finding magic in the mundane. These are just a few of the lessons I’m leaning and phrases on our new tees! I designed this collection amidst the most stressful and busy month of my life and really poured by heart into it. I put a lot of thought into each design and personally found solace in the messages. Inspired by the laid back lifestyle and gorgeous design aesthetic of Palm Springs, our new home away from home @dazey_desert_house. We hope they make you feel like YOU ARE ENOUGH and that life can be pretty darn great when you slow down enough to enjoy it :)

A little about the collection:

We are so excited so be launching our very first Dazey brand non-graphic Cut & Sew pieces alongside the tees! For those that don’t know Cut & Sew is just an industry term for fully custom made garments. If you follow Dazey on instagram you know @danidazey is obsessed with overalls and jumpsuits so of course we had to include these with our first full line drop! Each piece has been small batch made in LA, garment dyed to match the tees, and enzyme washed to have a soft weathered feel. They were designed to be versatile and worn with or without our tops. The straps on the jumpsuit and romper are designed to tie up top, giving you supreme adjustability and options when wearing. They are intentionally made fit the waist slightly loose and hang from the straps to accommodate different body types. Our wrap dress is adjustable with a tie as well, and can also be worn open as a duster! It's a total twofer and looks amazing layered with our graphics! They are made from a rayon twill that is soft, slightly heavy, and wrinkle resistant. These are all super limited pre-order runs so order now :)

We are also stoked to announce our collaboration pants print with girl boss owned and Australian based brand @flarestreet. The velvet bells came just in time for launch, literally the same day as the photoshoot haha. We used our beloved Frida Flora hand drawn pattern for the print. Available in the classic pink and a fun new blue, orange, and yellow print I like to call POP. They come in two different fits as well, a regular flare bell bottom and a wide leg pant. Flare Street is a sustainably made brand that created all of their pieces in small batches in Australia. Dani met the boss babe, Nik, randomly at a coffee shop while she was visiting LA and they immediately started talking about a collaboration. She runs an amazing company and we love brining or two brands together.

And lastly as always we are adding new and amazing items to our Dazey Lady Shop, a section of our website dedicated to selling goods made by other female entrepreneurs. Some of the new items include Miracle Eye bells, The Little Avocado Shop earrings, and some amazing shoes from new lady-ran label Free Reign. Hand picked by @danidazey herself and all paired perfectly with out new pieces.

You can literally shop ALL you see in our lookbook! Since the collection was inspired by Palm Springs of course we had to do the shoot there. Lucky for us we had the perfect location, @dazey_desert_house ;) You can even find our little mid century home on one of the new graphics. The feel of this collection embodies that classic Palm Springs vintage vibe. A touch of color, quirk, and style. 

Models:

@heidiijane & @_gypseaa

Photography/styling:

@danidazey

Hair/Makeup:

@breezeblowouts

Location:

@dazey_desert_house & @calientetropicsresort

SHOP HERE 

 

 

 

 

 

Coachella 2018 Round Up

The Event:

So excited to host our very first event for Coachella. I have been attending the festival and/or events surrounding it for years and have always wanted to get Dazey involved. Luckily this year I had the perfect venue for a pop up, The Desert House! It is right off the road on your way into Palm Springs so we figured it was a good place to drop in on the way into town. You can take a break from the crazy traffic to grab a drink, snap some photos, and get some clothes! We got the keys literally the week before and worked hard to get it ready in time. It was madness to say the least, but we pulled it off! The backyard was feeling festive and decked out in amazing goodies like pool floats, umbrellas, and pinatas from Sunny Life. Some amazing ethically made brands popped up alongside Dazey including Solstice Intimates, Revice Denim, and Wolven Threads. We had an awesome time and got to meet some rad business babes I admire as well as some Dazey Ambassadors! 

The Weekend:

The rest of the weekend we got to hang with some of our favorite people and attend all sorts of events. My girls @officiallyquilgey, @aldensteimle, and @champangeunicorns joined in on the fun along with their S.O.'s! Luckily the Joybird couches were all pull out beds and we were able to house four couples in our little two bedroom :) We shot photos all around the house plus I got a more compact camera so I could take it along the journey and take photos on the go. Check out the photos below to see all the fun! 

 

 

 

Valentines Day Special Release and Photoshoot!

