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Speaking of Curves: Meet Ashontay of Christian Omeshun
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Oct 31, 2024
Welcome to Speaking of Curves, our newest series to spotlight, celebrate, and to support those in the community! Every Tuesday and Thursday at 12pm, EST we will interview different businesses, designers, indies, and influencers in the community! Today's guest is Ashontay of Christian Omeshun!
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0:00
oh right hello hello hello hey girl hey
0:04
i'm mridu name the creator of the curvy
0:07
fashionista your plus size fashion
0:08
resource destination we started last
0:12
week with a series called speaking of
0:15
curves which is a plus size it's a
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Facebook live series in which we're
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highlighting and supporting those in the
0:22
community especially during this time
0:25
showing ways that we can support
0:26
designers boutique owners businesses
0:29
influencers we're gonna be interviewing
0:32
different folks throughout the week
0:34
every Tuesday and Thursday at noon
0:36
Eastern Standard Time we will be
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interviewing will having conversation
0:40
talking with you guys talking with them
0:42
about how we can support them what
0:44
they're doing um in this time in this
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like unprecedented time right so today
0:49
we have an uber uber uber uber special
0:53
guest I'm so excited because she's
0:54
actually a really close friend of mine
0:56
and she's also here in Atlanta so today
0:59
I want to introduce and welcome of
1:02
Shantae the designer behind Christian
1:05
Omashu
1:05
hello Asante hi everybody thank you so
1:10
much for joining us here yes so for
1:17
those for those of you who aren't
1:18
familiar can you tell us a little bit
1:21
about the Christian Omashu brand and
1:23
your line and how long you had it all
1:26
right so I started Christian um Sean
1:28
about five years ago Miko went to design
1:34
school to really design for myself and
1:37
it's because I am tall in plus-size so I
1:40
dealt with the whole dilemma of signing
1:44
quote not being able to find clothes
1:45
honestly in high school just the clothes
1:48
be a real quick and cutter and it's
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dirts call you know what the struggle is
1:53
with finding a pair of jeans they just
1:55
fit onto the ankle that wasn't there for
1:58
me so I decided to go to school for it
2:01
got out started field and honestly
2:05
didn't know it would be what it is today
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and so I appreciate
2:11
interesting how some designers have like
2:12
different paths that they've started
2:14
like everyone comes from different
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project there's not just one way that
2:17
you can go to become a designer so for
2:21
those of you for those who don't know or
2:23
just learning about just like the design
2:25
side of things like how long have you
2:28
had your collections Madame I sure if I
2:30
caught the year launch because I
2:32
remember when I first found you
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yeah I want to say it was 2014 I want to
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say that's when me you first started
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yeah cuz you were you had I remember cuz
2:45
you had a dress on a lime-green dress
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that was my blogger and I was like who
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is that and it was like fun it was sleek
2:54
and was chic it was playful and so for
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you like what is the aesthetic of
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Christian Omashu because you and I we I
3:01
know the answer to this but I want you
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to tell the readers like as an indie
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designer what your aesthetic is so
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people know what to expect from the
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brand okay so I like to describe her in
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a few words but I'll try to some of the
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ones I use the most sophisticated
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minimalist she's sexy
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so that would explain why I like to use
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a lot of bold colors but I like to still
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keep my aesthetic very minimal I want
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you to be able to get the most wear out
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of your pieces so for me I try to think
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of okay what can I go work in and what
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can I switch out you know with the
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bottom from another set and take the
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happy hour so that is exactly how I try
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to design and that is like key like I
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actually just written a post about like
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I need to be able to wear something five
3:54
times five different ways to find this
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on occasions I need my clothes to give
3:57
me options the work you know but you
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guys in your closet literally have like
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one item that you can only want one time
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for one specific reason for one specific
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and that's the only thing and you'd be
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sad because it may have cost a pretty
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penny but you're left to like only being
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able to wear
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like that one time so right elevated
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like I really believe and wearing things
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more than once so yeah I want you to be
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able to wear those pants gotcha so if
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you're just tuning in because I know we
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have a couple of other people that have
4:37
joined in we are doing our series
4:40
speaking of curves purposely done this
4:42
so that we can pivot to show extra
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support to the plus-sized brands and
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businesses who have been affected by
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covin 19 who have been impacted by the
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economy right now
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and because plus size businesses
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especially that indie designers they are
