Kat Kuan

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career transition

Interview with Co-Founder of Ava James NYC: a New Workwear Brand Exclusively for Sizes 8-18

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At the end of last year, my friend and classmate from MIT, Eugena Delman, launched a brand new clothing line called Ava James NYC with her co-founder Saena Chung. It is a workwear brand with high-quality tailored dresses for women who are sizes 8-18. This is an underserved market, as the fashion industry has a long way to go in terms of inclusivity and creating a range of options for all body types. Hence, I was thrilled to hear about how this duo is working to create beautiful and sophisticated clothing for this target audience. Furthermore, they manufacture locally in New York City, which is awesome!

Read on for the story behind Ava James NYC.

Isn’t this pic so elegant??
All photos from Ava James NYC
Co-Founders of Ava James NYC: Eugena Delman (left) and Saena Chung (right)

I’m fascinated by people who have the courage to start a new clothing line, so I had lots of questions for Eugena! Below is my interview with her. Hope you enjoy!

Eugena Delman

KK: First off, what inspired you to create the Ava James NYC clothing line?

  • London Dress in Baby Pink & Black
  • London Dress in Black

ED: I was inspired by my older sister who lives in Hong Kong and has been a size 14 her entire adult life. I had just left my corporate job and was hanging out in Hong Kong with my family (I grew up in Hong Kong although my family is Korean).

I was mulling over my next steps when my sister jokingly suggested that I start a wholesale business that would import plus-size brands into Asia. She had mentioned that there was a large expat community and there were more and more women who had struggled to find larger sizes in stores. Having grown up there, I knew that any clothing options greater than teeny tiny was difficult so I thought that this was an interesting business proposition and I started doing my research.

Pretty quickly, I started to realize how limited options were in the US, where the average woman is a size 14-16! It didn’t make any sense to me that a huge swathe of the population was massively underserved by the fashion industry. So I figured if it doesn’t exist, why not try to create it?

I knew I couldn’t do this on my own so I tapped my bestie from Hong Kong, Saena Chung, to join me on this venture. She had graduated from RISD and had spent her entire career in fashion so I knew she was the perfect partner.

KK: How did you meet your co-founder Saena?

ED: I met Saena when we were tweens in 90s Hong Kong. We actually have no recollection of how we met – it was probably at Korean Saturday School (every Korean in Hong Kong was forced to go to Korean school on Saturday mornings which was universally hated) or at church (super stereotypically Korean!).

KK: What was your background prior to starting this business? How did you know when it was time to make the leap?

ED: I worked in finance at Goldman Sachs for 9 years before making the leap. I held several roles while I was there – I was originally supposed to start in the Public Sector and Infrastructure team in Investment Banking but the recession hit almost immediately after graduation and I was moved to the market risk team.

I eventually switched to a structured product marketing role where I stayed for 7 years. It was a great place to be as a junior person but as the years went on, you could feel that business was starting to slow down. A lot of new regulations started popping up and directly affected the bank’s ability to play in super structured and illiquid products. I could see the writing on the wall.

Moreover, I had just turned 30 and had my first kid – I felt like I hadn’t really pushed myself in the last few years and knew I had the energy and risk appetite in me to do something totally crazy.

KK: Sounds like perfect timing! How did you pick the name of the brand Ava James NYC?

  • Berlin dress in Salamander
  • Berlin dress in Salamander

ED: I wish we had a better story for this! Originally we wanted to do something with our first names but every combination we came up with sounded like an insect or biological specimen.

We finally decided to come up with the name of a woman who could be a potential customer of ours – a sophisticated and elegant name that is easily spelled and pronounced and could (hopefully) last the test of time.

KK: Where do you manufacture your clothing?

ED: We manufacture everything locally in the Garment District here in NYC. We decided to produce here because we were very particular with our quality standards and wanted to make sure we worked with a factory that was experienced with higher end brands. We wanted to observe the entire production process to ensure that our standards were maintained.

