Clothing sketches are tacked flat against the walls of the small second-story room that makes up the online business Elizabeth Rae. The sketches represent more than the next fashion trend. Every pencil mark scratched onto paper and every stitch sewn into rich fabric is another step forward for a childhood dream.
Cousins Felice Brown, who goes by Franky Karmen, and Jasmine Harris, who goes by Rae, began the Columbia-based clothing company after spending the greater part of their childhoods drawn to the fashion industry. The business not only fulfills the owners’ dreams, but also aims to empower the lives of high school- and college-aged women in the community by providing them skills and jobs at a local business.
“We’re really just two family members living out our dream and fighting for others,” Karmen said.
The two programs offered through the company include ‘Rae Dolls’ and the intern program. As a Rae Doll, women are taught the components of modeling, hair and makeup to showcase new products and promote the company. Through the intern program, women learn the ins and outs of business and marketing through hands-on experience. While the clothing designs are produced by Karmen and Rae, the interns are responsible for business operations.
“They can say, ‘I did an internship at this company and we ran it,’” Karmen said. “It wasn’t ‘I did papers and got coffee and answered phones all day and hoped they let me get my hands on.’ No, I’m expecting you to get your hands on.”
This childhood dream did not transform into reality overnight, nor did it start without its fair share of struggles. The company became a legal business in 2014, but it is not officially affiliated with any area universities or high schools yet. The company hopes to form an official program with schools in the future, but in the company’s start, Karmen began recruiting interns on her own by calling colleges until she formed a group of 10 interns. Due to lack of funding, Elizabeth Rae currently has no interns. However, women who worked for Elizabeth Rae speak highly of what they took away from the experience.
“Well, what I’ve taken away from working there is basically like being dedicated to something that you love,” Rae Doll Ereisha Brown said. “I love doing modeling stuff … watching Franky and Jasmine being so dedicated for doing what they want and chasing after their long life dream of actually having their own business, it’s pretty impressive and makes me want to go after what I want to do with my life.”
Karmen is open in sharing her own struggles. From a house fire after the birth of her second son to her “dysfunctional domestic relationship,” Karmen uses her story to show Rae Dolls and interns that it’s possible to continue fighting for a dream no matter how many obstacles must be overcome in the process.
“I really feel like us as women, we can do it, and I want to show them through my struggle like no, this wasn’t pretty,” Karmen said. “No, I didn’t just wake up and say, ‘Tomorrow I’m going to start my business and it’s going to be perfect.’ It took for me for my house to burn down, it took for me to go through other battles so that I can be strong enough to do whatever comes out now.”
Karmen said the primary issue Elizabeth Rae faces revolves around funding and that the business is ready to get the financial help it needs.
“I know I’m meant to help other people because I’ve been that person who needed somebody,” Karmen said. “I just understand that hunger, that fight that I was meant to do something. I know I have this talent and I have this gift, and I know it’s so deep within that it just makes you wake up in the middle of the night and you can’t sleep because you want it so bad.”
_Edited by Katie Rosso | krosso@themaneater.com_