We are all about spreading the LOVE here at Dazey and clearly you guys are too! Our OG mustard Love More tee is our all-time best seller (and most knocked off) by far! After many requests we’ve decided to offer more styles in this graphic. An amazing mustard bell sleeve, turtleneck, and basic white tee!

We were originally planning on releasing these exciting new styles alongside our new collection but decided doing a special Valentines Day launch couldn't be more appropriate! Today only we’re doing 15% off ALL love more products including our OG tee dress and mustard tee! Use the code “lovemore” at checkout. It’s the perfect time to pick up a tee whether you're spending time with someone special, doing Galentines, or celebrating self love. TREAT YO SELF LADIES!!!

Below we have a fun shoot with @danidazey and her boyfriend @phillipbutler! We originally shot the mustard love more tee in today's post with @merakinarrative & @larkcakeshop but had to add on all the new styles! We kept the fun going this past weekend doing a @bizbabez shoot for this special launch :)

Photos in mustard love more tee: @merakinarrative

Photos in other styles: @phillipbutler/@vegetaryn/@kaseydrier (team effort LOL!)

Women's March 2018 - Still Marching

As some of you may remember last year I designed a whole collection inspired by my empowering experience at the 2017 Women's March. One year later and we still have a reason to march. Some may argue that protesting doesn't really change anything, but I beg to differ. It shows the world that there are hundreds of thousands of people who care enough to show up early on a Saturday morning and march for their beliefs. It shows the attendees they are not alone as they stand in solidarity with their sisters. It brings light to not only the issue of gender inequality but so many more injustices people face.

My boyfriend and I got back from a week long exhausting work trip and then I had a sudden realization that the Women's March was in ONE DAY! The hype about the march this year was substantially less than the previous, yet our issues have not improved. I knew I had to get Dazey involved. Luckily I have a gorgeous space downtown, Biz Babez, that's always ready to host people! We decided to do a pre-march prep party, complete with sign making, coffee, and snacks. I announced literally the morning before the March via Instagram and so many babes showed up! This was a great way to get a group of gals together and march as one, and we all had an amazing time getting to know each other and really feeling like a community. I asked gals to show up wearing their Dazey and so many did, it was awesome! 

One of my favorite parts of the march is seeing all the powerful, funny, and inspiring signs. It's actually what inspired my collection last year! This year I noticed too many talking about intersectional issues such as DACA, racism, transphobia, ageism, body positivity, and so much more. It was a great reminder that feminism is more than just a fight against sexism, it's about standing up for all marginalized people. Feminism stands for equality for ALL and needs to address these intersectional issues. As a brand we need to do a better job of spotlighting the people who have multiple marginalizations and give them a loud and proud voice in this movement. 

Below we have photos from the full day along with a few posts we did on Instagram about the march. Huge shout out to these amazing Dazey Ladies who showed up and stood with us! So proud of all of you amazing, kind, and strong women. We also saw so many of you  marching in Dazey in other cities and states. It was so cool to see and we have included some of the photos from around the globe! 

👊YOU CAN MARCH WITH US 👯 Had an incredible day standing alongside my sisters in the DTLA Women's March ❤️ We had a pre-march party at @bizbabez where we made signs and formed our Dazey Lady girl-gang ✨ There's NOTHING like gathering in solidarity to stand for something you believe in 💪 Swipe right to see some of these inspiring and empowered women 👉 #dazeyladiesunite #girlgang #womensmarchLA #womensmarch #empoweredwomen #timesup

A post shared by Dazey LA - Brand & Boss Blog (@dazey_la) on Jan 20, 2018 at 6:07pm PST

 

 

💗 Let's talk about INTERSECTIONAL FEMINISM 💗 If you were at the women's march yesterday no doubt you saw many signs talking about intersectionality. This is a lot more than the feminist movement's most recent "buzz word". It's at the core of what we're fighting for, equality for ALL. Intersectional feminism recognizes that many women face prejudice far beyond just their gender. Weather it be their race, orientation, body type, socioeconomic class, or ability. Intersectional feminism does not dismiss their experience and wants to give them a voice and position of power in this movement. Everyone deserves the same rights and treatment. Period. As a brand we want to do a better job of shining a spotlight on these strong inspiring women with multiple marginalizations. What does intersectionality mean to you? How can I as a white feminist better include you? Let's all talk about this important topic below in the comment convos 👇 #dazeydialogue #commentconvos #intersectionality #intersectionalfeminism #womensmarch #dazeyladiesunite