Moreover, because we were very particular about fit, we knew we were going to have multiple fit sessions during our pattern development process. It would’ve been logistically impossible to handle all of this in an overseas factory.

KK: What distinguishes your line from the other clothing brands out there?

ED: There’s been strong growth in the offerings available for plus size women, particularly at lower price points. We wanted to offer a premium product with a super feminine and sophisticated design aesthetic that we felt was missing in the market.

Moreover, our size range is meant to capture women who just about size out of the “straight size” designers (many of whom produce up to size 8 or 10) and are too small for the traditional plus retailers.

  • Berlin dress in Dove Grey
  • Berlin dress in Dove Grey

KK: What has been your proudest moment so far in business?

ED: Getting our first collection designed, developed, and manufactured in about 5 months was incredible.

My partner is an amazingly creative person but sometimes needs a little prodding to get deadlines in place whereas I’m no creative genius but I get things done efficiently with the financials in mind. We make a great team!

Also, I launched this business while I was pregnant with my second child and gave birth to my little girl, Chloe, the day after Thanksgiving.

People thought I was crazy for starting a business while pregnant but to be perfectly frank, there is NEVER a good time to be pregnant. I figured I would just deal with it and it turned out not to be so bad. My husband was a saint – he helped me with some of the fabric deliveries and dealt with all the ups and downs of starting a business / being pregnant. The poor guy had to deal with all of my emotional highs and lows and we hadn’t even had the baby yet!

KK: Haha sounds like you have great teammates in work and life! Where is the best place to find out more about your brand?

ED: We are online! Check us out at www.avajamesnyc.com and on our Instagram @avajamesnyc. We also have a showroom on 30th and 7th and happy to show our products in person to anyone who would like pop by. We do participate in pop-ups on a pretty regular basis (we are heading to Florida for the World Equestrian Festival in Wellington in March!) so keep an eye out on our instagram and sign up for our email newsletter.

  • New York dress in Black
  • Madrid dress in Charcoal
  • Chicago dress in Dark Spruce
  • Chicago dress in Dark Spruce

KK: Eugena, thanks so much for the inspiring interview! Wishing you and Saena amazing success above and beyond your wildest dreams!

Check out their website and social media to support these ladies!
Ava James NYC
@avajamesnyc

All photos courtesy of Ava James NYC. Note: this is not a sponsored post, just posting about awesome female-owned businesses!

The Joy of Work

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Last week was a really hectic, but fun and fulfilling week of work for me. I wanted to write this post because my work now has a different feeling to it, compared to when I had internships / jobs at corporate places. In the past, I’ve been lucky to have some very rewarding experiences on projects had a lot of purpose and meaning. But somehow it feels different now.

The word that probably best captures my sentiment about work now is: joy. A close second is probably the word stress, haha! 😉 But the joy outweighs the stress and keeps me going!

As I drive to meet my clients at the mall or at their homes, I have a lot of excitement about what’s coming up. I have excitement to talk to them, spend time getting to know them, and being able to figure out what knowledge or resources I can share with them to help them with their challenges. It’s very mentally stimulating because it involves deep listening and empathy and drawing on the best of my communication skills to articulate my thoughts as clearly and compassionately as possible.

With each work experience, I learn and grow and gain more confidence in my chosen career path. And of course, what follows joy is gratitude for this joy – gratitude for the people, places, and events that led me to my personal styling business. And gratitude to myself for making the leap of faith that this seedling of an idea (that fashion would be something I’d really enjoy doing) actually did come true!

Who knows what’s to come, but right now, these days, I feel so happy.

Happy doesn’t mean everything is easy and working 100% in my favor. But I feel happy as in fulfilled and feeling useful to the world.

A long time ago, my church gave out this card that says “God Use Me” to whoever attended service that day. We were supposed to take it home and pray about it, ask God how we could be of use to Him. I decided to frame it and leave it on the mantle. I prayed about it but not much happened. I still felt lost as what I was to do next.

