The Clare V. Effect – The Beloved Designer Talks to Us About Her Path, The Bright Future Ahead, and Why Collaboration Is Always Cool, But Comparison Is Not

I have always been a big fan of Clare V. and her eponymous brand. Her playful but stylish aesthetic can be seen with her products but also felt as soon as you walk into one of her brick and mortar stores. When I initially had the opportunity to speak with Clare, I knew I would love her, but throughout our discussion, something about her story really stood out and made me think of the idea from that book “Outliers” by Malcolm Gladwell. Why? Well, because she started her brand from a single idea that was needed in the market, and expanded her brand to be so much more. That’s it… an idea, mixed with a hard work, vision, style, and conviction made Clare V. what it is today.

Originally from the Midwest, (St. Louis to be exact), Clare had the spirit of design and entrepreneurship in her blood from the beginning. A lover of travel and an undying knack for DIY design and visual exploration, Clare talks about how her path, though unconventional, was perfect for her and that the path to success is not always linear… and she likes it that way.

Since launching her brand, she has used it as a platform to collaborate and celebrate causes and people she admires. But aside from all of her incredible accomplishments - including her upcoming run with Every Mother Counts for the Kilimanjaro half-marathon - her greatest achievement is the ability to employ people of all different skills and talents, while striving to maintain and foster an environment that her team enjoys working in.

The Tidalist: Can you tell me a little about yourself, where are you from and how did you get into the fashion industry?

Clare V: I grew up in St. Paul, Minnesota. That's where my family is. And I went to school and went to college in San Francisco so I've kind of been in California ever since. Ever since I was 18. I never went back. I do go back to see my family, but I've never lived there again. I was always very interested in fashion and I thought that I was gonna be a writer, I thought I would be like you and write about fashion.

But then after college, I moved to Paris which is where I met my now-husband. When we moved back to the U.S. we worked in French television together. He's a journalist for French television and I started to work with him. We were traveling to a lot of production studios in the US and started to make laptop bags for myself… and I just fell in love with it. I thought it really felt like a calling. I was so passionate about it, I would stay up till the wee hours of the morning sewing and making different creations. I've never done that before. So it really felt like something clicked. And I just started to have this dream. And I was like, “Oh, maybe I could do this. Maybe I could have a bag company.” You know, start with one product. So I started to make bags for myself and my friends. And I started a website and everything grew out of that.

I didn't know anything about production or how to start a measurement because I had never worked at any other fashion brand. I had worked in retail on the company side, but not production… so that was a very daunting thought of like, “where do I start?” I then realized that I was living in LA and I thought there's definitely a manufacturing community in LA. I'm just going to go find it and I just went downtown to the sewing districts and I started basically knocking on doors and going to fabric stores and asking people who worked there and that's how it started.

The Tidalist: That is incredible. Especially because it really starts out with something small, and I mean you have to have a great taste, but that small item has evolved into so much more. If you do something really well it really just gives your brand such a level of authenticity, but also, once you have one really good product that people really trust and love and it's well made, then it can be so much more.

“I was so passionate about it, I would stay up till the wee hours of the morning sewing and making different creations. I’ve never done that before. So it really felt like something clicked. And I just started to have this dream. And I was like, “Oh, maybe I could do this. Maybe I could have a bag company.” You know, start with one product. So I started to make bags for myself and my friends. And I started a website and everything.”

— Clare on following her bliss

“It’s always a fun thing when we’re getting into a category that we don’t already do.”

The Tidalist: As a personal lover of your brand, I have followed you for quite some time and I know that you have a really cool group of people who you've collaborated with, from the likes of Mike D, and so on. How did you come up with that collaboration and how do you decide what types of brands you choose to do collaborations with?

Clare V: Yeah, we've had such a good time over the years collaborating with people, and it's one of the things I really love to do, because it is so stimulating, artistically creatively. We get to get a glimpse into other people's worlds. Nothing better, it's so fun. The way that we've been able to do it over the years is by doing something that we don't already do. So with, for example, TOMS Shoes, we don't make shoes, and they're an LA company, and we love their charity component and their ethos – the idea that we should be giving back, and I felt the same way for my company. So we had a lot of synergies. And we were friends with the creative director at the time so that was kind of a no-brainer, we don't make shoes. We love giving back. LA company. Let's do something fun!

With Mike it was we had met through the architect Barbara Bester. She designed my first three stores and she's an LA-based architect. She is friends with Mike from way back in the day and also designed his houses. She brought him to the opening of my Nolita store and I was of course kind of starstruck. A Beastie Boy. We chatted that night. And then a little while later, maybe a year later, Shelby Meade and Mike approached me to do a collaboration. He was guest editing the magazine, Monster Children. They wanted some products associated with VIP issues of the magazine. So we did some product associated with that like a card case and then I think when he was at the studio, I just realized how interested he is in design. And he was just super excited about all of it. So like maybe a year later after that, I approached him I don't even know if he approached me or I approached him about doing a men's capsule. Because we didn't we didn't make menswear and who better to do it with than with someone that has a cool and interesting design like Mike. That's how that happened. And we did that two times. We did two iterations of men's capsule with him.