A post shared by Dazey LA - Brand & Boss Blog (@dazey_la) on Jan 21, 2018 at 11:39am PST

 

Women's March Austin TX - Via @allychavezzz

San Diego March - Via @merzydotes & @timmelideo

Women's March Reno - Via @jessicabannister, @lorawagener/@lorawagenerco

 

 

 

Dazey Men's Tee Release

Male Dazey fans, we have heard your cries and decided to launch some of our designs on mens shirts. As you know our brand is all about female empowerment and we think men who support women are awesome, including this guy below! My boyfriend, Phillip, has been a huge support to me along this whole crazy Dazey journey and now he can also be my Dazey Dudes model haha. 

Snag a tee for yourself or the man in your life who has been jealous of all your Dazey swag! Below are some of the styles available currently. We wanted to focus primarily on our feminist tees but plan on adding all things of style moving forward.

 

Say hello to NEW DAZEY!

So excited to release our Fall/Winter line, the Dreamer and Doer Collection. This collection is inspired by taking that leap of faith and going from a dreamer to a doer. Choosing to pursue your dreams and ideas and go all in. We like to define a Dazey Lady as an, "Everyday girl choosing to be brave and share their ideas and talents with the world." Often time the hardest part of starting a new venture or choosing to go after a dream is just making that decision. The graphics all have phrases and artwork to inspire you to go make it happen! Gorgeous warm tones, turtle necks, and a bunch of cozy choices. We have also added a ton of new pants and fun accessories to the Dazey Lady Shop that pair perfectly with the tops. 

The timing for this collection couldn't be more perfect because recently I decided to take a risk and start a second business! After working with so many local female entrepreneurs I noticed they loved self employment, but not the loneliness it brought on spending full days working from home. We want to work for ourselves but not by ourselves! I have tried WeWork, a fairly large co-working space and just found the corporate feel and lack of community didn't really meet my needs. I wanted to build a space where young female entrepreneurs can come together and find inspiration, collaboration, and community. So I teamed up with my friend Taryn and we built it! We call the space Biz Babez. We both built our business off of creating content and using social media, so we knew the Biz Babez office needed to be Pintrest-perfect! I designed the space specifically to have multiple areas that serve as different backdrops, giving plenty of options for photoshoots without it looking repetitive. We finished decorating the space just in time for the shoot and I'm so excited I was able to use it for this lookbook.

Stay tuned for another Instagram sharing challenge around the Dreamer and Doer that will be announced in the next week or so :)

SHOP THE NEW STUFF HERE:

All Involved:

Location - @bizbabez

Models - @jjakerman & @joiliaye

MUA - @amberrose

Photography/Styling - @danidazey

Shoot Production Assistant - @thelittleavocadoshop

 

 

 

 

DAZEY LA X SOLSTICE INTIMATES

SHOP THE SUIT HERE

I could not be more excited to announce our new collab piece with Solstice Intimates! I have been following their journey on social media since the beginning and have always been inspired by their amazing products and boss babe behind the brand, Natalie! She began Solstice just a few years ago sewing everything by hand and now it has quickly become a huge success. 

For our collab we wanted to incorporate the feel of both of our brands into one magical piece. With her gorgeous handmade silhouettes mixed with my hand-drawn graphics we knew it was going to be special. After some back and forth we decided to go with a mod pop-art look to match the bold spirit of the Solstice girl and playful feel of Dazey. The bodysuit is made from a soft beatable cotton with bright screen printed design. Wear it solo or with pants or a skirt! However you wear it we know you won't want to take it off ;) 

Solstice began with unique silhouettes and 70s styles sewn all in velvet. They looked different than any other lingerie I had seen before. Very playful, fun, and looked more comfortable and durable than your usual slinky silk underpinnings. I saw them as being more made for the wearer's benefit than anyone else. They are empowering and all about self expression. With amazing marketing, social media presence, and the support of their fans, the brand expanded. They now carry many more styles including amazing swimwear and dresses!

It only seemed right to include a Dazey Lady feature on Natalie along with the launch! Read below as she talks about humble beginnings, her inspiration, and how she's managing to scale her business!  PS Natalie is the red head babe you see scattered in between our lookbook photos :)

Model 1st look: Reid Cox

Photog 1st look: @danidazey

Model 2nd look: @uhclarice 

Photog 2nd look: Joseph Maddon

Solstice has got to be the coolest and fastest growing lingerie brands! How long have you been in business?