As glamorous as it may sound to not have work and to just sit around with no obligations, it is quite stressful actually because I was always wondering, should I be doing something productive? Or I wish I had something to do. Or I wish I could make progress towards my next step in life. Anyways, that whole period of time in my life deserves its own detailed explanation, which will have to be saved for another time.

However, my point here is that when you’ve experienced having “no work” to do, you really do cherish when you have meaningful work to do. The other title I was considering for this blogpost was: “The Gift of Work.” Because now I do see that having work is a gift, to do something meaningful and contribute to someone’s life in a positive way – however big or tiny. It’s a gift for ourselves, really.

If your current work doesn’t feel that way to you, then maybe you’re doing the wrong type of work. If it’s draining or you loathe doing it, perhaps it’s time to consider if something else would make better use of your talents and skills.

Try to listen to what pulls you or attracts you. That may be a sign for the next big change in your life.

For more behind-the-scenes insight on what Kat Kuan’s life as an entrepreneur and personal stylist is like, subscribe to her mailing list here.

Photo by @lailaniafrica of @chicreativeagency

The Biggest Mistake

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I think the biggest mistake we can make in our lifetime is to think that we don’t matter. The mistake of diminishing ourselves and feeling like “oh if I don’t show up, it won’t matter. No one will even notice that I’m not there.”

In the past, I doubted myself and if my presence somewhere was even useful or not. I was hard on myself because sometimes I didn’t say much or feel like I was contributing much. But you know what? I realized how just “showing up” is enough. You don’t need to be the life of the party, you don’t need to be the best storyteller in the room or make everyone laugh. You just need to show up. Even having positive vibes already boosts the energy level of the whole room.

In building my business and sharing my journey, at times I felt like I was creating blogposts and videos that were disappearing into the void, like I had no idea whether anyone was reading it or getting any value from it. But in those moments of self-doubt, people would come along and give me a nudge. They would tell me that I matter, that my voice, my work, and my creativity matter. And that would help me stand a little taller and realize that what I do matters, and that I shall continue moving forward. So to all those people who kept reminding me of this, thank you from bottom of my heart.

And hence, I wanted to pass along that message to you. You matter. Your voice matters. Your life matters. Your choices matter. And your happiness matters. If it’s hard for you to grasp, I would say that’s normal. But my hope for you is that you eventually come to believe it with your whole heart. It’s an ongoing work in progress for me as well.

Many people don’t realize how much of an impact they have on others around them. They diminish their impact on their circle of influence – friends, family, work, community, etc.. They feel quite small about themselves or don’t allow themselves to fully dream about what their biggest and most powerful life could be. They don’t realize how much light they would shed on others if they stepped into their fullest and best selves.

Two Takeaways

So if you see potential in someone, let them know what you see in them and let them know they matter. I can’t fully express how good it feels when you feel seen in this way. 

Second, and probably even harder, acknowledge that you matter. It feels egotistical and self-centered to feel like your life matters, but it’s true. And when we believe that about ourselves, then we start to act in a way like our life has purpose, that we are worth investing in ourselves and worth taking care of. And in nourishing our body and soul, we start to come alive.

“The most powerful weapon on earth is the human soul on fire.”
– Ferdinand Foch

Disney’s Coco: Choosing Between Your Family or Your Passion

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Coco is about the story of a boy named Miguel who loves music and idolizes a music legend Ernesto de la Cruz. Because of past family drama, the family banned all forms of music. Hence, Miguel has to sneak away to learn how to play guitar. He gets caught and his guitar is destroyed. He runs away and embarks on an adventure where he must choose between following what his family wants or following his passion for music.

If you’ve ever tried to chase your passion / your dream, it likely has made a loved one in your life a bit concerned. They may say certain things because they are scared about the uncertainty of your future. They don’t want you to suffer the pain of rejection or failure. But living life in a safe way can mean missing out on discovering your biggest strength or your greatest sense of fulfillment. Therein lies some major tension.