For other collaborations with the likes of Anthropology, we have been able to do really fun furniture and home collaborations which has been great. It's always a fun thing when we're getting into a category that we don't already do.

The Tidalist: I also love the glasses that you're doing with Caddis!

Clare V: Yes! Those are readers. But we did do a really fun sunglasses collaboration with Garrett Leight! I always tell that to young brands, and like, of course, collaboration is a great way to grow your audience. I mean, you're combining your two audiences. A compound experience.

The Tidalist: I think it's really cool when I see a brand that I love like Clare V collaborating and it shows your great sense of style and taste that you think of anyone from like Mike D to Anthropology to collaborate with.

You also utilize your brand to draw attention to nonprofits that you care about. Can you tell us about your involvement with Every Mother Counts?

Clare V : That’s a great thing that we do with a non-profit that I am so happy about. I’ve had the privilege to travel around the world with Christy’s organization and I'm really just so thankful for that. Other alignment and collaboration we've had going with them for the past six or seven years. It's been such a great experience. Not only that, I have so much respect for her and the work she does the organization really just puts boots on the ground and gets shit done. Putting their money where their mouth is. Being able to see it firsthand going to Africa has been incredible. I’ve been once before and we're going again at the end of February. That's where we will run the Kilimanjaro half marathon.

The Tidalist: I became well-acquainted with a lot of the runners and the people in the organization when I ran for them. And I look at her in a similar light as you. A really strong woman who uses her platform for good.

I distinctly remember running the half marathon and she couldn't run because she had a foot sprain, but I remember her being there handing out waters for all of the runners and just being so involved in any way.

Clare V: Yep. Yep. She's the real deal.

The Tidalist: So what would you say some of the biggest lessons you've learned as a business owner, that you would tell your younger self? Or could be one big lesson, something that you really felt?

Clare V: You know, I don't have any regrets. And I like the path that I took, and I wouldn't have done it any other way. BUT, with this hypothetical question I answer by saying, I would have interned or worked at another fashion company. To just learn more about the different positions in the company to learn how the operations work. I just think it would have been extremely enlightening. But that just wasn't in my cards. I had part-time jobs while I was starting this and I was a young mom and didn’t get to work at another fashion company before I started my own.

The Tidalist: How many kids do you have? How was juggling motherhood while starting a new business?

Clare: I have one son and one stepson. I was just with a new employee on the creative team. And we were looking through all these photos yesterday on my computer because I just have so much historical brand stuff. So it's fun to just look at the office when I started back in those days and see the first product come in and the exciting moment back then. But interspersed with like, “Oh, I'm shooting all the product photography out in my backyard on a piece of white paper and like I used to retouch all the image and shoot on product photography.”

It's fun to see all of that, but interspersed within all of that brand stuff and building my brand are so many family pictures and so many pictures of my son as a little boy. It was so crazy to see. This is a mom trying to fit this in between starting a business and also raising a son, he's really grown up in the thick of it because I had this idea before he was born and I met my first factory and I had my first prototypes from them. And then I got pregnant and then had my son and it just kind of really forward and waylaid by the whole mothering process. And as we are, when we have a child, the first time and we're like, what the fuck just happened.

I had the great privilege of not having to rush back to work without my husband working. So I really was a stay-at-home mom for three years. But I didn't have a business off the ground yet to the point where I could justify any kind of childcare. I wasn't making any money with my business, but then when he was three, he was able to go to preschool for half a day. That’s when I hustled. Nobody gets more done than a mom when her kid is at preschool. We have those few hours and we hustle and get so much done. And when I did, that's when I was starting my business. He's now 18 and a man.

The Tidalist: You get a lot of inspiration from travel, especially with your husband being Parisian and the brand paying tribute to the chic French vibe. Where do you feel you often like to go to get that dose of cultural experience or cultural inspiration? Where have you been dying to go?

Clare V: I would love to spend more time in Mexico. I get so much inspiration from that country, and we're so close to it. I’m also half Mexican, my dad was Mexican, so I do love that culture so much. And then being married to a Frenchman, I feel that's part of my DNA. Now. I really, absolutely love going back there and getting so much inspiration from France, but I feel like I've had such wonderful experiences traveling. I hadn’t gone to Africa and really wanted to go there and would now love to go to Morocco. I've never been to Marrakesh or North Africa, just Tanzania and now we're going to Kenya. I feel like it's all going to be incredible and I just love it. I loved the landscape. I love the people. I love the colors and the inspiration.

The Tidalist: Knowing how it's been really hard in isolation for people to cultivate creativity and really feel inspired. I was curious if you had any tips or tricks of things that you've started to do or picked up during COVID that have helped keep your creative juices flowing as a designer?

