In the age of social media, you’re always one viral video away from “making it.” Whether you’re an influencer, podcaster, business owner, or “just like everyone else,” virality brings the opportunity to influence others and, as most hope, make money. Social media marketing is a must for every modern business, and the fashion industry is no different. Jade of Dulsè Clothing is an expert at utilizing social media not only to build her brand but to expand her audience.
Modeling her designs on Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok, Jade designs clothes for the gworls who want to live out their video vixen fantasies. Each piece is sexy, daring, and fun, reflecting Jade herself. We will see Dulsè Clothing in a music video one day, and don’t be surprised when you see your favorite Instagram girlie in Dulsè.
I caught up with the detail-oriented Virgo herself to discuss her viral design, the disconnect between consumers and the slower made-to-order process, guilt as a solopreneur, and the future of Dulsè Clothing.
The Viral Designer
Jade has experienced virality numerous times.
Her most viral TikTok to date is an iteration of the attending Euphoria High School trend. Much like characters in the beloved HBOMAX drama, TikTokers wore risque clothing to poke fun at the unrealistic outfits of the high schoolers in Euphoria. In her video, Jade wore one of her creations, the Dulsè Ruby Rose Dress, a red mini halter dress that bares stomach and ample cleavage. This video grossed over 33.5 million views and 5.7 million likes. And in the comments, Jade promoted her work. She lets everyone know that she can make you the same exact dress to your specific measurements. Jade be working!
But which viral video brought in such a large influx of orders and led the beautiful Jade and I to meet? The infomercial for her Gorilla Grip Mini Skirts.
The Infomercial
In the infomercial for her Gorilla Grip Mini Skirts, Jade shows herself walking, jogging, bending over, and shaking some ass, all without the skirt moving! The infomercial is funny, immersive, and tells you exactly what makes her skirts different. Her mini skirts don’t ride up. This was a revelation to many, as skirts can present a challenge. Wearing a mass-market mini skirt is nearly impossible if you don’t have a “straight” body type. But Jade’s personal measurements option and her extra elastic method make mini skirts accessible to everyone.
Jade didn’t expect the informercial to be a hit, “I was not expecting it to blow up the way it did. I was just like, woah. And it’s funny because I knew I had never seen it before, but this wasn’t something new I did. I’ve been making clothes as a business for about two years now, and from the beginning, I’ve been doing this for all my customers. This was just the first time I marketed it. I was like, ‘oh, these skirts don’t raise up.’”
It is hard to make a splash in the fashion industry, especially since a large wave of independently owned fashion businesses came out of the 2020 lockdown and changed the industry’s landscape. Jade doesn’t take the new eyes on and love for Dulsè Clothing for granted, “It’s just so heartwarming. Especially because I know the fashion industry is so saturated. So for me to be just another fashion designer but something I did stood out to the point that it goes viral. It just made me feel like, ‘oh shit, I’m that girl!’ Like, wow. I’m really like, making a staple thing in the fashion industry. I’m very proud of myself for it.”
Now affectionately referred to as “the mini skirt girl,” whenever people are looking for the solution to skirts indecently riding up, Jade has found a lane that serves the hot gworls.
Orders Galore
In real-time, it was incredible to watch the infomercial do numbers on both Twitter and TikTok. The likes, shares, and enthusiastic comments seemed to stream in endlessly, as did the orders.
Within the first two days of posting the infomercial, Jade received 300 orders. This was a massive milestone for the solopreneur, “I’ve been doing this for two years now, and in the beginning, orders were very slow. I was still trying to build an audience and build customers. So, in the beginning, I’m only getting one to two orders in a week, sometimes in a month. So that wasn’t stressful.”
But once the infomercial began to translate into a surplus of sales, there was no need to pinch Jade. “[When it got the point where] I did a drop, and it got multiple orders within a day – even if I got five orders today, it’s like, ‘oh crap, that’s five people that expect their order next week when it’s going to take me a whole week to make one or two of the orders.’ It really started to stress me out even when the orders were that small, and then now when it’s hundreds of orders, it really messes with my mental health.” Dulsè is doing better than ever before, but success has come with a price.
