Today we’d like to introduce you to Hafsat Umar.
Hi Hafsat , thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
Ninth & Maple is an online boutique created for women who want to feel stylish, confident, and effortlessly elegant while embracing modest fashion. The story behind it is deeply personal.
My inspiration came from my mother. Growing up, I admired how she always carried herself with grace and dressed beautifully. But as she got older, she often struggled to find clothing that was both fashionable and modest without feeling outdated. I realized she wasn’t alone.
There was a real gap in the market for women like her. Women who love expressing themselves through fashion but want pieces that offer elegance, coverage, and versatility. Women who want to show up to church, events, and milestone moments looking and feeling their absolute best without having to compromise.
That’s why I started Ninth & Maple. To curate styles that make women feel amazing at every stage of life, while staying true to their personal style and values.
Today we have a loyal national customer base, have been featured on WFAA Good Morning Texas, and just launched our spring Plume Collection ahead of Mother’s Day.
We’re built for women who deserve to feel seen. And we’re just getting started.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
There have been many challenges through out the process of building Ninth and Maple. From being a solopreneur to Building Ninth & Maple as a two-person operation. This means I wear every hat from product development, marketing, web design, customer service, finance and much more. There’s no department to hand things off to. Add the constant changes of e-commerce platforms like Meta, where what works one month can stop working the next, and you learn quickly that resilience isn’t optional, it is the job.
What kept me grounded through all of it was my military background. The Army taught me that difficulty is just part of the mission. You assess, you adapt, and you keep moving. Every struggle has made the business stronger and made me a sharper founder and I wouldn’t trade any of it.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about NINTH AND MAPLE?
Ninth & Maple is a Dallas-based women’s online boutique specializing in modest, elegant occasion wear for women. We design and curate pieces for the moments that matter whether its attending church, weddings, galas, brunches, and everything in between. Our customer is a woman who shows up with intention, and we make sure she looks the part.
What sets us apart is that: we actually curate and design for her. We cater to women that dont feel their style is represented leaving them to choose between styles that feel too young or silhouettes that feel outdated. Ninth & Maple exists in that gap. Every piece we carry is selected with modesty, elegance, and versatility in mind and we size up to 2–3X, because style has no size limit.
What I’m most proud of is the support of our customers . Our customers aren’t just shoppers, they’re women who trust us to show up for them season after season. That loyalty isn’t bought through discounts or gimmicks. It’s earned through consistency, and genuinely understanding who she is and what she needs.
What quality or characteristic do you feel is most important to your success?
Adaptability and persistence and in business, you need both in equal measure. The digital landscape changes constantly. Algorithms shift, platforms evolve, customer behavior moves. If you can’t adapt quickly, you fall behind. I’ve had to pivot strategies, rebuild campaigns, and rethink approaches more times than I can count. The ability to adjust without losing momentum has been critical.
But adaptability without persistence means nothing. There are seasons in business where growth is slow and the work feels invisible. Persistence is what keeps you showing up anyway. Refining, improving, and trusting the process even when results aren’t immediate. Together, those two qualities have carried Ninth & Maple further than any single strategy could
Contact Info:
- Website: https://ninthandmaple.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ninthandmaple/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ninthandmaple
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@ninthandmaple
