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.


SEO For Fashion Brand Websites with Glynis Tao

How Fitting: design a slow fashion business that fits
How Fitting: design a slow fashion business that fits
SEO For Fashion Brand Websites with Glynis Tao
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In episode 73 – the second episode in our summer fashion business series – apparel business consultant and SEO expert Glynis Tao of Chase Your Dreams consulting demystifies SEO for fashion brands. She explains how SEO works, why fashion brand owners should care, and how an optimized e-commerce website helps you serve your customers better […]

Selling Your Products Without Selling Your Soul with Elizabeth Stiles

How Fitting: design a slow fashion business that fits
How Fitting: design a slow fashion business that fits
Selling Your Products Without Selling Your Soul with Elizabeth Stiles
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This week we kick of a summer mini-series diving into the business side of fashion! In episode 72, fashion brand consultant Elizabeth Stiles shares her expertise on selling your fashion products without selling your soul. We talk about getting into a sales mindset that isn’t sleazy and practical tips on how, when, and where to […]

Real Style (And Happiness) Has No Size with Patricia Luiza Blaj of Loud Bodies

How Fitting: design a slow fashion business that fits
How Fitting: design a slow fashion business that fits
Real Style (And Happiness) Has No Size with Patricia Luiza Blaj of Loud Bodies
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In episode 71, Patricia Luiza Blaj shares how her own relatable struggle to find clothing in her size led her to start Loud Bodies – an ethical, sustainable, and inclusive brand that offers sizes 2XS-10XL. Patricia believes that you too deserve to be happy,  to wear beautiful clothes, and to be respected and represented by […]

Scaling a Lifestyle Brand for Millennial Moms with Leah Longueville of Polished Prints

How Fitting: design a slow fashion business that fits
How Fitting: design a slow fashion business that fits
Scaling a Lifestyle Brand for Millennial Moms with Leah Longueville of Polished Prints
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In episode 70, hear how Leah Longueville grew the onesie screen printing hobby she started in her spare bedroom when her daughter was a newborn into a thriving lifestyle brand for millennial moms. Over five years later, Polished Prints now sells retail and wholesale plus has its own brick and mortar shop with multiple employees. […]

When Fitting Your Lifestyle And Values Means Closing Your Apparel Brand with Crystal Cave formerly of Poppy Row

How Fitting: design a slow fashion business that fits
How Fitting: design a slow fashion business that fits
When Fitting Your Lifestyle And Values Means Closing Your Apparel Brand with Crystal Cave formerly of Poppy Row
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In episode 69, Crystal Cave gets real and honest about her decision to close Poppy Row – the inclusive and sustainable apparel brand she started in 2018. She shares what changed over the years in the business and in her personal life and why closing the brand is NOT failure, but growth. Crystal Cave is […]

Sustainable Underwear To Wear Slow, Compost Fast with Stacy Grace of KENT

How Fitting: design a slow fashion business that fits
How Fitting: design a slow fashion business that fits
Sustainable Underwear To Wear Slow, Compost Fast with Stacy Grace of KENT
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In episode 68, Stacy Grace shares how being frustrated with the overabundance of synthetic underwear options available, she set out with her husband and co-founder Jeff to create Kent – a fully compostable, natural underwear brand. Three years after launch, Kent offers underwear and basics for women and men that are soft and breathable and […]

Experiencing Fashion As Art And Creativity with Emma Rubinson

How Fitting: design a slow fashion business that fits
How Fitting: design a slow fashion business that fits
Experiencing Fashion As Art And Creativity with Emma Rubinson
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In episode 67, Emma Rubinson takes us behind the scenes of her namesake label and shares how she designs artful fashion and experiences that encourage people to be their most authentic selves. Hear her creative perspective on design and what it took to produce her recent NYFW collection. Hailing from the planet Neptune, Emma Rubinson […]

The Raw Truth Behind Fuller-Busted Sports Bras with Lizzie Gordon of B.X.M.

How Fitting: design a slow fashion business that fits
How Fitting: design a slow fashion business that fits
The Raw Truth Behind Fuller-Busted Sports Bras with Lizzie Gordon of B.X.M.
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In episode 66, hear how Lizzie Gordon started a fashion brand making sports bras for bigger boobs after years of thinking “some bigger brand will be the one to make this”. Personally understanding the challenges women face trying to find sports bras in larger cup sizes, Lizzie set out to solve those challenges and she […]

The Impact Of An African-Inspired Brand with Kahindo Mateene of Kahindo

How Fitting: design a slow fashion business that fits
How Fitting: design a slow fashion business that fits
The Impact Of An African-Inspired Brand with Kahindo Mateene of Kahindo
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In episode 65, Kahindo Mateene shares the inspiration, ethics, and inside entrepreneurial journey of her namesake label Kahindo. With a focus on African textiles, her business is built to empower the women who wear her clothes and the women who make them.  KAHINDO is a New York based ethical fashion brand that is inspired by […]

Worthiness, Inclusivity, and Sustainable Fashion with Amanda Toy of Nicole & Rose

How Fitting: design a slow fashion business that fits
How Fitting: design a slow fashion business that fits
Worthiness, Inclusivity, and Sustainable Fashion with Amanda Toy of Nicole & Rose
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In episode 64, Amanda shares how she started a sustainable fashion brand, Nicole & Rose, with the goal of making all women feel worthy, powerful, and included. From starting with just a dream of working in fashion to now running her own brand, Amanda’s journey is relatable and affirming. Amanda has loved fashion for as […]