Today we’d like to introduce you to Chelsea Rose Bell.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Chelsea Rose. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
My affinity for clothes dates all the way back to my “small-town Texas” childhood. I was blessed to come from a long line of creative women who were avid seamstresses. Frequenting my mom’s sewing room, I developed very a definitive opinion about my own personal style, not something that might be expected from a small-town Texas girl. Even before I could sew, I would come up with ideas for outfits and my mom would work her magic in the sewing room to make my visions become reality. It was there she breathed life into my future ambitions.
By sixteen, I knew I wanted to continue down the path of creativity established by my own mother and grandmother. I chose the design program at the University of North Texas. In May 2006, I graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Fashion Design. My senior collection received the award for Best Collection at ArtWear — the annual student fashion show juried by design professionals.
After graduation, I spent the next several years in arts education and received a Master of Education from Sul Ross State University. The art classroom brought me to Dallas where I helped open a public charter school. While teaching was very fulfilling for me, I was feeling the void of not being involved in the fashion industry. I decided to pursue a Master of Fine Arts in Fashion Design, so I could teach at the university level.
I returned to the University of North Texas in the Fall of 2009 and started my MFA. During my time at UNT, I worked in the Texas Fashion Collection, taught undergraduate fashion design courses, and worked for a grant as a curriculum-writer developing fashion design curriculum for the Texas Education Agency. Upon graduation, I taught as an adjunct professor at Texas Woman’s University before finding a role in the Southern Methodist University Fashion Media program. I spent three years at SMU teaching and developing courses for the new Fashion Media major, serving as the Fashion Media program director for the last two years.
I have always dreamed about starting my own business. It was during my time at SMU that the concept for rosie + belle finally came to fruition. In May of 2016, I taught my last class at SMU and started working at rosie + belle full-time. The premiere rosie + belle collection was released for Spring 2017. Since the debut collection, we have released new seasonal products and also started working with my amazing sister, Courtney Williams.
Has it been a smooth road?
Any entrepreneurial journey comes with challenges and struggles. There are tangible challenges such as finding suppliers and manufacturers that are willing to work with smaller businesses and connecting with your target market. There are also the emotional struggles that come with starting a small business. The biggest challenge for me personally has been to push away self-doubt and move forward even when things have been hard.
My biggest advice is to be persistent in the pursuit of your goals. In the apparel industry, success is often achieved by being the last woman standing.
We’d love to hear more about rosie + belle.
rosie + belle is a women’s clothing line with a focus on creating beautiful, lasting clothes for real women. The modern fashion industry is an endless carousel of fast-fashion pieces meant to last a season and then be replaced. At rosie + belle, we don’t take that approach to production. We believe that clothing should be an extension of the woman and be about her personal style. We believe in slowing down and making beautiful, timeless pieces that a woman will want to keep in her wardrobe for years.
The rosie + belle line is filled with ladylike details and easy to care for fabrics. We create dresses, tops, skirts, jewelry, and clutch purses. I personally design all of the products, make the patterns, and sew the first sample. The patterns are then sent to our manufacturer in Austin, Texas where the clothing production runs are created. Jewelry, clutch purses (which are made from vintage textiles), and limited quantity apparel items are made in our Dallas studio. We also partnered with our adorable friend Carolyn Joe Daniel from Carolyn Joe Art to create a beautiful skirt. I took one of her paintings and had it custom printed on stretch cotton poplin fabric and then had that fabric turned into a beautiful midi skirt.
At rosie + belle, we love cute clothes, but we love people even more. We believe that anyone who works to create our products has the right to safe working conditions and a livable wage. By basing all of our production in the USA, we are able to ensure that those standards are upheld.
We’re interested to hear your thoughts on female leadership – in particular, what do you feel are the biggest barriers or obstacles?
As a woman who also happens to be a mother, I feel like the biggest barrier to female leadership is that women are often made to feel like they have to choose between being successful in their careers and being a good mother or caretaker. Even when a woman continues to work after becoming a mother judgment are passed when she must cut back on things like after work happy hours to pick up and care for her child. Men are rarely judged by these standards or expectations. I believe that this is why you are seeing more women open small businesses of their own, they can still have a career but with more flexibility of schedule.
Pricing:
- apparel $99-$299
- jewelry $29-$159
- purses $79-$99
Contact Info:
- Website: www.rosieandbelle.com
- Phone: (940) 367-1379
- Email: chelsea@rosieandbelle.com
- Instagram: @rosiebelle214 https://www.instagram.com/rosiebelle214/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rosieandbelle/
Image Credit:
Maurice Warnell at Warpaint Imagining, Deborah Creech, Chelsea Bell, Brian Bell
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