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the backbone of the industry of the
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community and they're the ones who are
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constantly innovating that have brought
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us to where we are now so it's really
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critical in this time as we are you know
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some people are still shopping if you
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are make sure you you know I'm we're
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here to introduce and show you different
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brands that you may not have known about
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that you can them from their support
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because how many folks do you have on
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your team Ashante it's me and I have my
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friend who assisted me with everything
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and honestly if it if I didn't have them
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yeah it would be it's a struggle even
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with the face mask I have my team
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helping me my friends there are other
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designers who have their own brands and
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they're helping me
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oh that's piano oh yeah I love it oh we
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have great great energy and great
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chemistry well that's great so I don't
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know if you guys caught that but we're
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gonna about we're gonna segue it's a
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perfect way to segue into this so you
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don't mask so with how everything has
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been changing what has affected how have
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you pivoted or what have you done that's
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been able to help you it with business
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well I guess we'll start with some of
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the changes so of course you know coming
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into the first part of the year this is
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Bridal season this is prom season for a
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lot of us the
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learners who are into specialty and
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things like that in here rest of the
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year spring wedding everyone is getting
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married so this is the time everybody
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getting you know their base and things
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like that um so with this happening of
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course everyone who has had a prom who
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has had a wedding quince had a baby
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shower who's had a birthday has had to
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completely halt stop pause their events
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so of course what does that mean
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I don't need my outfit right now I can't
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finish pants on my outfit right now I'm
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not working right now so they have had
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to deal with a lot of changes with their
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changes to come changes for us and so
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yeah prom everything has pretty much
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halted and so we try to provide some
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options for it some of the girls who
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have already surpassed the point of like
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payment arrangements or anything like
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that to detail plan however it really
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sucks for people where I've paid in full
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who won't be able to have that big night
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you know wait who's planning it's for
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the fifth glass here ages wonder for
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them so it does and I know others mocha
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and I know that you shared with me the
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other day like what have you done
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can can you talk about a little bit of
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something that you've done for them for
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the prom girls who've already but you
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said they're just as already done yeah
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like what are you doing yeah so some of
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the options that I tried to give some of
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my girls were it wasn't that some I gave
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them if you are paid in full and you're
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your prom is being counseled we're going
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to do a free photo shoot and so you will
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still have to be responsible for your
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hair and makeup but as far as the GAO
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the actual you know the shoot itself the
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styling the whole you don't have to
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worry about any of that we're gonna take
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care of that part and it's just really a
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way for us to try to help them to
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document everything yeah so because you
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do a lot of custom I don't know folks
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caught that
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she does prom weddings special occasion
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dresses she's done all of these like
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this has hit you really hard and you