Thanks girl! We have been going at it just under two years. Solstice came about from my own personal love of beautiful underpinnings. I started just making for myself what I could not find in other shops. When I first started it was just the basics: bodysuit, bra, underwear, all in velvet only. I quickly realized that they were being worn as outerwear. I remember the first time I saw a woman wearing one of the bodysuits with jeans, like just as her shirt and at first I was confused. Then I realized I needed to step my game up if these pieces were the actual outfit and not just hiding under the outfits. From there I started adding more panels, colors, textures, etc. 

What did you do before Solstice? Did you get any degree in the art or fashion world?

Yes, I did get a degree in Fashion Design from FIDM in Los Angeles. I started a business with two other friends from school when we were all 18/19 and quickly learned I was in over my head. I didn’t know enough about the business side of things. I also missed my family in Arizona so I moved home about a year after finishing college. I planned to stay in fashion and was working to get an internship while working full time with MAC makeup and making a few wedding dresses on the side. I met my now husband, got married, and had our first baby. I was working lots of hours, and hours I did not want to be working so much with a family so I went back to school, got a job as a finance manager, and got my masters degree in business finance. The plan was to use my degrees to start my own business but I got really comfortable for about 10 years in my 9-5 desk job. I started making kids clothes as a creative outlet while I worked my normal job but it was not something that I felt could support my family doing full time. I put the kids clothes on hold and focused on my career in finance. I started making bras for myself, then my friends, and when others started showing interest I launched a site thinking I would have a few nice friends that bought some stuff and the site blew up the first day. I tried to get orders filled at night after work and when my babies slept but within two months I had to make the choice to quit my job or quit Solstice. Solstice won and I have not looked back since. 

What did you set out to create when you started? What makes Solstice different than other brands?

I am a no fuss jeans and tee kind of girl in terms of my outerwear but I have always liked to get a little more fancy with my underwear. The issue was always that I still wanted to feel comfortable. Underwire and constrictive fabrics make me nuts. I started making pieces for myself that made me feel pretty but still comfortable in my skin. I can't stand taking my bra off and having all those indents and red stab marks everywhere that I am sure any woman can relate to at some point in life. I try to find a balance between intricate beautiful designs but they still have to feel good on my skin and look beautiful peeking out of a low cut tee. 

So each piece is handmade. Did you began sewing each piece yourself? Tell us a little about your growth process as your are scaling.

Balancing business growth and sticking to my handmade roots has been a learning process that I am still getting a grasp on. To this day I still myself sew at least 10 hours a day. Every piece that is shipped I still touch. Last year it was just me, alone in my kitchen sewing like a mad woman. Within about six months of starting I realized it was at a point where it was impossible for me to do it alone. I had a very hard time with that concept but people were already waiting six weeks for orders and I knew that any longer than that and folks would lose interest. I know I wouldn't want to wait that long! So I put out an add for a seamstress and interviewed countless people and cried for weeks trying to find someone that I trusted with my baby. I finally found a woman, Kim is her name, and she had 25 years experience in manufacturing of swimwear. She is perfect and has taught me so much and helped me to improve my product along the way. She sews way faster than I do so she does most of the everyday pieces and I do the specialty and one of a kind pieces. We also have my husbands childhood friend, Dan who helped me with my kids brand and learned to sew knits so he sews with me most days as well. From the beginning I wanted to do swimwear but I have never sewn a swimsuit in my life. They are a whole other beast. I have a small batch manufacturer in Los Angeles that helps me with those, which is why they are ready to ship and not a 4-6 week wait situation. They have also been slowly incorporating some of my everyday designs into their process so hopefully we will be able to add to our ready to ship line as we progress with them. I will never stop sewing. We have built a clientele of women who have a hard time finding ready made pieces. We will always cater to those with the long or shorter torsos, mismatched top to bottom ratios, etc. In order to do that, we have to make the pieces to order just for them. Those are my people, the ones that have been there rooting me on since the beginning. I have rows of patterns special made with customers names on them that I will always adjust as their bodies change. We also just bought a rad workspace so I am now (just as of this week) out of my kitchen and the hope is to expand, hire more people to help sew, and get my wait time down. 

What do you attribute to being the biggest factor in your insta-success?