Clare V: Well, one of the things that happened during COVID was people weren't buying a lot of bags because they weren't leaving their house. So we really pivoted to lean into more of the clothing that we're making. So we switched gears quickly. Thankfully, we have production in the US and LA so we're able to make that pivot very quickly. But I think leaning more into the clothing design and getting more inspiration that way, I spent a little bit more time researching designs, and getting inspiration for new things that we should be making. And we want to do it in a really smart way and don't want to just launch into a full-blown clothing line. We want to do it, but we're doing it very incrementally in a way that we can handle. So leaning into that is one way, but I think I've just had a lot of more time at the studio alone, because people have been working from home, or at least they were, but now most people are back at the studio. The studio has always a very stimulating place for me.

“Making small models of design, creating, doing the prototype myself for a new design is a real outlet for me. Just suddenly, I’m feeling better. During COVID I’ve had more time to be a little bit more creative, actually. Which sounds strange, but it has been the case.”

I always say that the biggest thing for me even before COVID is when I’m having a hard time – if I'm feeling stuck in any way or feeling kind of down, the best thing for me to do is to make something and that's probably sewing for me. But, it's also creating bag designs - we make small models that are in our design rooms. So making small models of design, creating, doing the prototype myself for a new design is a real outlet for me. Just suddenly, I'm feeling better. During COVID I've had more time to be a little bit more creative, actually. Which is sounds strange, but it has been the case.

The Tidalist: That's it. I think it's interesting because like in writing I get the same. Taking me out of the situation or where I am at the moment in time and just sort of transports me into whatever I'm doing at the moment, I feel like anything that really works with your hands and just kind of creative is a really good way to use the time that you have alone wisely.

The Tidalist: What would you say your proudest moment has been in your career? And is there something that you hope to accomplish in the future within your professional life?

Clare V: I would say the proudest moment has been realizing how many people I employ and letting that soak in. Creating jobs and means for people to live their lives and be functioning; and also doing that in an environment that feels like a healthy environment for people to be working in. When I say jobs, I'm also talking about the jobs at our factory, like the fact that we are able to produce our things in the US has been very satisfying to see that our factories are growing, and they're hiring more people.

I just feel excited to be part of that. I'm excited to be part of creating income for people. That's been really the proudest moment. And then, in terms of what more we want to do is I think we want to continue to grow I mean, we for sure want to continue to grow and I love our stores. I love that our stores become part of communities. And I'm a big believer in brick and mortar retail. I think people love to stroll their communities on the weekends and during the days I think it's nice to have communities that are filled with small shops that make you feel good when you go in and you get to there's that sense of discovery and there's that sense of kind of With the person working there, or the other customers in the store, so the personal connection that happens and discovery and the reach of rejuvenation of neighborhoods. A great neighbor is a cute boutique where they're playing good music and it smells nice when you go in and there's really pretty product to look at. It doesn't take fuel away. It's like a little safe for people. And I feel I'm excited that we can provide that to people.

“I’m excited to get back to Africa with Every Mother Counts for my second trip. And I can’t believe that I’m getting to go back to that continent for the second time in my life because it’s such a special trip and so far away. It’s just such a great privilege to be able to do that. ”

The Tidalist: If I were to open your Spotify, what would you say would be either your most-listened-to track or artist at this time?

Clare V : Oh my god. That's so funny. I mean, to be really honest. Yes. I don't know if I should even be honest about it, but it's the song that I've been listening to go to work. The past couple of days is… Peaches by Bieber.

The Tidalist: We love that song. Who doesn’t love a little Bieber.

Clare V: It's a good song. Right? But I'm always listening to R&B. Right now I'm looking at my screen right now… and it's Alicia Keys.

The Tidalist: Gotta love her. From Bieber to Alicia Keys. That's the best.

The Tidalist: Is there a trip that you are really excited about? I think I might know what the answer is, but something that you're most excited about in the near future?

Clare V: Yeah, I'm excited to get back to Africa with Every Mother Counts for my second trip. I can't believe that I'm getting to go back to that continent for the second time in my life because it's such a special trip and so far away. It’s just such a great privilege to be able to do that.

The Tidalist: What is a quote you live by or words of motivation that you like to tell yourself?

Clare V: Well I definitely try to live by it and it's not really a quote, but it's kind of a modern myth. Look, look ahead. Don't look to your side. I love that. Because maybe I'll find a way to say it. more elegantly someday. But I think, to me, it just means I think when we're looking at our landscape that we're in, and I'm talking about work, but I'm also talking about personnel. We look about people who are supposed to be our peers, whether that's brands or people, we're always comparing ourselves and, and I don't think that's ever a great thing. So I think the best thing for us to do in terms of work, or work or creativity or our personal lives is to look, look ahead. And that just means taking your own path. That just means following in your own footsteps, instead of swerving and trying to do what other people are doing. Or comparing yourself because it's never a good thing, just never. So it's kind of like put your blinders on and go, just keep going forward.

Big thank you to Clare, you inspire us all!

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