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added a pivot you've pivoted and added
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of different products to your assortment
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right yeah and you talked about so what
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you're doing with it yeah so as soon as
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the crisis struck and I I don't even
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want to say it this way but just to be
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frank as soon as the crisis drug we were
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all definitely dealing with changes and
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I wait like this is not happening
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like no what do you mean people are not
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gonna be able to work like I started
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thinking like that but I thought about
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that but of course I was just like okay
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I gotta get in front of this what can I
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do so when I saw I saw a face math
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tutorial I have a youtube channel um you
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guys don't know I have a YouTube channel
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and I am on that channel I am basically
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just trying to teach a firing designers
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entrepreneurs how to do design without a
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budget without you know and here I'll
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heritage they inherited to whatever but
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I'm teaching them how to do it as an
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independent I'm paying for this myself
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right so I saw a face mask tutorial and
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I saw a couple some some of the
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youtubers that I follow and I don't know
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something just told me to just you know
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really I don't know like you know how
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you really think about it like is this
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gonna be a thing it once I saw it on the
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CDC website I knew I had to like jump on
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board and get in front of it so we just
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started making face masks and it started
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out you know just being like oh my gosh
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this is something that's needed and it
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was sort of health care workers but with
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the CDC's you know suggested that
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everyone wear face masks it was a wrap
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so for you you know how face masks now
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I know that you were talking about you
10:52
were donating and you were selling can
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you share a little bit about both of
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those so for the donated Christmas what
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we were doing was I had people to reach
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out to me like when the church started
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happening we started making a face mask
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I didn't even believe that it would I
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turn it to what it turned into but what
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we were doing was we were just shipping
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face masks out to like nurse like
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honking workers people that we knew
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before anything went along with it right
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essential workers so we kind of because
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honestly like for a lot of designers who
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you guys be making on this was a pivot
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for all of us
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we didn't make face masks we it was
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something new and different for
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everybody and of course oh alright
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so now that I see what the need is
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how can I make face masks that fit in my
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customer because I know it's the
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essential worker that still wants to
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look cute you know it wants to be you
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know look nice and be protected so
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that's really just what we try to do
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honestly and honestly Marini like every
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day is a new day I'm really surprised
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that I just can't believe we're in a
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situation right now Chuck this we
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haven't seen this in generations dude in
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like three or four generations
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Spanish flu was around 1918 or something
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yeah yeah it feels real almost like I
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don't know just going out to the store
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seeing people having people stopped to
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ask you you know where'd you get your
12:36
face mask from Santa so I just never
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thought that we'd be a product but for
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me it was identifying the white face and
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that's the way it helped me to do
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identify the white face figure out that
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okay this is the need there are health
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care workers who do work in this field
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who are essential who want to look nice
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want to have my seen things like that so
