How Fitting® Podcast

The podcast for slow fashion designers who want to create clothing and grow a business that fits their customer, lifestyle, and values.

In biweekly episodes, hear how relatable fashion entrepreneurs (the kind who run their businesses from kitchen tables and cutting tables, not boardroom tables) navigate the fashion industry with integrity and define success based on their own principles.

In each conversation, host Alison Hoenes (a freelance women’s apparel patternmaker) explores the things that all slow fashion business owners experience: the vulnerability of launching something new, the deeply empathetic process of designing clothes that fit a niche market, the challenges of pursuing both financial and environmental sustainability, the late nights of reckoning with your values that make you consider shutting the whole thing down, and the rewarding moments that make it all worth it.

In addition, hear from experienced fashion industry resources that are helping indie designers make a difference and a profit – like low MOQ factories, fashion marketing and business coaches, or sustainable fabric suppliers.

How Fitting® offers validation that you are not alone in your fashion entrepreneurship experience, ideas to try on in your fashion business to create a better fit, and a curious look into how other slow fashion brands are making it work. How fitting is that?


Want to share how your brand fits your customer, lifestyle, and values on the How Fitting® podcast? I’d love to have you as a guest on an upcoming episode.


Growing A Fashion Brand Where Representation Matters with Vanessa Acosta of Wasi Clothing

How Fitting: design a slow fashion business that fits
How Fitting: design a slow fashion business that fits
Growing A Fashion Brand Where Representation Matters with Vanessa Acosta of Wasi Clothing
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In this episode, Vanessa Acosta – the Bolivian-American business woman behind Wasi Clothing shares about why representation in fashion matters, the importance of some underappreciated aspects in the industry, and how she’s overcome challenges and grown Wasi dramatically in the past year. Vanessa is the founder of the clothing brand Wasi Clothing. She is a […]

Creating The Classic Dresses They Couldn’t Find with Audrey Cole and Mary Kunkle of Paris Bloom

How Fitting: design a slow fashion business that fits
How Fitting: design a slow fashion business that fits
Creating The Classic Dresses They Couldn't Find with Audrey Cole and Mary Kunkle of Paris Bloom
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Audrey and Mary are sisters and co-founders of Paris Bloom (now Betty Hannah)- a dress brand that they started without prior fashion industry experience in order to create the classic styles they couldn’t find elsewhere. “Paris Bloom is inspired by our French great-grandmother, Mary Hanna. Mary Hanna grew up in the 1920s in the Michigan […]

Sizing Up The Glamour Of Life’s Special Occasions with Phyllis Brasch Librach of Sydney’s Closet

How Fitting: design a slow fashion business that fits
How Fitting: design a slow fashion business that fits
Sizing Up The Glamour Of Life's Special Occasions with Phyllis Brasch Librach of Sydney's Closet
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Before ending her first career 14 years ago as an award winning journalist, Phyllis Brasch Librach became inspired to trade deadlines for hemlines. She wanted to take the tears out of shopping for her daughter and all daughters, mothers, sisters, aunts and friends with real curves. In a world where thin is too in, Librach […]

Turning An Art School Hobby Into A Thriving Fashion Business with Lydia Crespo of Argaman&Defiance

How Fitting: design a slow fashion business that fits
How Fitting: design a slow fashion business that fits
Turning An Art School Hobby Into A Thriving Fashion Business with Lydia Crespo of Argaman&Defiance
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Argaman&Defiance creates everything from apparel to bedding to bridal by hand in their studio located in St. Charles, MO. They use a variety of surface designed techniques such as fabric dyeing, print making, and fabric painting to create the Argaman&Defiance collection. Lydia Crespo attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) graduating in […]

Activism and Education Through Fashion with Nasheli Juliana Ortiz Gonzales of Nasheli Juliana

How Fitting: design a slow fashion business that fits
How Fitting: design a slow fashion business that fits
Activism and Education Through Fashion with Nasheli Juliana Ortiz Gonzales of Nasheli Juliana
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Born in Caguas, Puerto Rico. With twenty years in the fashion industry, Nasheli’s design experience includes working as technical designer, draper, tailor and seamstress in couture sewing techniques for designers based in New York, Dominican Republic, Italy and Puerto Rico. She currently performs as Chair and Associate Professor in the Fashion Design Department at Moore […]

Debunking The Fashion Myth with Emily Harris of Mrs. Emily

How Fitting: design a slow fashion business that fits
How Fitting: design a slow fashion business that fits
Debunking The Fashion Myth with Emily Harris of Mrs. Emily
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Emily challenges traditional fashion culture and encourages women to discover and protect the truest version of themselves… Emily creates comfortable, washable skirts that allow women to transition through their many roles, as she transitions through her roles of mother, wife and entrepreneur.  In this episode, you’ll learn: People and resources mentioned in this episode: Do […]

Launching a Size-Inclusive Brand with Crystal Cave of Poppy Row

How Fitting: design a slow fashion business that fits
How Fitting: design a slow fashion business that fits
Launching a Size-Inclusive Brand with Crystal Cave of Poppy Row
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Crystal Cave is a celebrity stylist turned style educator and fashion designer. She is the Founder + Creative Director of Poppy Row, a size-inclusive, eco-conscious clothing line.  Following her employment in branding + marketing, Crystal decided to follow her dream of becoming a celebrity stylist and worked between NY and Los Angeles on the teams […]

Sun-Protective Clothing That Saves Lives with Christie Covarrubias of Sun50

How Fitting: design a slow fashion business that fits
How Fitting: design a slow fashion business that fits
Sun-Protective Clothing That Saves Lives with Christie Covarrubias of Sun50
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Having lost a family member at a young age to melanoma, Christie is passionate about elevating the importance sun safe practices and annual skin checks. After an extensive career as a marketing executive with national and international brands, she decided to co-create a brand with more direct impact and personal meaning. Ultimately, the Sun50 company […]

Selling Custom-Made Womenswear on Etsy with Shanna Mellnick of Shanna Britta

How Fitting: design a slow fashion business that fits
How Fitting: design a slow fashion business that fits
Selling Custom-Made Womenswear on Etsy with Shanna Mellnick of Shanna Britta
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Shanna Britta Mellnick is a small business owner who designs and constructs contemporary women’s wear, specializing in customer-focused fit and style. A graduate of the apparel design programs at both Purdue University and the Fashion Institute of Technology at New York University, Shanna also gained exposure to a variety of designers, working with Michael Faircloth, […]

The Future of Sustainable Garment Design with Mary Ruppert-Stroescu of RECLEM

How Fitting: design a slow fashion business that fits
How Fitting: design a slow fashion business that fits
The Future of Sustainable Garment Design with Mary Ruppert-Stroescu of RECLEM
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Mary Ruppert-Stroescu is an Associate Professor in the Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Art at Washington University in St. Louis. She holds a Ph.D. in Human Environmental Sciences and a MS in Textile and Apparel Management. With nearly 10 years of prior experience working in fashion design and manufacturing in Europe and North […]