My husband, Joseph Maddon, is an incredibly talented photographer. He did fashion photography before we started Solstice. We had built in models that are dear friends and he is able to create a culture for our brand based on his pictures. We always want Solstice to feel like a community that people want to be a part of and we are mindful of that and how we use social media. I also have a social media/marketing manger, Kat who also does customer service so many of our customers know her. She does fun stuff like read up on algorithms, media trends, and keeps our brand looking exciting. I never want my customers to feel like just another email so we keep things small, personable, and tight knit. Everyone involved in this venture is personally invested and we pour our hearts into this. The goal is for that to be evident in every garment that leaves our hands. 

We obviously LOVE your aesthetic and 70s vibe. What’s your inspiration when designing? 

My grandmother is a huge inspiration in my life. She taught me to sew when I was very young, about seven. She made my dresses for church and quickly taught me to make my own dresses for church. I wanted a new dress each Sunday so I had to quickly learn to hold my own. I cherish everything about this woman. She has hundreds of photo albums in her home documenting every life event raising her eight children and each of something like thirty of her grandchildren and great grandchildren now has dedicated photo books. The importance of these photo books for me is that growing up I studied them as if they were novels. My grandmother was and is the epitome of cool and her wardrobe in those photos will forever be burned into my mind as the ultimate style. She wore the most amazing outfits and looked like a total badass with a bunch of babies on her hip while wearing floral maxi dresses, her locks in a huge bun on top of her head, and cat eye glasses. I will forever be pushing myself to capture and recreate the image of what is “cool” that was instilled in me by Sandy. 

Solstice uses a wonderfully diverse group of models and often posts photos of pubic hair and lady-nipps. Somewhat “radical" marketing we admire, but some people may find this shocking. Whats your thought process and intention behind this?

We do not have any sort of formula for who we choose to represent our brand. The models on our site are primarily dear friends that we knew prior to starting Solstice. We are always looking for new people to partner with but it has much more to do with how they move, how comfortable they are in front of a camera, and what they represent as a human. Our models are moms, artists, bloggers, dancers, athletes, advocates, students, scientists, explorers, and all around badasses. What makes a photo enticing is not how toned or tanned the subject is. It’s that coy little smirk. It’s the disheveled imperfection that makes that subject relatable. I will often choose a photo where maybe there are twisted straps or the actual product is represented less than perfect but the woman wearing it is flipping her hair in a way that exudes sex appeal. Those are the pictures I want to represent my brand. I’ve had friends stop by, soaking wet out of the shower, no makeup on and I begged them to get photos taken for the site before our coffee run. You know when you wake up in the morning and the person laying next to you just looks so perfectly natural and comfortable? That’s it, that’s the look. 

You guys started out making very unique velvet pieces but have been expanding to things like swimwear and dresses. Whats on the horizon for your brand? In five years now where do you see Solstice? 

My vision changes daily based on what is presented to me by our community and customers. Since we are handmade to order we can evolve at the drop of a hat. If something doesn't work out, we pull it and try again without having stacks of inventory to lose. We are currently focused heavily on inclusion. We created the unisex Billy Brief after we started getting emails about men wanting to join the party. We will continue to expand in that area. Right now we offer custom sizing but I want to have a standardized plus size range within a year. I don’t have experience in grading patterns for plus size but the folks that make our swimwear are working on grading patterns and creating samples for us. Until then I just take measurements and make each piece individually but I really want to be able to offer more in terms of sizing. Another avenue we are working on is a wider range of products for our transgender customers. We have some samples out for testing and are making some pattern revisions but this will be coming soon as well. As we get requests, I do my best to accommodate each person that I come across and if there is a need, we will offer it to the masses. 

What's your biggest piece of advice to an aspiring entrepreneur in the fashion space?

The fashion industry is so fast paced and fickle. I have to just not even pay attention to what anyone else is doing and get all hung up on it. I do what feels right for me. I sometimes find myself checking out other brands and being like, “Crap, why didn't I think of that.” Learning to just sit back and trust myself has been a huge part of my personal and professional growth. I had to stop worrying about what anyone else was doing, if people would like what I was making, or if it would sell. I have had a few pieces not sell and had to get ahold of my self-doubt and just move on. In the end, I only have to answer to myself and know that I put my heart into each piece I create. 

What does being a Dazey Lady mean to you?

I love that Dazey has the same ideals of culture and friendship. Above and beyond creating a brand, you are creating a community. I love that stuff. I love that when I purchase from a small business I am buying into the dreams of the creator.