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that's how we ended up adding it to the
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site because they would they were
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looking for it they wanted it and what
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we did is we just offered it at a
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discount rate on the site and so if
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someone wanted to get a mask from you
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right now
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like what's the price like what tell us
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more about like where we can get those
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and where we can find them on your site
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all right so if you are looking for any
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of my branded mass you will find those
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on the website those are 25 those are
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the sitting pretty cliches queening say
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they are the statement mass as far as
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the regular mag if you are interested
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you know we have so many of them and we
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make them on time so you can just simply
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send us instagram me go my instagram is
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christian underscore OB Sean that's om e
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sh you in but just VMs know the amount
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of mass that you need will see you what
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we have and you can just pick from there
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it is that simple
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oh that's beautiful and then but I mean
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it still you're still selling clothes
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though right yeah builds on the clothes
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eight we're still still working on prom
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orders so while the pivot is happening
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right you still have to do what was
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already in the system before the stop to
14:17
change habits so we're working on orders
14:19
that we're already in the system before
14:21
everything style we're still trying to
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keep revenue flowing in so this is we're
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selling the mad we had to fill because
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when we first started we were donating
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but of course with donating you're
14:33
spending a lot of your own money so we
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started selling but we're selling at a
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very discounted rate which is eight
14:40
dollars a lot cheaper than most of the
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other brands well that's pretty much it
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honestly it's really straight straight
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to the taste
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why won't we come out of it fair right
14:52
so from our entrepreneurs face from it
14:54
from a business owner space like how has
14:58
this what does this reveal to you in
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regards to I either how you have been
15:04
operating or how you want to be
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operating
15:08
because I imagine that everyone's taking
15:10
something from this right yes but a lot
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of lessons stay ready so you don't have
15:16
to get ready but just really impro
15:22
active really staying ahead of the curve
15:25
having certain policies and procedures
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in place to protect you when things like
15:30
this happen I mean I've had to take a
15:32
double take at my contract a lot of me
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yeah you know it just really for me it's
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just really about getting in line and
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tightened up and being prepared for this
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because this can't happen again right
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like and that's the last thing that we
15:52
want to think about so it's like you
15:53
know how do you stay ready how do you
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stay prepared so then my other question
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seems like this naturally has impacted
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I've asked each person who's been on on
16:01
on the some series about mental health
16:04
and self-care because this is a space
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especially is where entrepreneurs roam
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you're like we've got all this time you
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know you need to keep busy busy busy
16:12
busy but that's not always the best
16:13
thing to do later what have you found
16:16
have been some you know positive ways of
16:20
processing or what's your self-care
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routine look like now oh man I look I
16:27
only want to say this so crazy but I'm
16:30
taking a lot of pride in you guys we
16:33
need to stay home but when you are
16:36
ringing in the house every day it's
16:39
something about staying home and someone
16:42
telling you not to go somewhere as
16:44
opposed to staying home because you just
16:46
want to and yeah so every morning about
16:50
6:30 I'm being good enough and I've been
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going to Walmart being like one of the
16:53
first people in the business and I mean
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it is just a liberating experience to be
17:00
summers ever since but with the Frierson
17:02
inside in there the first person in
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there yep
17:05
since your life it's clean and then I
17:08
can cream you don't have to worry about
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everybody hasn't it's a card I mean you
17:13
got to get out you gotta get you some
17:14
type of fool but it's like that's the
17:17
the most fun I get you know me now
17:20
and all that stuff or whatever so um
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that's one of the things and just like
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I'm just kind of been lighting candles
17:26
listen to music using it's time to
17:28
organize this is the perfect time to
17:30
clean your closet yes yeah we're gonna
17:33
get to the bottom of some stuff in your
17:35
house okay
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listen I I didn't clean my stove I don't
