Freshman Year

Two years ago and while a senior at Duke University, I had an idea for a collegiate apparel company that would bring fashion-forward, ethically-sourced duds to my alma mater. While it didn’t make a whole lot of sense to my fellow women’s studies majors, the idea of this brand combined everything I knew and loved – fashion, feminism, entrepreneurship, and really really good looking clothes.

Among many things I didn’t know at the time, I didn’t have the first clue about designing or making clothes, nor much of an understanding how one would go about sourcing clothing “ethically.” What were ethics in the garment industry? How could I figure out how to manufacture clothing in a socially responsible way? Where was I going to find a gazillion dollars to do all of this?

So, I did like a good college student would do and applied for a Fulbright grant to research ethical fashion in Sri Lanka, a country in the midst of an international campaign to market itself as an “ethical” source of apparel in a competitive global sourcing environment. I was fortunate enough to get the grant and find myself thousands of miles from home on a tiny, teardrop-shaped island off the southeast coast of India.

In Sri Lanka, I started out in a cubicle at the offices of MAS Holdings, one of Victoria’s Secret’s top suppliers, interviewing mid-level management and not feeling like I was getting what I came for. So I left and started out on my own. Within a couple of months, I was knee-deep in the garment industry underground, learning everyone’s dirty secrets from my confidant and business partner and building a first class/third world brand we call SCHOOL HOUSE from the ground up. We haven’t looked back since.

With a year under my belt and a few months until the big launch, this blog will chronicle both the people and places School House has seen so far and tell our stories-in-the-making. You’ll meet people like the Three Amigos, our fearless trim suppliers in Baltimore, and Kumar, the Indian-expat-in-Sri Lanka who believed in a crazy white lady with big hair and an even bigger idea. I’ll post photos and videos from our living wage factory, the fabric mill where all those devil heads get printed on miles of fleece, and from my 17 hour road trips to sell t-shirts to universities...

Hope to hear from you!
xo Rachel