Girrrah!

I need to catch you UP!! Sooo many blessings have been raining down lately, and I’ve been taking a moment to actually absorb and feel every single one of them. This is very different for me, you know. My 1.0 version of myself would collect the win like Sonic the Hedgehog collecting coins and just keep running to collect more. Got it! Next! Got it! Next! Never really stopping long enough to feel what had actually happened. But noooo. Not anymore. My 2.0 version of myself really needs to sit with it, feel it, thank God for it and let it melt deeply into my spirit before I go reaching for the next thing.

As you know, we’ve opened the Dream House in Houston, Texas, and it has truly been one of the proudest moments of my career thus far. Honey, it is a VIBE. It feels faaarrrrr from a store and much more like a homecoming. Back to you. Back to joy. Back to that authentic, almost childlike version of yourself who played in her clothes, loved pretty things simply because they made her smile and didn’t need anybody’s permission to enjoy herself. There’s something about that house that evokes unfiltered play so much so that you want to linger a little longer. Yea honey, just hang out, kee kee and kick back. And THAT is exactly what I wanted. If you are ever in Houston, you absolutely must swing by. I really believe you’ll leave with more than a bag. You’ll leave with a memory. Take a peek inside the Dream House here.

Now, as for design, I have a confession. When I originally brought Ready To Wear back this year, I thought so much about what you wanted that somewhere along the way, I forgot to ask myself what I wanted. Whew. I wanted you to have another Fiorella and another Ulana and another Francesca because those silhouettes were familiar to what you were used to. And listen, as a brand owner, you’ve got to take strong consideration as to what works and allow that data to inform your decisions. So I did. The sell through, the top performing silhouettes, the colorways, the historical performance, there was a piece of data behind almost every decision I made. Those silhouettes had served us beautifully before, and I have always created for you. Yet somewhere inside all of that data, something was missing. Me.

So now, I’m creating from my gut. From my imagination. Almost from my own personal closet. Things that I would wear every. single. day. Nope, I’ve never really done that before. You may have wondered over the years why you’d see me wearing a sample and then never see it produced. Well girl, here’s the tea: the sample was for me, the production was for you. Now I’m flipping it. As hard as that may be to believe, you’re already seeing it happen. More flora and fauna. More dreamy pieces. More fantasy. Swans. Birds. Colorful butterflies. Romance. Whimsy. Things that make you look twice and smile. So many of you still ask me about super old pieces, and I love that you loved them. That was my taste then. My taste has evolved because I have evolved. And maybe yours has too.

My reason for sharing this with you is much bigger than clothes. I want you to examine the places in your own life where considering everybody else has become such a way of life that you’ve stopped considering yourself. Your joy. Your instincts. Your taste. Your desires. Your peace. Maybe you’re afraid someone will call you selfish, or maybe you already know there will be blowback when you choose yourself. Maybe keeping everybody comfortable has become so normal that you don’t even realize how uncomfortable you have become. Girl, let the chips fall where they may, babe. They were gonna fall anyway. You were just holding them together with energetic duct tape. LOL! So go ahead. Pick you.

Oh, and speaking of following what feels aligned, I MOVED TO HOUSTON! Yep. 😂 A few months ago! Turns out the Dream House had some other unexpected dreams tucked away inside of it too. Looking back, I wonder if this is part of why the original Houston store opportunity didn’t work out in 2023. Maybe the timing wasn’t wrong at all. Maybe the right one was always going to arrive with a whole life shift attached. Girl, I would have NEVER called this one. Allllll the things I imagined for my life and somehow Houston wasn’t on my bingo card. Yet here we are, following His plan and being richly blessed in ways I could never have orchestrated for myself. So speaking engagements, panels and keynotes in H Town, Houston I’m your girl! This season has reminded me again how important it is to wait on God’s timing. His plan is wayyyy better than ours. Sometimes our assignment is simply to stop wrestling with the blueprint. Sit back and be a daughter. He got you.

I’m often asked what I’m most proud of, and my answer is always the same: Impact. Sassy Jones success will never be measured solely by how much we sell. I measure it by how many lives we touch. This is very much a ministry for me. The products are simply the outreach tool. And recently, God sent me a little reminder of exactly why I do this.

I had sent the staff home, locked the doors and started a livestream from the Dream House. Midway through my stream, the doorbell rang and we had a customer. This was NOT part of the plan, by the way. 😂 I let her in and began servicing her right there on live. She took her time in the store, and I took my time with her. As we talked and she shopped, she blessed me in ways she probably didn’t even realize. At one point, she had been admiring a piece but hadn’t committed to purchasing it. Then someone watching the livestream offered to buy it for her. The woman literally stopped in her tracks. She looked confused, almost like she couldn’t process why a complete stranger would do something so kind for her. And I had the privilege of explaining to her, this is what we do here. We care for one another.

After she left, I couldn’t shake the encounter. I truly believe God sent that woman into the Dream House that night to remind me of my why. Here I was in the middle of so much transition, opening a new store, moving my family, creating new collections, making decisions, carrying the responsibility of what comes next, and God allowed one woman to ring the doorbell and bring me right back to the center of it all. People. Not numbers. Not growth. Not the next milestone. People. Sometimes your purpose will come knocking at the door just when you need to remember why you opened it in the first place. I thought I was letting her in so I could serve her. Turns out, God sent her in to serve me too.

So Sassy Nation, receive the blessing, trust the timing, follow what feels alive inside of you, and when life gives you the opportunity to choose yourself, pick you. Every single time.

Love you BIG,

Charis