Voyage ATL's Most Inspiring Stores: Meet the Owner, Jes Brooks
I recently had an opportunity share my entrepreneurial journey with one of Atlanta's most notable digital magazines, Voyage ATL. If you're anything like me, you love knowing everything about the brands you love, so I thought I'd share the story here on the blog as well.
The full article can be viewed here: http://voyageatl.com/interview/meet-jes-brooks-j-brooks-boutique-nocross/
Today we’d like to introduce you to Jes Brooks.
Jes, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I’m Jessica Brooks, but I go by Jes. I am the creative, designer, and operational brain behind J. Brooks Boutique. I currently reside in Norcross making sophisticated designs and creating fashion I consider artful statement pieces.
I launched J. Brooks Boutique in 2017 after being gifted a sewing machine a year prior and teaching myself how to use sew via YouTube Tutorials. I didn’t realize that a gifted sewing machine was going to highlight my gift of creating and sewing.
The day I received my sewing machine, I started watching YouTube University and made my first garment one week later. I released my clothes online and people started taking an interest. I have always enjoyed color. Bold prints. Stripes. African prints. Anything that spoke to me and where the energy jumped off the patterns and ignited my creativity. J. Brooks Boutique started to blossom from there.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The road has been bumpy but certainly nothing I can’t handle. Although I am still very new to fashion entrepreneurship, I believe that I am equipped with every single thing I need to make this thing a success. Sometimes I forget that and allow the self-doubt and insecurities to set in. I mean, just last month (In February), I was on track to have the largest month my boutique has ever seen–then I started getting return after return after return. There was a fit issue with a popular dress that went undetected before shipping. I pride myself on being able to make my customers happy so that was a blow for me. I took it personally! I had to pick myself up and remind myself that there are inherent bumps and bruises that come with being a newbie, instead of internalizing that as a failure.
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about J. Brooks Boutique – what should we know?
J. Brooks Boutique specializes in bold, colorful, handcrafted, designs with modern sophistication. Our head-turning designs speak to the Women who like to Make A Statement. We are mostly known for designing unique statement pieces with customizable size options. I take pride in being able to service all women, regardless of shape or size. The attention to detail and the impeccably-tailored fit is what sets us apart from others. We are a small hand-crafted boutique, so we are very in-tune and able to quickly accommodate the needs of our customers.
I am also proud to work closely with a team of local seamstresses who help me execute each design.They truly are an amazing team. I am proud to employ local Georgia residents, pay them fairly, and provide them with the means to share their creative gifts with the world. Every dress, skirt, and pair of pants is crafted by a real person with a real family doing something they simply love to do.
Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
My mentor once told me that “done is better than perfect”. As a creative, I am guilty of obsessing and perfecting every single thing, and that’s unrealistic. In the beginning, I would spend hours on tasks to get them perfect, then later wonder why I wasn’t moving the needle forward as much as I’d like to. I’ve learned to be less of a perfectionist and focus more on executing. The momentum from executing five tasks at 80-90% well is better than doing 1 task 100% well.
Contact Info:
- Website: jbrooksboutique.com
- Email: hello@jbrooksboutqiue.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/jbrooksboutique
- Facebook: facebook.com/jbrooksboutique
- Other: instagram.com/jesbrooks
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