Sustainable fashion. Equipping female creatives.

thestoryshopstudio.com

The mission of the Story Shop Studio is to support creative women - artists, designers, musicians, and anyone with a vision and an ounce of savvy. Founded by an artist with a deep commitment to empowering other female makers, The Story Shop seeks to be more than a retail clothing shop. With every garment purchased, we donate 20% toward creative or career coaching scholarships for female artists. Women supporting women (not to mention we will look great doing it!)

Story Shop Studio: 
Sustainable Clothing + Coaching for Creatives

Clothing and coaching may appear to be an unlikely combination, but not when you look closer. The Story Shop Studio curates a line of sustainable women's garments whose sale funds scholarships that support creative women. Our core values in this process are Story and Relationship. 

In recent history, the garment industry has devalued the craftspeople that produce garments and has disregarded relationships with makers. In an effort to combat these dehumanizing practices, the Story Shop seeks to build relationships with craftspeople and makers who design and create our garments. We make every effort to ensure that the pieces in our shop are ethically and sustainably made.

But how does this practice relate to coaching?
 

COACHING

We're glad you asked! The process of coaching artists and entrepreneurs is deeply relational - it is about sharing stories; about being known. 

Every woman with a creative dream has an important and unique story to tell - but nearly every artist struggles to tell her story well at some point or another - whether she is dealing with fear-related creative block; or whether she simply can't crack the social media code to market her work well.

Unfortunately, for many young artists and entrepreneurs, the cost of creative or career coaching makes this kind of support unattainable.

Our business model places an income-generator between the entrepreneur and the cost of coaching: small batch socially-conscious clothing. 20% of the sale of each garment goes into a scholarship fund for female entrepreneurs. So when artists and entrepreneurs apply for coaching with The Story Shop, we are able to offer the service entirely free of charge. 

For example, 20% of the sale of the Sophia Top (below) supports approximately one half-hour of coaching for a female artist or entrepreneur. 

For every five hours of funding we bank through profits from selling garments, we are able to offer a scholarship to a creative entrepreneur. Each scholarship recipient has the opportunity to choose between Creative Coaching or Career Coaching, in a package of five, hour-long sessions tailored to her business or creative needs. 

WILL YOU JOIN THE NARRATIVE?

A short three months from our launch in May, the Shop is thriving. We have already been able to offer free coaching packages to two women. 

As we look forward to the Autumn/Winter line launch, however, we need your help. As we grow into this new season, our goals are: 

• to expand our clothing offerings in order to include more diverse styles and sizes; 
• and to cover the cost of these pieces in advance so that we might offer more of our profits toward coaching scholarships. 

New artisans for Autumn/Winter include: ReifHaus (Portland, OR), Sunja Link (Vancouver, BC), and Beaumont Organic (Manchester, UK). In order to offer this more inclusive collection of garments, we need the seed money to pay our artisans - which is then multiplied into creative coaching opportunities faster because we don't have to cover the overhead. 

When you donate toward our campaign, you are contributing to the livelihood of diverse makers. Plus, you can choose from each of our unique campaign rewards seen on the right sidebar of this page.
 

YOUR PURCHASE WILL SUPPORT CREATIVE WOMEN:

• OUR ARTISANS
  by allowing us to purchase their garments

• OUR PHOTOGRAPHERS
  by allowing us to commission their services

• CREATIVE ENTREPRENEURS
  by making coaching scholarships accessible - faster - because we don't have to cover the overhead

Stories

It is important to us that you are in on the story, too. Our blog, The Stories, features narratives from women that we coach, the women who model our pieces, women who inspire us; and yes, our makers. And we want to invite you into the conversation.

Stories flow from relationships, and deeper relationships flow from sharing our narratives. From designers to painters to architects to mothers, our greatest desire is to be a space where women can craft and tell their stories well - in a safe and trusting environment - for the good of the world. 

We want to hear your story. Will you share?

Our Team

We are a small shop, with just a handful of creatives on board right now. Founder, Shannon Sigler, runs the day-to-day management and social media presence. She also curates the clothing selections with the help of her artist sister, Emily Pullin, who has exceptional taste. 

With a degree in arts management, Shannon also offers career coaching to our artists and entrepreneurs. Her friend and colleague, Allyson Darakjian, offers creative coaching - focusing on the creative process. Allyson studied at the Seattle School for Theology and Psychology, focusing on the artist process and the mental health of artists. 

Our models are real, beautiful women! Thank you, Makenna, Sophia, Lauren, and Katie. And we've worked with a number of talented photographers, including Henry Cotton, Dragana Lassiter, Maddie Olling, Elizabeth Ong, Miranda Estes, and Mollie Adams - with the help of GATHER Seattle.

Finally, special thanks to all of the women of GATHER Seattle - you are definitely a part of the team! 

Thank you for taking the time to browse our campaign. If you'd like to know more, check out our website or Instagram. Or send us a note at [email protected]. We would love to hear from you!

"Stories can conquer fear, you know. They can make the heart bigger.”

Ben Okri