17:40
clean all my um backsplash is real good
17:43
like I'm over here like well what can we
17:45
what can we find out and fix and clean
17:48
right like I'm ready I'm getting ready
17:50
to reap urge them step I'm like okay I
17:52
need to just get rid of a lot let me
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just yeah now do you ever feel like you
18:00
know how some folks are like oh uh the
18:02
end of this you should come out with
18:03
your own business the end of this you
18:04
should have like XY and Z streams you
18:07
know like there's that school of thought
18:08
I don't subscribe to that like I mean I
18:13
the benefit but like some people is just
18:17
you just surviving by just waking up and
18:19
being like good morning well I was going
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to say I I think that like you don't
18:25
know what everyone's story is so while
18:28
some people may come out on top may come
18:30
out with a business may come out with
18:32
you know all these different side
18:34
hustles or whatever everybody's story is
18:36
different yeah
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some people don't are not working some
18:39
people have not paid their rent you know
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what I mean so for me I just I'm not
18:46
even trying to take one that I think a
18:48
day at a time
18:48
there's where I'm at with you a day on
18:51
time my mother seemed to me one day at a
18:53
time like that's what my dad would say
18:58
to me all the time like and now that's
18:59
like even more like act it makes it
19:03
makes sense yeah yeah so okay with
19:08
everything else so tell me what is on
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like what is next for you and what is
19:17
next for you like that you can see like
19:20
this pivot this current space is
19:23
allowing you to kind of play with like
19:25
what kind of things can we expect I know
19:27
we talked a little bit about you know
19:29
fabric changes and stuff like what does
19:33
does that look like so what's me well
19:37
when is collection so the collection was
19:41
supposed to be released April the 1st
19:43
and it was going to be showing that
19:45
occurs yeah that so yeah I'm going to
19:54
feel in a release in the collection it
19:56
just won't be in the manner that I
19:58
thought I was the collection so just
20:00
having a pivot change do some things
20:02
there as far as what I feel has
20:05
developed out of this definitely ones
20:10
that one thing that you said to me the
20:12
other day that I've been harping like
20:14
thinking about is loungewear so I
20:18
definitely think this was the perfect
20:20
timing
20:20
well this is the perfect time to maybe
20:22
looking so maybe doing some type of
20:23
loungewear or something like that but
20:26
another thing that I thought about doing
20:28
is I actually want to continue to make
20:31
the mask in the but it says the surgical
20:34
masks and things like that and so maybe
20:36
taking it to another business something
20:39
secondary yeah I really was thinking
20:43
about them like that's the white face
20:45
it's great they need it they want it
20:47
they want to look good and feel good so
20:49
why not make them divider the diner
20:52
mannequin buddy
20:53
now as long as you've got some options
20:55
for big heads definitely and big hair
21:00
like if you have those options and then
21:02
that's even more amazing because like my
21:06
sister for example like she was saying
21:09
how her ears like either start hurting
21:11
from wearing the masks or they went on
21:14
sit right on the ears and so I'm
21:16
starting to see like little conversion
21:18
things that there would be something in
21:21
the back of the head right here that
21:23
would you like to kind of give more
21:25
space or pull it differently
21:26
Wow right yeah who'd have thought yeah
21:30
I've seen two different variations of
21:32
that one from a little boy and one from
21:35
a black woman with different variations
21:37
just to kind of alleviate some of the
21:40
stress on the ears
21:41
yeah we've been put in but
21:52
[Music]
22:01
because I can imagine I can imagine okay
22:16
so for those of you guys who have just
22:18
tuned in we are featuring Christian and
22:21
Shantae the designer behind Christian
22:23
over soon each Tuesday and Thursday
22:25
we're featuring different small
22:27
businesses in the plus-size space
22:28
whether the designers influencers
22:31
boutique owners businesses event
22:32
planners because everyone has been
22:34
affected and we want to still show
22:36
support and I'm introduced to you guys
22:38
these brands and get to know them a
22:41
little bit better so that way you can
22:42
support them through this strength
22:44
through this I want to say transition
22:46
because I feel like we're growing
22:48
through this right yeah just in through
22:50
there and this way and we support them
22:54
now they will still be around you know
22:57
after all of this is going because these
22:58
indie designers these indie businesses
23:00
they're the ones who have been pushing
23:02
challenging and literally kind of
23:05
driving the needle in terms of fashion
23:08
and style right so it's important that
23:10
we keep them around and the only way we
23:12
could do that is by supporting them
23:14
whether it's a share whether it's a buy
23:17
whether it's a gift card purchase
23:19
whether it's leaving comments engaging
23:23
rate ways that you can support a brand
23:26
that doesn't always have to equate to
23:28
money but you know support is always
23:30
going to be needed even in these you
23:33
know sharing this with someone you know
23:35
who's been looking for a fancier option
23:37
of a of a mask right or looking for
23:42
someone who are sharing with someone who
23:44
is looking for a local indie designer
23:47
here in Atlanta you know and so these
23:50
fees on methods will end up helping us
23:53
like as a whole so that as we move
23:56
forward we come to
23:57
this stronger right and so with that
24:01
being sent a some say lets us know
24:03
there's mocha right there shaking
24:05
herself can you let us know where we can
24:09
let everyone know where we can find you
24:10
where and then uh if you're still doing
24:15
custom like are you doing virtual custom
24:17
like let us know those things okay so
24:20
you guys can find me on instagram at
24:23
christian on the score on shine and that
24:26
is un my website is
24:30
www.crossfitaustin.com you can pretty
24:33
much find you everywhere on on social
24:36
media but my use of you guys is a shot
24:39
that is my first name so auntie a wide
24:43
so you guys can funny they're virtually
24:45
on you get customized I am doing virtual
24:49
consultations based on subspaces so
24:52
we're not doing impersonations right now
24:57
right but if you are listening anything
25:01
is done we feel and we move forward
25:05
right away come on come through with the
25:09
sales pitch yes yeah with with the
25:12
perfect smile at the end yes ma'am um
25:15
well thank you guys so much for tuning
25:17
in again every Tuesday and Thursday we
25:21
will be having special guests from the
25:23
community some you may know some of you
25:25
may not in tradition you small business
25:27
owners friends influencers event
25:30
planners everyone who's like you know
25:31
helps move the industry forward we will
25:34
be doing interviews with them every
25:36
Tuesday and Thursday at noon Eastern
25:38
Standard Time
25:39
again I am Marie to name the creator of
25:41
the curvy fashionista thank you so much
25:44
for tuning in and we'll see you next
25:45
Thursday bye y'all
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