Daily Inspiration: Meet Gabrielle La Mura

Hi Gabrielle, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory. 
I was raised on the Upper West Side of New York City, more specifically, W 78 ST. W 78 ST is one of the most beautiful streets in all of NYC; it dead ends into the Natural History Museum, is lined with original 1800/1900s colorful brownstones, and has large flower-filled trees in the Spring. It’s what I think of as ‘Home’ in New York and that’s why I named the brand after it.

In my teenage years, I trained as a ballerina with the school of The American Ballet Theatre, danced in Barcelona, London, Lincoln Center, The Met, and The Guggenheim, and co-choreographed a piece for The Kennedy Center. However, fashion was always a part of my life in New York and when I was 18, I moved to Paris for school and would sneak into the fashion shows during Paris Fashion Week. When I was 19, I moved to LA to attend USC and took all the internships I could in the fashion, PR, and music space.

I never went to school for fashion, design or business, I was just so passionate and excited about creating and sewing that I taught myself everything on my bedroom floor during the COVID lockdown down. My godmother gave me a sewing machine, and I became obsessed with learning how to sew and make things. I would cut out random patterns and shapes and teach myself how to piece them back together.

The start of the brand came from a lot of outside support and people reaching out to order bags. It was something I was doing for fun, and the response was so overwhelming I decided to make it a business. After I graduated from USC I got a job in PR at a music record label, but I also started an Instagram page to post my little random creations to show my friends and family. I would create things that I would wear, things that I thought were different and cool. When I created the first Cloud bag I posted it on my Instagram page and started getting a great response from my friends, and eventually, people started to reach out to me, asking if I could make them one of my bags.

After a few months of this, I started to consider taking it a little more seriously; I named the brand and Instagram W 78 ST. I was getting attention from people in the industry, and I had to start pulling all-nighters to keep up with the work while also working my 9 to 5 job. After a few months of this, I decided to take the jump and quit my job to run the brand full-time. After a few months of working on the brand, I had some celebrities wearing my bags, like Kourtney Kardashian, Bella Hadid, Christine Quinn, Elsa Hosk, Claudia Sulewski, Emma Chamberlin, Jodie Woods, and more. I started to work with retailers. I also started to gain attention from fashion outlets like ELLE, Vogue HK, Harper’s Bazaar, Cosmopolitan, Hype Bae, and more. Now, it’s almost been 2 years of me running W 78 ST full time, and I couldn’t be happier that I took the jump to create something I am so proud of.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Of course, there have been challenges along the way, but I try to see them as hurdles that just prepare me for the next thing. I try my best to learn from all the little setbacks.

I think my ballet background has helped me enormously, it’s given me the availability to focus, to be driven, and to have a good work ethic. But it has also made me a crazy detail-oriented perfectionist, and that has some setbacks when it comes to letting go of control, hyper-focusing on details, and stressing out. But with more experience and time, I’m able to learn to deal with stress better and better.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I have been W 78 ST full time now for just under 2 years. Our first and most known bag is the Cloud bag, which is made from 100% recycled goose down and Nappa lambskin leather that is imported from Italy, and is what put W 78 ST on the map.

Our newest bag, The Jolie, is made from fine Italian leather and has already been named one of “The 25 Best Designer Tote Bags” by Harper’s Bazaar, as “The Best Adjustable Tote Bag.”

For me, creating timeless, creative, and quality designs is essential. I see W 78 ST’s bags are works of art that women carry around with them and move through their daily lives with. The dream is to continue to make pieces that inspire me and hopefully get people excited. I want to build a company that can stand the test of time, that has longevity and timelessness, a heritage brand.

Do you have any advice for those looking to network or find a mentor?
Since I am a one-woman team, I have to make a lot of choices myself. Finding a few people that have either similar experiences, or work in the business has been so helpful to me.

I think everyone’s path is different, and so I think it’s important to find people that you admire, whether it be that you admire their career, work ethic, or how to do business so that you can turn to them when you have questions. I’ve been very lucky, in that I have found great people that work in the industry that I can turn to ask for advice when I need it.

Being a 1-person team also means sometimes having to go to networking events solo, and at first, that was super intimidating. I would feel very out of place and nervous to talk to people. But after a few times of doing it, I’ve gotten practice just feeling comfortable and confident enough to do it, and once I was able to do that, I started running into people I knew or that I had met at a previous event.