Brand Discovery: Même Chose
Meet Même Chose, the size-agnostic women's shirting brand. Founded a few years ago by friends and fashion alum, Alison Bergen and Jessica Joffe. I Zoomed with Jessica back in early April (which feels like eons ago) to talk about the brand's design process, business model, the fashion industry's misalignments, and ultimately their choice to launch shirting in women's sizes US 0-20.
Même Chose translates to "same thing." Why I love their shirting and what they stand for, affirms my philosophy that you, I, our friends, should all dress as we please, and not be dictated by trends or an antiquated notion of how we're "supposed" to dress. Jessica and Alison believe (as do I) that women of all shapes and sizes deserve to have access to the same clothes, not be defined by their size. That women of all ages should be treated the same way. Nor should women be charged a "pink tax" for our clothing. Remove the friction and make dressing all about you.
You may have seen me sporting one of their matching shirt-mask combos recently. Why not make masks fashion? I'm living in these tops all day, for video calls, cooking, for Netflix binging, and strolls in nearby Forest Park (masked-up). And while shirting may not be your preference, it doesn't hurt to learn a little something about independent brands, what they're creating and why.
In case you do shop, here's 15% off your purchase - use code: LKSxMC at checkout.
ZOOM CHAT WITH JESSICA JOFFE
In five words or less, how would you describe Même Chose the brand?
Timeless, seasonless, ageless, size-agnostic (with a heaping dose of irreverence).
How and where did the idea/launch of Même Chose begin?
This brand grew out of my admiration of uniform, and the fact that uniform is hard-won! You only discover what your uniform is over time. And then it’s truly yours, even if it’s incredibly simple. Fashion pulls you in so many different directions, and after many many years of working all over the industry, I wanted more clarity, more sustainability, less waste, more focus. I felt the desire for a blank slate. So where else but in my living room where I spend most of my time hatching schemes could this have been born!
What made you want to focus on women’s shirting?
It was the one category we felt was overlooked and poorly executed. A category hiding in plain sight, begging for an overhaul. It was a very simple decision. We knew far too many beautifully brilliant designers with otherworldly did not want to create a ‘fashion’ brand. We wanted to create a brand around a perfect necessary product.
Jessica Joffe in The Cuomo Mask, Tie Dye x FGL
SHOP MÊME CHOSE
Receive 15% off your order! Use code at checkout: LKSxMC
You launched immediately with women’s sizing ranging 0-22; what guided your decision on creating a brand and product that serves women of all shapes and sizes?
67% of American women are a size 14, and over, the average size is a 16 - creeping into an 18 - and yet most women’s brands stop at a size 12 (if you’re lucky). What a joke! It was a no-brainer to serve more women with a better product.
What are the best parts of running your business? What are the challenges?
Because it’s all on your own terms, you can move relatively quickly, and therefore adjust quickly. We are directly connected to our customer, and when she has something to say, positive or negative, she’ll say it (!), and we hear her. She is the reason we decided to do this. We wanted her to be a part of the process. Of course, running a small business has millions of challenges. There’s never enough of anything until there’s too much of all the things you don’t need (like a style that just won’t sell). But! Necessity is the mother of invention and boy have we gotten inventive. Restrictions bread enormous creativity - at every juncture - at that’s enormously enlivening.
How do you get into the creative mindset amidst running the business?
I think I am always in a creative mindset, thankfully. And that helps with the business aspects too. Because you just can’t do things the way you would do them anywhere else. Every young business has its own particular set of challenges, which you can only tackle if you approach it from a multitude of different angles. When you do wind up finding a solution to what appears to be an insurmountable challenge, it’s always because you thought about it creatively.
Where do you pull inspiration from for your designs and collections?
The film Purple Noon, renaissance paintings, food, nature, Biedermeier furniture, Mary Stuart. Inspiration can come from anything material or imagined and it’s always coming! Never a dull moment.
What does your typical/ideal day at Même Chose look like? Perhaps you can share how you’re adjusting to WFH during COVID-19.
There is perhaps no such thing as a typical day at Même Chose, as every day has its own specific needs. We do everything ourselves, and so it’s really like an old fashioned mom+pop shop, the way we like it! Every aspect of the business works in concert with the rest, so you wind up connecting all the different strings throughout a typical day.
During this particularly unique period, you are forced into a more thoughtful, engaging mode and less of a selling mode. You want to keep everyone on your team employed, which we’ve managed so far, and you want to honor all of your customers. Those that are shopping and those that aren’t! We all have enough, and we know it. Right now is not a time for aggressive commerce. It is a time to connect. And I believe that as a company, you always have the option to be human and connected (or not)! We feel that if you absolutely need a shirt right now, we are here for you. And if you don’t, we are also here for you. So we just started making masks from our shirting material, which is something we actually all need right now, by law (for the most part), so we made a comfortable, elegant set of masks you can wash and reuse and doesn’t cost an absurd amount.
