Behind Craving Good Vibes
This is the history behind the inspirational evolution of True Blessyn into Craving Good Vibes. It’s a story about faith and understanding everything is part of the journey. Blessings and good vibes are all connected…
I graduated college with a Business Marketing degree in 2004 from Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia. After graduation I realized my ideal job was not going to be 9-5. I wanted to be an entrepreneur therefore I quickly made the decision to attend fashion school when I returned home to Chicago. I enrolled at the Illinois Academy of Design and attended a few semesters then took a break after giving birth to my daughter. My daughter was my greatest blessing and it was even more important for me to work hard and build a foundation for her. She was my inspiration for naming my brand True Blessyn.
My break from school led to be a permanent one and I didn’t finish my courses. I have always been an ambitious person even when the odds were against me. Therefore, I learned alternative ways to gain the knowledge needed to launch a fashion line without attending school. I started designing t-shirts with screen printed designs then challenged myself to create something different. I wanted to make hand painted t-shirts, but I wasn’t an artist. During my search to find a artist I could collaborate with, I found an artist named Polina Ben-Sira who posted an ad seeking creative gigs for hire. I loved her work and reached out to pitch my project. Our energy immediately vibed and we decided to do a test run with her hand painting one of my ideas onto a t-shirt. The t-shirt was amazing! It was exactly my vision. Polina and I continued to work together collaborating on a variety of wearable art t-shirts as I worked to build my collection for the first line. True Blessyn began in 2009 and I was fulfilling my dream of becoming a fashion designer.
Two years later I could really see God connecting the dots. Every great opportunity sent my way was God’s blessing. I attended a fashion networking event where I met several talented individuals, one being a designer named Bryan K.Osburn who designed evening and bridal wear. We Immediately hit it off and kept in contact after the event. I took this as an opportunity to be mentored by Bryan, with the hopes of learning the ins and outs of building a successful brand. Bryan invited me to a photo shoot he was doing for his B. Osborn collection. While on set for the shoot I met Antoinette Arnold owner of PR firm Authentic Noise. Antoinette and I both were at the beginning stages of building our brands. I knew the vision I had for the line, but I needed help telling the story behind True Blessyn. Antoinette helped put my mind into business owner mode and provided the guidance I needed to have a successful brand launch. She challenged me to go bigger and better to build a brand that would create income.
I didn’t just want to make t-shirts anymore, I wanted to create a women's collection consisting of 10 pieces. This was a major shift and out of my budget. I knew how costly it would be to put this type of collection into production from beginning to end. I trusted God and again he connected me with the right people. I found an add on Craigslist for a seamstress who was seeking odd jobs. She wasn’t available to take on ongoing projects so she connected me with Anna Livermore. Anna was working inside her Rogers Park apartment creating samples and providing garment production guidance to small fashion lines. Anna and I worked for months creating samples for my collection. There was so much to the process from sketching to picking fabric, creating samples, arranging photo shoots, creating look-books, marketing, and the list goes on. During this hectic time, I was also fortunate to meet another talented artist by the name of Sam Kirk. Sam created dope street art with empowering messages highlighting issues in urban communicates and promoting self awareness. Sam and I immediately vibed, and also collaborated on a few designs under the True Blessyn brand.
My first collection was magical. I named it The Dream Chaser because I was chasing my dream and it was so close to being a reality. I was wrapping up the collection and thought I found the perfect model for my look book shoot and two weeks before the shoot the model canceled. I immediately went into a bit of a panic mood. Antoinette suggested I do a casting call, and her reaching out to a few modeling agencies to let them know about the casting. The budget was $500 to hire a professional model. Once again God came to the rescue. The first model that showed up to the casting call was Ford model, Lauren Johnson. I immediately knew she was the one. Lauren killed the True Blessyn look book shoot and shortly after releasing the book Lauren started to appear in huge AD campaigns throughout the city of Chicago. I remember the first time I saw her on a huge billboard for a McDonalds strawberry lemonade campaign. Look at God! Lauren later shot my spring 2012 look-book shoot.
Things were moving along and I received a Facebook message out of nowhere from a man named Randy Bonds, an entertainment publicist interested in speaking with me about True Blessyn. He just so happened to be the publicist for Ashley Everett, Beyoncé’s dance tour captain. Randy and I were connected by one of his family members who I worked with in the past. God was working behind the scenes and I didn't even know it. I had the opportunity to feature True Blessyn pieces on Ashley Everette! One of my favorite memories is when Ashley appeared on Chicago Fox News wearing a True Blessyn “ Militant” cozy dress and that same night Beyonce surprised the world with announcing her Mrs. Carter world tour. Soon after former Natural Hair blogger Taren Guy, American Idol contestant Tamar Davis, and Chicago influencer Akeisha Lockhart were all rocking TB while making public appearances.
I was about 5 years into building TB while still juggling my day job and making sacrifices for my dream. I didn’t have any handouts. I worked hard and invested my own money into my business. The realization set in that the fashion industry is a revolving door with collections being created back to back. There are no breaks if you follow the traditional fashion process. I was a small business running the entire process. I needed a solid team to keep up with the demand and I started to feel overwhelmed and burned out. This made it hard to be creative, positive, and maintain a clear vision for the brand. I started to think about rebranding my images. I matured and my vision for the brand was shifting. I contemplated what people would think if I took a break from True Blessyn. Then it didn’t matter when I started to enjoy life. I took trips, spent time with my family and friends, enjoyed good food, and welcomed new experiences. During this time, I was still thinking of new ways to rebrand True Blessyn but vowed to myself that I would not make this be a stressful process. I was living my best life by the time 2016 was here until May 18, 2016 when I received the call my oldest brother had suddenly passed. That was one of the worst feelings of my life. I had never experienced losing someone I would trust with my life. He was my best friend. I was hurt and would never get to experience some of the things we dreamed of doing together. Everyone who was blessed to know him loved is good vibe energy. He was always smiling. I may never get the answer to why this happened but I know it changed me for the best. I found myself dealing with grief by doing things I enjoyed doing. I learned I was in control of creating my good vibe energy and now was the time to live my best life because life is short. Through the good and bad I never let go of my dreams. Some might look at my journey as a failure but the appreciation and love I have for God and knowing he’s always on my side surpasses what anyone thinks. God does things according to his plan for our lives. It’s our responsibility to have faith and connect the dots because the answers are there if we are faithful. God continues to birth new visions in my heart, which is Craving Good Vibes. The name was inspired during the journey of losing my brother. In his honor I will continue to live my best life while uniting my love for fashion, food, and good vibes. I looking forward to this new journey craving all things good vibes.
