Chrissy Fogerty is the founder of Fauxgerty, a sustainable fashion brand in St. Louis.
BACKGROUND
“I’m from St. louis. I grew up here. I left for a few years for college. I went to school in Omaha. I studied communications and women and gender studies. Education was never my top priority. I always wanted to work, and I always knew what I liked. I did a lot of internships during college. I worked as a stylist in a store throughout college. I took some entrepreneurship classes because I thought I wanted to do my own thing, but wasn’t sure what it would be yet. I got interested in sustainability later. I liked fashion and wanted to work with it, but I wanted to do something with more dimension. I wanted to put together my creative interests and personal ethos.”
CREATING FAUXGERTY
“After graduation, I worked somewhere else for a while and started working on Fauxgerty in the afternoon, and quit my job in 2014 to really start it. We mostly manufacture in St. louis. Last year, we decided we wanted to invest in St. Louis and invest in the city. It took us about a year to feel confident that every piece could be made in St. Louis. We still use our L.A. factory for our cotton basics. But we produce 85% of our garments in St. Louis. What we wanted here is an extension of our team. Everyone that works in our factory is part of our team. We don’t just send things off to be made. Fauxgerty is about forward thinking. If you’re creating something, you should be mindful of what you’re contributing or not do it. The idea should be in context of time.”
WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED FROM CREATING FAUXGERTY?
“One of the biggest lessons I have learned is that you have to know what you can do, what you cannot do, and what others can do better. For example, our patternmaker, Alison, represents a more detailed eye in our patterning process. As the CEO of this company, I can’t get too involved in the detail processing. I have to take a step back so we can keep going forward.”
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO YOU TO BE POWERFUL?
“Being powerful in my position is owning my strengths and recognizing my weaknesses. That’s how you stay firm in who you are, firm in your choices, and firm in what’s good for your business. Knowing what you can negotiate and what you can’t. It has made me a better business owner and colleague. When I feel comfortable with my decisions, it feels like we are all on the same road and going in the right directions. If I wasn’t powerful in my decision-making that would trickle down towards the team. Our team is better and getting better at knowing what works and what doesn’t work and what we can do and what we can’t do. That has allowed us to keep going forward with what we know we are great at.”
Shop Fauxgerty online: https://www.fauxgerty.com/