We do a lot of self-sabotaging on our own, but I wonder if potential entrepreneurs get scared to go for what they want because there are people in their life who prefer different life choices and can be very vocal about it. When these people are close to you, and supposedly know you pretty well, it grows the seed of self-doubt inside yourself and that can cause you to turn around and give up. That is quite sad actually. It’s also hard because anything worth creating / developing takes years and years of dedication and focus, without any visible results. It is a very hard internal battle to fight to keep going.

If you choose to keep striving, here are some inspiring quotes I found on never giving up. My favorite is from Confucius who says, “It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.”

I certainly don’t have all the answers, and each person will have to find a balance for themselves. If you watch the movie, you can see how Miguel navigates his tricky situation.

I enjoyed this movie very much because the storyline was so touching. The visuals were spectacular, and the music was amazing too. If you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend it. Queue it up in your Netflix watch list! Of you can also rent Coco on Amazon.

If you can relate to any part of this struggle, I’d be honored to hear your experience in the comments below.

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. And of course, I would recommend this movie regardless.

Grace Over Grind

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Grace Over Grind is a fantastic book for entrepreneurs who are looking for a solution to the unending hustle and grind every day without rest. This is a Christian book, where the author Shae Bynes offers an alternative solution: to work and rest in God’s grace where you can accomplish infinitely more than you ever could on your own strengths and abilities.

WHAT I WAS LOOKING FOR

I was looking for resources from Christian business owners because I was wrestling with how can I build a business while also serve God at the same time. They seemed to be two opposites – to optimize for revenue $$ OR to optimize for serving God. And all the resources I had listened to up until now, were for the former option.

HER PODCAST

I stumbled upon her podcast called Kingdom Driven Entrepreneur. I listened to a couple of episodes and loved the stories that were shared. They explain how doing business and serving God can be aligned together. Hence, I was curious to check out her book.

HER BOOK

Grace Over Grind is a quick read, it’s only ~ 150 pages, and I finished it within a couple days. The author emphasizes how important it is to do the exercises in the book, so that’s what took me the longest because I was taking time to reflect and write out my answers. There were questions like what are you grinding away so hard at? If you were to dream with God on your business, what would that look like?

AHA! MOMENTS

I realized that being an entrepreneur isn’t about working until your eyeballs fall out. Too often, we get scared, try to seize control of the situation and try to do it all through our own efforts. We get bogged down in our own frustrations of why things aren’t happening even though we’re putting in all this effort. But things happen on God’s time and if we can trust in that, we can turn over our stresses and worries to him. The author clarifies that resting doesn’t mean sitting on the couch and doing nothing. It means continuing to take action but with guidance from God. It’s about surrendering control, being willing to ask God for help, and going where he leads you because it’s ultimately for your best and for the world’s best.

Here are some of my favorite quotes from the book:

“Too many believers in business idolize hard work. They exalt hard work over the presence of God in business.”

“Some people refuse the favor that God has granted to them because they don’t feel worthy of it. Favor isn’t all about you and has nothing to do with your worthiness; it’s about the assignment God has placed on your life.”

“You will have peace in the midst of seeming chaos, and joy, in the midst of unfamiliar levels of hardship or criticism. […] Live within the grace of one day only. That’s how we experience the sufficiency of God’s grace.”

CONCLUSION

Honestly, I also feel like the book could be applicable to people who are in the workforce, who aren’t necessarily entrepreneurs. Living in Silicon Valley, I can literally feel how stressed out people are about their jobs or where their career is headed. The book talks about working intentionally in partnership with God and taking it one day at a time. It put my heart at ease, and if you read it, I hope it does for you too.

Grace Over Grind:
How Grace Will Take Your Business Where Grinding Can’t

I actually got this book for free by signing up for a free month trial with the Kindle Unlimited plan. It gives access to tons of other Kindle books and audiobooks. Let’s see what else I can get through this month!

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. And of course, I would recommend this book regardless.