Earlier this month I got the chance to interview Penelope Ayles, an elementary school classmate and friend of mine. She now owns a boutique called tinder&spark. When she’s not working on her business she enjoys reading, especially about fashion, as well as going to the gym and dancing.
What gave you the idea to start your boutique?
During quarantine I would go on walks every single day and I would listen to this podcast. It was about this girl who started her business really young and she interviewed a bunch of business owners. One of those was a business owner of a boutique, giving an intro to what she does but it was really interesting so I thought, “huh, I wonder if I could do this.” I started reading some marketing books and making an outline of what I would do and it went from there. I did a lot of research on my own but that podcast started the idea.
When did you start the boutique officially?
It was around May 2020. So it hasn’t been too long but it has been a process.
Have you always had an interest in fashion?
I’ve always been into fashion. We have some family friends who are super stylish and I’ve always looked up to them and thought they were really cool. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve developed my own sense of style. I’ve really enjoyed watching YouTube videos about fashion and I love fashion magazines. I’ve always kind of liked the old classics, especially since fashion nowadays can be a little weird you know?
How did you come up with the name?
I got the idea for the brand but I didn’t really know why I would do it if there wasn’t a motivating reason behind it. I’ve always been really interested in World Vision, for example, when I was a little kid I would have garage sales to raise money for them. So this would be a really cool way to do that but in a way that I enjoy.
The name is from a Bible verse, Isaiah 1:31.
“The mighty man will become tinder and his work a spark;”
I thought that would be a great verse, as it’s always been one of my favorites. I am the tinder and God’s work is the spark that will make this business work. It just seemed fitting for what I wanted to do with the business.
Within the business what do you do?
So, I respond to all the emails — I didn’t expect that part to take so long. Starting out you think it’s all picking products and doing photoshoots, but working with customers and helping them with any problems takes a lot of time.
I plan out all the posts on our social media and I’m usually the one who puts the photoshoots together.
I’ll have people help me figure out what looks good in a collection and all that stuff. I buy wholesale on a market-place that has a bunch of different brands in one place and then pick out clothes. For example, I wanted the fall collection to have more of a laid-back feel, with a kind of industrial vibe. It’s like shopping online.
What is the mission for your brand?
I wanted something I was both proud of and interested in — something that was really cool — but also a brand that could support women in other places.
You have really interesting names for your products on the website, how did you come up with those?
Yeah, so I personally shopped from this brand once and they had really really unique names for their stuff and I just thought that was really fun. It gives the clothing or item a personality. I wanted it to be memorable and special. In marketing you want to show the value of what you’re buying and who you’re going to become when you wear the item — that’s what makes it worth it. But yeah, I don’t even know where the names come from. A lot of times when I’m at a loss for what to name something, I’ll just go on my Spotify and go through my playlists and look at song titles and pick a song that goes with the clothing.
What advice would you have for someone reading this article and inspired to start their own boutique?
I would say that it does take a lot of time. I’ll go back and look at my vision boards or journal entries for my first collection and I’ll go: “I can’t believe I would buy those and sell those.”
I feel like a lot of times people say to just go for it and throw yourself into it, and that’s true, at some point you just have to throw it out there and try it. But I also think that asking your target audience or friends what they would want to see and buy and just figuring out what exactly you want to do is really good. It comes with time but you want to start thinking about what you want it to look like right away because it will develop drastically while you work on the legal end of things. Looking at other brands you admire is really helpful to understand how you want yours to look. Give it time and keep working on it.
Even just in general, knowing about marketing is really helpful. Research was a big thing. Fashion isn’t just fashion, it’s a business. You have to be able to run a business before you can do fashion.
Where do you want to take your brand in the future? Is this something you want to do long term?
Right now I’m just keeping it simple, winter collection spring collection, that kind of thing. As we get bigger I want to do it more specifically themed like a specific city or something along those lines.
I really don’t know yet how far I want to take it. It’s been really good for me to dabble in the business field and I’ve learned a lot. Even though it is a business and you’re making money it also does take a few years to get it going. I’m still in highschool so I have time to work on it. Whatever happens though it’s been a good experience to learn about marketing and business and all that stuff. Also as much work as it is, it is a lot of fun working with models and photographers and bringing those people together.
We both agreed that it was a really cool experience to connect years later about something we both are passionate about and I’m really glad to have had the opportunity to interview her! If you want to check out the shop, you can do so on the website: shoptinderandspark.com
Credits:
@tinderandspark_
Shoptinderandspark.com
www.facebook.com/tinder.spark.1/
www.pinterest.com/tinderandspark_
www.instagram.com/tinderandspark_/
Holy Bible: New International Version