Babesta Beat AW16

My dad started a screen printing business out of our garage when I was a baby, which he then built into a successful business with over 50 employees. Because of that I was always exposed to the world of screen printing and design. This was part of the reason I decided to go to design school. Straight out of college I started working for him and was able to help build a brand from the ground up with a team of other designers there. A lot of the skills I learned working for him are what I am now using in developing Rylee &Cru.” on family life “I was born in Chicago but have always called San Diego home. I’ve lived here since I was 2. My family and I live in a small beach town in North County called Encinitas. We love it here and I can’t really imagine being anywhere else. My daughter Rylee is in pre-school and my son Cru is just 1. Rylee loves dresses and accessories! Anything that lets her “twirl.” Fortunately, she still doesn’t put up much of a fight about the things I pick out for her, so I will enjoy that for as long as she lets me. Even though we (my husband Sam Larson of Lone Flag and me) are in similar fields of work, our jobs don’t intersect much. So when he is in need of encouragement, I am able to be that. And when I am in a rut or need a fresh perspective, he is able to provide that. Both of us working for ourselves and doing separate entrepreneurial jobs definitely brings its challenges (especially while raising babies), but I think it also allows us to understand and support each other better. I want to see him reach his goals and he wants to see me passionate about what I am doing. It somehow just works. For us, time together has been our biggest sacrifice and something we are always trying to get more of. At the end of the day, we both know that our family is more important than any of our career pursuits, so we try to always keep that in the forefront of our minds while still working really hard to make things happen. The tough part about owning your own business, especially a creative one, is that the wheels never stop turning and there is always something more to do. I’ve had to really discipline myself with my time and create boundaries. I have to be intentional about the time I spend with my husband, my kids and my friends... otherwise my workaholic tendencies can easily take over.” on Instagram: “I had no idea what to expect—I really didn’t anticipate such a great response. I take some of the photos, but I also work with a talented photographer friend, Jackie Wonders, on most of our studio and lifestyle shoots. I am careful of how I curate my feed so that it best represents our brand, but it’s not what I think of when creating the collection. Since we’ve started, I’ve learned so much. Mainly that mamas are passionate about the clothes they put their babies in! Going into this, I didn’t know how much opportunity there was out there for children’s brands. Now, a year and a half later, I realize there is not only opportunity, but it’s an industry that is really exploding and I am so excited to be a part of it. The most rewarding part is happy customers. People who appreciate what we do and love the clothes we make. I’m also so thankful I get to wake up every day and do what I love for a living.”

I knew my illustrations would easily lend themselves to children’s wear. It really didn’t seem so daunting to try. I was more worried about if people would like it or not, but I always told myself, “What’s the worst that could happen!?” I have a blog where I share about my family, my style, and good design. [Womenswear designer] dRA and I connected through that and had worked on some social media collaborations together in the past. She knew I was not only a blogger but a designer as well, and she reached out to me about collaborating on some signature prints for her women’s line. It was a no-brainer for me. It’s been fun to see my prints on womenswear...on pieces I myself can actually wear! I hope that this is something I can be doing for a really long time. …there are a lot of product categories I hope to venture into including home, accessories, swimwear and womenswear. I feel like there is still so much room for growth.” on inspiration “Nature has always been one of my biggest inspirations—also books, memories, my own kids, and other creative friends I have in real life and online. I grew up visiting my grandparents’ cabin in Wisconsin for many winters. This [AW 16] collection was somewhat inspired by my own nostalgia of the time I spent there as a child. Thick forest was all around us, we often saw a herd of deer passing through and on occasion a grizzly bear. The night sky was as black as coal and the stars shined so bright it felt like you could reach out and touch them. It all felt so magical as a child, it only seemed fitting to work these fond memories into a collection.

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shop the catalog at babesta.com/beat