Today we’d like to introduce you to Stella Carakasi.
Hi Stella, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
It is a long road from conception to completion.
When it all started –The 90’s.
Early eco-fashion disrupter Two Star Dog Inc. was launched by brothers Steven and Allan Boutrous in early 1993. Shortly thereafter I joined the team and together we created and marketed the first US hemp clothing wholesale collection. In the same year, Two Star Dog designed and trade marked “The Original Hemp Jeans” which quickly became an international best seller and the company rose to the top in this niche market based on superior quality.
Major growth opportunity came knocking in the late nineties and Two Star Dog expanded its business with department stores and retailers across the US, Canada and Europe.
Time flies –The 2000’s.
We continued to scale throughout the early 2000’s until reaching the point of saturation in our niche market.
In the Fall of 2012 it was time to re-invent and the Stella Carakasi brand was born, a sustainable, high quality, fashion driven wholesale collection that was well received.
By 2016 the Stella Carakasi brand had scaled fast by expanding sales across the US, Canada and Australia.
Late 2018 marked our third re-invention. The Stella Carakasi brand was re-launched as a direct-to-consumer
company, joining the early fashion industry disruptors who were redefining how people shop in the 21st century. This has allowed us to cultivate direct relationships with our customers through authentic engagement, in order to deliver the best shopping experience possible.
…and we are still going.
The Stella Carakasi direct-to consumer brand started out with a realization of a much-needed change. I (Stella) saw the disconnect in what the fashion industry was telling women and the message just wasn’t resonating with me personally or the many women I connected with over the span of my career, actually it never did!
Women are a force and their voices are finally being heard across all sectors of life including fashion. 68% of women in the U.S. wear a size 14 and up with the average being a size 16, yet most fashion brands ignore these sizes. Instead, they continue designing for the slender hourglass figure, reinforcing the “ideal” body type through mainstream media which has inflicted self-confidence issues upon women for decades. It is clear, that women size 14 and up don’t fit the “ideal” fashion industry mold and mainstream fashion brands don’t care about them.
A number is just a number, but some of us let the number on the label destroy our confidence. Even worse, we body shame ourselves to the point where shopping for clothing becomes a humiliating experience especially when brands don’t offer our size.
At Stella Carakasi we decided to create an inclusive fashion brand where a size 22 can shop the same way as a size 2 (XS-2XL). True inclusivity to us means designing clothing in a size continuum without calling the larger sizes plus size. Separating sizes into “regular” and “plus” is not inclusive and we set out to change this. It is our intention to continue expanding our size range as we scale and to embrace the many women that have been left out of the fashion conversation.
Our obsession with quality and fit results in comfortable, sustainable and timeless designs which defines our style. We are passionate about creating a fashionable antidote to the limited aesthetic variety that has long dominated this apparel sector- where styles are being produced without empathy for the environment and marketed to a non-diverse, youth obsessed demographic. Women of all shapes, sizes and ages deserve to be seen and feel visible
We were early adapters of this fashion revolution. We are not ruled by anything of the moment or by trends, instead we produce quality garments that have longevity. We are body shape, size and age inclusive and choose eco-friendly materials and sustainable manufacturing practices throughout the entire supply chain, which is not only a choice but the way of the future.
We have always taken the road less traveled because we believe that women deserve to be seen, as they are, in all their perfection. If this statement makes women uncomfortable it is time to re-examine how we truly see ourselves and where those beliefs originated. By quieting our inner self-critic, we give ourselves permission to step into our power which looks much better on us than self-doubt.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
The road has been anything but smooth. Anyone who has managed to stay in business for more than three decades understands that longevity in itself is a tremendous accomplishment, and we are proud of what we have built and sustained through all the challenges along the way.
We have certainly had our share of ups and downs. There have been incredibly successful years when we scaled and grew the business, selling to hundreds of boutiques across the United States, while also building international wholesale distribution in Canada, Australia, and Europe. We worked with major department stores, catalog companies, and private-label retailers, and experienced the many rewards that come with building a brand and a business from the ground up.
We also faced significant challenges, including the economic turmoil of 2008. That period forced us to take a hard look at the business and make some difficult but necessary changes. We repositioned the company from Two Star Dog, which was known primarily for its hemp clothing, and relaunched as Stella Carakasi, targeting a different market. At the same time, we continued to deepen our commitment to sustainability by expanding our offerings to include a much broader range of sustainable fabrics.
Today, we are facing what may be our most difficult period yet. As a small, independent, direct-to-consumer brand, competing with much larger, often investor-funded clothing companies has become increasingly difficult. Customer acquisition costs continue to rise, while the current economic climate has made access to the capital needed to sustain and grow a business much more challenging. At the same time, consumers are spending less, creating additional pressure on an already difficult retail environment.