RTW v. MTO
The average consumer may not know the difference between ready-to-wear and made-to-order, but the distinction is important. Ready-to-wear refers to mass-produced garments sold as is and in standardized sizing. As opposed to made-to-order, which takes into account the customer’s specifications. Dulsè Clothing is currently a made-to-order business. So your garment is not ready when you place your order. Jade takes the provided information and gets to work. But of course, first come, first serve.
Made-to-order is the more sustainable approach both for the designer and the environment. When shopping with independent designers, your purchase pays for the supplies, time, and expertise required to make your clothing while also helping the designer keep food on the table and a roof over their heads. The made-to-order model prevents independent designers from pouring money into supplies to make pieces that aren’t selling.
The goal is to never have excess inventory, again this benefits the designer and the environment by preventing waste. The made-to-order model ensures that unnecessary textile waste doesn’t make its way to landfills.
Yes, this means that you do not receive your order as quickly. Fast Fashion, major conglomerates such as Amazon, and the hyper-consumerist state under which we live have skewed people’s perception of production, processing, and shipping times. This has the detrimental, trickle-down effect of placing unrealistic expectations on small business owners within every industry.
Slower Fashion
When it comes to fashion, this skewed perception has specifically led to the discredit of craftmanship, a refusal to fairly pay garment makers, and environmental atrocities. Jade does understand but admits that something has to give, “There is no peace of mind. I understand because we’re all so conditioned to it. I understand wanting your order fast. I’m one of those people where if I order something and it took two months to get to me, I’d be pissed off. But at the same time, you know what you sign up for, and you have to understand the process. It is what it is. The thing is, I put on my site the usual wait time. I’ll put when order volumes are high, it could surpass these wait times. I put all these disclaimers on my website.”
Jade is big on customer service, so she’s been extremely transparent with us over the last few months. This raw honesty comes from a place of genuine passion, from a deep love for fashion. Jade doesn’t leave a customer unanswered, “I’ll explain to them – most people to be honest are understanding when I explain to them like ‘hey everything is handmade this is my usual wait time.’ For instance, with the skirts, I’ll be like, ‘hey, these skirts went viral, and I’m sure that’s how you saw it too. Wait times are gonna be a little bit extended right now.’ and I’ll tell them I’m on this order, I’m this many orders away from yours, I lay it all out for them. And most people are receptive.”
SCAMMED!?
Due to Jade’s unprecedented flood of orders and her working alone, Dulsè Clothing’s wait times are currently extended. You’d think the success of a young, Black woman entrepreneur would be celebrated and met with a measure of understanding. But there have been a few that just don’t get it. With many people unaccustomed to slower fashion, tempers have flared with Jade as the target.
“I don’t know if you saw, someone had like tweeted, and they were like ‘I’m laughing at [one of their friends who shopped with Jade] because they got scammed by the gorilla grip skirt girl,’ and I was like SCAMMMED!?! Stop playing with me. Oh my God, that pissed me off so bad, and I just had to explain like ‘no, everything is handmade to order. They can reach out and ask me where I’m at I’ll tell them where I’m at, and how far I am from their order. Best believe I do not scam.’”
I bore witness to much of the confusion and wrongful accusations thrown at her through social media since the infomercial went viral. I had seen the misleading tweet Jade was referring to and the onslaught of shocked replies from Jade’s potential customers. These unjust accusations directly result from people’s refusal to extend grace to independent designers and a lack of understanding of the made-to-order model.
I’m so anti-scam! I want people to be happy and satisfied and get what they paid for all the time.
