Today we’d like to introduce you to Shorenay Kong.
Hi Shorenay, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
Growing up with a Cambodian immigrant single parent in Long Beach, art is my way of coping with the obstacles in my life and dealing with my mental health. I’ve always had an interest in craft arts since I was a child. I used to make all sorts of crafts like origami and lanyards. So naturally, I was drawn towards knitting and crocheting by book since YouTube tutorials didn’t exist back then. However, this hobby didn’t stick when I was a kid because I did different extracurricular activities growing up. One of the extracurricular activities I did was being in performance arts as a dancer throughout high school and college.
When I graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Accountancy from California State University, Long Beach in May 2018, I was studying for a law school admissions test that summer. A part of me was conflicted about pursuing graduate school and going down a traditional career path right after my undergraduate studies. This expectation for Asian minorities like myself is quite common, despite a tough upbringing I had. Earning that bachelor’s degree was a tough grind but deep down inside, I knew I had to find some way to incorporate art back into my life. It wasn’t until after graduating college that I revisited my interest in crochet and knitting. This creative passion leads me to postpone my graduate studies in 2018 to pursue crochet and knit fashion design full-time.
Ultimately, this decision was a blessing in disguise. What started my exploration into crochet and knit fashion design was when I dug through my childhood box of crafts and found some crochet hooks, knitting needles, and yarn. I vaguely remembered crochet clothing being worn at Coachella and I decided to YouTube a tutorial on how to crochet a festival top for myself. This curiosity exposed me to the world of crochet that features so many versatile designs from clothing to home decor. I was immediately hooked because of the endless creative possibilities with just a hook and some yarn. I did some more research and learned a lot about sustainability, slow fashion, and ethical business practices. Crochet clothing is a type of slow fashion that is one solution to the impact of fast fashion on the planet.
With this discovery, it sparked an idea and ignited a passion in me. This leads me to make the decision to run a crochet indie business that utilizes my business knowledge and creative talents. I named my crochet shop LOVESHORE with Shore being my nickname and using the word “love” to evoke the message of loving what you do, loving oneself, and sharing what you love with the world. My Instagram account name is LOVESHORESTUDIO because there’s a lot that I want to showcase in terms of clothing, accessories, fashion designs, amigurumi toys, decor, etc. This online studio is to show everything that I can make that isn’t limited to just crochet for the future. Crochet happens to be the start of this very exciting adventure.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
I started my crochet shop months after graduating college with very little money in my bank and I had to figure everything out myself. I was fortunate enough to have a strong support system and have my shop flourish the way it is now. When I first began crocheting, the crochet community was small and very kind to each other. Since crochet was an underrated hobby, I was excited to explore uncharted territory with it. However, the crochet community changes a lot this year. Due to stay-at-home quarantine orders, crochet became a fast-growing trendy hobby for many people. It astounds me that I kind of blew up overnight getting discovered by so many new crocheters. Since crochet designers, like myself, are giving fresh new ideas and content, many people are taking an interest in crochet. So much so that fashion brands and celebrity influencers are pushing crochet as a new style trend. Even the youth on Tik Tok are picking up crochet as their new hobby during quarantine this year. As big as crochet is becoming, there are issues that are going to arise. Fast fashion brands are stealing designs from independent crochet designers. Also, there has been a lot of heat within the community in regards to design originality and sustainability.
To sum it up, I believe that it’s not that we need a few people to do sustainability perfectly, but that we need more people to practice it, even if it’s imperfectly. Sustainability doesn’t benefit from having few people doing it perfectly and not everyone has the privilege of choice when it comes to sustainability. I think as long as you make use of everything in your life and try to reduce waste, you’ll be fine. When it comes to original designs, not only is there an overlap in design ideas, but there are issues like photos of designers being stolen without credit. I’ve had someone impersonate me with my own photos claiming that those designs are theirs. I personally don’t mind inspiration with credit. However, when there are blatant issues like these, it does get frustrating to deal with at times. I try to not invite that energy into my shop but it’s an issue that needs to be spoken about on behalf of the community. There needs to be regulation and precedent set for it. Nevertheless, I’m fortunate enough to have loyal supporters since day one.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
The bread and butter of my crochet e-commerce shop is selling clothing and accessories. I mainly approach crochet as fashion and design. Coming up with concepts, themes, and the direction of the collection is always a fun project every season. When it comes to presenting a collection or new design, I’m quite theatrical in terms of content creation. This is because of my background in performance arts as a dancer which taught me a lot about being an artist. Being an e-commerce shop owner is also new territory for me. I get to connect with so many people all over the world and create quality products to ship out worldwide. With that being said, I am a one-woman show. I do everything myself from crocheting new designs, self-timer photoshoots, fulfilling orders, packaging, shipping, buying yarn for inventory, running my social media accounts, and answering shop messages.
Before Covid-19, I was able to do run a vendor booth at my college for a student organization selling crochet accessories. This experience sparked my interest in future craft fairs I hope to attend to do more vendor booth work. I also try to set a yearly tradition where I participate in a charity organization, such as Knots of Love, donating crochet items to cancer patients and veterans. I try to make time to give back to the community as a gratitude gesture for all the support my shop receives. My family is very proud of what I do and that also makes me proud of my work. The positive responses I receive for my work pushing crochet boundaries and introducing new designs is a different kind of praise that I did not expect at all. Sometimes, I’m blown away by the impact that I have within the community but my supporters always remind me of that daily. Seeing others get excited about my work really brings me internal fulfillment that what I do has value.
If you had to, what characteristic of yours would you give the most credit to?
I consider myself to be a very disciplined individual. This is due to my upbringing, my time as a student, and my background as a dancer. I put in work and people have told me that they can see it. To me, what I consider success has many different milestones to it. I’ve hit a lot of personal milestones for my shop and continue to set goals for the direction I want the shop to grow. Inspiring people to get into crochet and give respect to the craft is all I want for it. My quick crochet pace and my work ethic has earned me a lot of respect within the community. I’ve had fellow crocheters tell me that they respect how much work I put into my shop and the quality that I produce. It’s not an easy task. The fact that I find time to innovate new ideas and designs while fulfilling orders requires a lot of patience and discipline to get it all done. But it is all part of the process. I don’t plan to have the same routine and will expand my work in the future. Most importantly, I think loving what I do and believing in the potential of crochet contributes to the success that I have. I put my trust in God’s timing and it has always been a blessing every time. Since I communicate with the world through art and people understand what I’m communicating, it brings me deep fulfillment in my soul.
Pricing:
- Accessories price range: $10-$30
- Two-Piece price range: $60-$80
- Sweaters & Cardigans price range: $95-$100
- Premium Lux price range: $300+
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Website: theloveshore.etsy.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/loveshorestudio
- Other: loveshorestudio.wordpress.com
Image Credits
Personal photo by: Victoria Sanchez 4-8 photos by: Shorenay Kong