So, honestly, the future feels uncertain right now, and that is nerve-wracking. But if there is one thing our 30-plus years in business have taught us, it is that businesses go through cycles, and resilience is built by navigating the difficult ones. We have reinvented ourselves before, adapted to changing markets, and continued moving forward when the path was far from clear. We are cautiously hopeful that we can find our way through this chapter as well.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
For me, Stella Carakasi has always been much more than a clothing company. It is the expression of my creativity, my instincts, my values, and more than three decades of my life. I am the designer, but I am also a business partner, so I have always been involved in every aspect of the company, from designing collections and choosing fabrics to working with our customers, making business decisions, and navigating the many challenges that come with being an independent brand.
As a designer, I specialize in creating clothing that is distinctive but wearable. I am drawn to beautiful fabrics, interesting textures, unexpected details, and silhouettes that have a certain sense of ease and individuality. I don’t design for trends. I want women to put on a Stella Carakasi piece and feel that it has personality, but also that it feels like them. I want my clothes to become favorites in a woman’s wardrobe; designs she reaches for again and again because they make her feel great.
My design journey has always been closely connected to my values. I started with Two Star Dog, where we became known for our hemp clothing, and later reinvented the company as Stella Carakasi. That transition was a big leap of faith, but it allowed me to grow creatively and reach a woman who was looking for something more sophisticated and contemporary. Sustainability has continued to be important to me throughout that evolution. I have always been interested in the beauty and possibilities of natural and sustainable fabrics, and I have tried to incorporate more responsible materials into our collections whenever possible.
What I am most proud of is not one particular collection or one successful season. It is the fact that I am still here, still designing, and still believing in what I do after more than 30 years. We have built a business that has survived enormous changes in fashion, retail, and the economy. I am proud of the relationships we have built with independent boutiques and customers over the years, and of the fact that women who discovered our clothing decades ago are still wearing and looking for Stella Carakasi today.
Being both the designer and a business partner has also meant that I don’t have the luxury of seeing only the creative side of the business. I have had to learn how to balance my creative instincts with the realities of running a company. There have been times when those two sides have been in conflict, and times when I have had to make difficult decisions simply to keep the business moving forward. That has been one of the hardest, and most valuable part of the journey.
I think what sets us apart is that there is a real person behind the brand. I am not designing according to a corporate formula or a trend report. I am designing from my own point of view, my experience, my curiosity, and my understanding of the women who wear my clothes. We are small and independent, and while that makes the business incredibly challenging today, it also gives us a freedom and authenticity that I treasure.
Ultimately, I think I am most proud that Stella Carakasi still feels personal to me. After all these years, I still care deeply about the clothes we make, the people we work with, and the women who wear them. That connection is really the heart of what I do.
How do you define success?
I have come to define success very differently over the years.
When I was younger, I probably would have measured success by growth, sales, how many stores we were in, or how big we could make the business. And while those things mattered, and still matter in keeping a business alive, I have learned that they are not what ultimately give a life or a business meaning.
Today, I define success much more personally. Success is being able to wake up and still feel connected to what I do. It is having the freedom to create, to follow my instincts, to remain curious, and to find joy in the work even when the road is difficult. It is being able to look back after more than three decades in business and know that I stayed true to myself, learned from every chapter, and never stopped evolving.
But perhaps most importantly, success to me is making people feel seen.
Clothing is deeply personal. We simply don’t put on clothes; we carry ourselves differently when we feel good in what we are wearing. I have always wanted our clothes to make a woman feel noticed, appreciated, beautiful, comfortable, and most importantly, like herself. There is something incredibly meaningful to me when a customer tells us that she put on a piece of Stella Carakasi and felt confident, beautiful, or simply more like herself. Those moments mean more to me than any sales number ever could.
After more than 30 years, I have learned that success isn’t about having a smooth road. It is about having the courage to stay on the road when it isn’t smooth. It is about surviving the difficult years, celebrating the good ones, learning from mistakes, reinventing yourself when necessary, and continuing to believe in what you are doing.
I have learned that businesses can be measured in numbers, but their true value is measured in relationships, the people you have touched, the customers who have stayed with you, the people you have worked besides, and the memories you have created along the way.
And perhaps the greatest measure of success for me is happiness. Not the fleeting kind that comes from a good season or a successful sale, but the deeper kind, the feeling that, despite all the uncertainty and all the things that don’t go according to plan, you have built a life that has meaning.
If I can continue to create, continue to make women feel good about themselves, continue to make our customers feel seen and valued, and still find joy and gratitude in the journey, then I consider myself successful.
After everything this business and life have taught me, I think success is not about how far you get. It is about how you feel when you look back at the road you have traveled, and whether you can say, with all its imperfections, that it was truly yours.
Pricing:
- Bottoms around $149
- Tops around $189
- Jackets and Coats around $300
- Sweater Knits around $230
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.stellacarakasi.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stellacarakasi/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/carakasi/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/stellacarakasi