Such accusations can be extremely detrimental to small businesses like Jade’s. Jade doesn’t take these unfounded accusations lightly, as Dulsè Clothing’s reputation means the world to her,
“And when you’re going and just tweeting it out for everyone to see and really make that assumption and just run with it. Because people will run with it. And then they didn’t even tag me in it. I just happened to see this tweet but if I had never seen that tweet and I never responded to it, whoever saw that tweet would be like, ‘this girl is a scammer,’ and that’s terrifying to me. I don’t want that label. I don’t want anyone to think that of me, especially when I work so fucking hard and I’m so passionate about it. I would never do people like that”
Mental Wellness
Jade loves TikTok but has been noticeably absent from the app due to feeling guilty when showing herself having fun and being leisurely online. People are waiting on their orders, and those customers never leave her mind. Here’s what Jade has to say about guilt as an entrepreneur and taking time for herself,
“…The people around me have to like literally pull me away to be like, ‘hey, you need to get away from your sewing machine.’ But like, there are days that I be forgetting to eat! I very hardly take time for myself. I have a boyfriend, and he’ll ask to take me out on a date or something, and I’m like, ‘sorry, I have all these orders I have to do.’ So like a lot of times, especially recently now, I’m trying to take more time for myself even though I do still feel guilty about it. But at the end of the day, I’m still working hard as hell but something has to give. I’m still a person, and I still deserve time for myself. That’s something I’m learning, but I do still have guilt even when I do it.”
Jade got emotional while talking about how often she’s had to say no to spending time with her loved ones. Many of Jade’s peers, who are also held unfairly to the accelerated timing of fast fashion brands, echo her feelings. Designers and garment makers alike are people, not machines. These creatives, these artisans, have lives, loved ones, and needs. They cannot spend the entirety of their days, nor should they, catering to our demands.
Jade’s Motivator
This constant pressure and a gnawing feeling of guilt have plagued the young designer for months. With newfound success comes newfound stresses, and Jade has been trying to traverse this new reality. One of the next steps Jade has promised to take to ease this feeling is expanding her team. Adding one or two skilled sewers to Dulsè’s team will speed up the turnaround time, allow Jade to relax and eventually make a triumphant return to TikTok. As a Virgo, Jade is very particular about the quality of Dulsè’s garments. So when she builds her team, know she’ll have the best of the best by her side.
Staying grateful for where you’re at can be difficult, especially when a lot is going on. Considering how her recent success has bombarded her, I asked Jade how she stays motivated and in a place of gratitude,
“What really does it for me is when my customers post pictures in my clothes. I’ll be sewing day in and day out, and I’ll be like, ‘ugh, I hate this. I can’t wait till I’m done.’ And then I’ll see a customer post a picture, and I’ll be like, ‘damn, this is what I’m doing this for. These are real people.‘ It’s like you get caught in the emotions of making the same thing over and over and you’re not thinking about this is different people all over the world that are getting it. It might be me sewing the same item, I’m sewing over and over again, but it’s a different experience for everyone else.”
And when I see someone else wear it and make it their own with their own outfits, and I see different outfits with something of mine, I’m just like, ‘oh my God.’ It literally recharges me, and then I get back to that sewing machine, and I’m just smiling again. It just makes everything worth it.”
What’s Next
Jade has ran her sewing machine ragged with all of the mini skirts she’s been stitching up over the past four months. Naturally, the orders are beginning to slow down, and she’s made a sizeable dent into the initial avalanche of orders, so what now? Jade says she hasn’t had much time to plot her next big move, “I haven’t made not one new thing since I dropped these skirts. It’s just been skirt, skirt, skirt, or something that’s already on my website that people buy too. It’s not all just skirts that I get orders on, but it’s mainly skirts. I haven’t had time to design anything new or plan the next drop or anything it’s just been a lot.”
The possibilities of what’s next to come are endless. The young designer plans to ease her way back into the creative process, “I’m definitely gonna take time to get back into my creative bag and see where I want to go moving forward because I’ve been too busy with the production of the orders that I’m getting to even think of what to do next. So I don’t know if what I’m going to do is make more designs of the Gorilla Grip Mini Skirt or do something completely different and new. I don’t know, Gorilla Grip Mini Dresses? I don’t even know!”
Jade has big dreams for Dulsè, and she has the heart and the drive to accomplish all that she sets her mind to. Dulsè Clothing is only going to continue to evolve, continue to innovate, and continue to be a hot gworl favorite.
“I want to be seen as a more established and serious fashion brand, so I wanna really brand myself and really look important and look like the it brand.”
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