Hi! I wanted to tell you guys about my journey of started My Roommates Closet! I started thinking about the concept probably around May of 2020 during the height of covid when I was a junior in college and living with 3 roommates in a house downtown in my city. Covid was a really hard time for everyone and for me, I honestly lost my sense of self. It took a huge toll of my mental health, and I never wanted to leave my bed. As school was winding down, I really wanted to start a hobby. Of course, I was constantly online shopping and that's when the idea hit me; I wanted to start my own clothing business. Once I got the idea in my head, I could not stop thinking about it.
I lived with one of my best friends, Val, and she helped me with a lot of the brainstorming process of the store name, brand colors, styles, etc. We were up in her room one day, trying to figure out the name, researching, brainstorming, and after all of that we came up with My Roommates Closet. The name just made so much sense to us because being girls in college, we borrowed each other's clothes all the time. Even in high school, my friends would come over and look through my closet for an outfit, and I would do the same with their clothes. I felt like it is just a universal thing that girls do in high school and college.
After that, we started talking about brand colors. I knew I wanted to use neutral colors that I personally would not get sick looking at. At first we started with the brand colors being solely a specific shade of tan that I do still use throughout the website and in posts, and black and white. As I was building the website, I realized I loved how it looked with the majority of the website being black, and then white and the shade of tan throughout it. I got inspiration from some of my favorite brands that have a very minimalistic look to their brand. I wanted it to look clean and professional. At first, we had a different logo with 'My Roommates Closet' on it with a line drawing (which if you ordered from us within the few months we were launched, that logo was on the thank you cards we put in the packages). As time went on, and I changed website platforms, I changed the logo which is just 'MY ROOMMATES CLOSET' and no image. I liked the look of it better and it was the look I originally wanted.
After the logo, brand colors, and website was somewhat built, it was time to start ordering inventory. This was a tough process because I had to decide what I wanted to buy first for the initial launch. I started ordering inventory back in February/March 2021. What I wanted for the vibe of the store, is to have a bunch of different styles to represent all the different styles that is found in someones closet. Obviously this is hard when first launching because you can't just buy a lot of inventory. I was worried that message would not be conveyed in the way I wanted it to. I want people to be like "oh I don't have anything to wear for this, let me check 'My Roommates Closet', there has to be something there for this [event]". It's honestly really fun looking for inventory because it is almost like I am shopping for myself, and when I go shopping, I get really excited and want to show everyone what I got. Now, I can show all of you what I ordered, you guys can have it too and share that excitement with you guys!
I launched the store in June 2021 during the week I was recovering from surgery. I know, great planning on my part. I was fresh out of college, working full time in marketing, and working on the store. After I launched, I realized I wanted to go back to school to get my MBA in Business Management, and work on the store full time. So, I quit my job, enrolled in grad school, and got to work on my store full time. A lot of my friends were like "Nicole, you're making good money at your job you should stay there" and honestly yeah I was making good money for a new graduate, but I did not feel fulfilled and I really hated it. Obviously, no one is gonna love their job right out of college, but it just did not feel right. My original plan after undergrad was to go back to school, so I knew I really wanted to do that, and also focus on my store because what you put into it is what you will get out of it.
Here we are now, a few months after launching, and I am so glad I made the decision to start this store. The amount of love and support I have gotten from friends, family, old friends, and even strangers, is so heartwarming. I've had people I have not talked to in years bring up my store to me and it just makes me so happy. I am so grateful I can do something I absolutely love, and have a great support system behind me. Hearing the positive feedback from you and how our clothes have made women feel confident in themselves is the main reason I love doing what I do.