Today we’d like to introduce you to Emily Imbrecht.
Hi Emily, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
Hi! Thank you so much, I’m very honored to be here. A little background on me is I studied studio arts at UC Santa Barbara and moved to LA 10 years ago to begin my career as a graphic designer. I’ve worked in-house on the agency side as well as both full time and freelance for an array of fashion and lifestyle companies. I’ve had my hand in pretty much anything and everything you can think of design wise in the past 10 years but my favorite has always been product and packaging design— putting something tangible out in the world— and I guess that really lead me to where I am today. Starting Au Soleil wasn’t part of some grand plan but I’ve always had an entrepreneurial spirit and so once inspiration struck to start the company I knew it was time to put everything I had learned working for other brands to use for myself.
I founded Au Soleil really to create something I wanted for myself but couldn’t find in the market. I’ve always loved sarongs– they’re chic, versatile and make you feel comfortable no matter the situation. However, there were really no sarong-specific brands out there; everything I found pretty much fell into two categories: 1.) extremely cheap & mass-produced that you’d buy on the beach or from a fast fashion retailer that sells a million other products or 2.) ridiculously overpriced and made by “high end” swimwear brands, and nothing in between. I always wondered where the reasonably priced yet honestly made sarongs were and I could never find them…so I decided it was time to create my own.
Another driving factor in creating this brand was from my own experience of growing up in California, spending the majority of my life in the sun and in a bathing suit. While an incredible way to grow up, it also came with moments of deep insecurity and self-consciousness that I think a lot of women can relate to. There are days you simply just don’t want to put on a bathing suit but also don’t want to miss out on life because of that. I love that I can help make women feel good, and do so in a sustainable way. That is something that lights me up. One of our brand mottos is “We want to make you and our planet feel good” and it’s been an honor to drive that mission home each and every day.
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?
Well, for starters we launched Au Soleil at the start of the pandemic. We had spent the latter half of 2019 and the beginning of 2020 developing the brand for an April 1st launch. Then the pandemic rolled in in the middle of March and we were faced with a very difficult decision. We thought – Is it tone-deaf to launch a brand while the world is shutting down? Will people resonate with this product, given the circumstances? Will we be able to even operate the company properly with this happening? A lot of chaos and worries swirled through our minds, but we were sitting on all new inventory, so much time and planning, and the brand was completely self-funded by my business partner and I at the time, so we decided to just move forward and hope for the best. We ended up launching on May 1, 2020.
To our surprise it turned out to be a great time to launch because while no one was traveling, they certainly were leaning into local activities throughout the summer, and as I’m sure everyone remembers e-commerce was booming at the time because people had a lot of free time to shop online. I think our reasonable price point helped with people being click-happy too.
While taking that risk thankfully worked in our favor, we’ve faced countless challenges since then. From sourcing fabric to manufacturing and shipping difficulties, bad dye runs, tight margins, and learning to scale the business, the list goes on. But we look at every struggle as a building block and through every challenge we’ve learned something new to get us to where we are today.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
We are female-owned and operated, small-batch, sustainable, designed, and manufactured right here in LA!
Sustainability is at the core of our brand, and we make sure that is the ethos of every touch point from manufacturing to materials to packaging. We only use 100% organic double cotton gauze or deadstock fabrics that would otherwise end up in a landfill from larger fashion houses overproducing fabrics for collections. Because we are so aware of the impact that overproduction causes on our environment, we are very strategic in doing small batch runs and not following a fashion calendar. We believe in fewer, higher quality things than last season after season rather than perpetuating the need to buy new for every season. As far as shipping goes, we send our product out in mailers made of 100% recyclable material from post-consumer waste that has been diverted from landfills. We’re endlessly inspired by the earth and want the impact of our brand to be remembered by our consumers so every sarong is named after something related to mother nature.
Our relationship to Los Angeles is also something that’s very important to the brand. Stimulating the local economy and keeping all parts of the business here in LA is something I’m really proud of and passionate about. We have everything at our fingertips right here and yet still so many brands outsource to other states or overseas. We are staunchly anti-fast fashion and really care about the working conditions of the people who produce our goods, which is hard to ensure if you send your business elsewhere. We work with a really amazing team of people and supporting them and their businesses is something that makes me feel joy about what we do. The textile and fashion industry is part of the fabric of LA, and contributing to and being a part of it makes me feel like a proud citizen and Angeleno.
We love this city and it’s a huge inspiration for us, from the mountains to the Pacific, we’re so lucky to call it home.
Are there any books, apps, podcasts or blogs that help you do your best?
I listen to tons of podcasts, whether on morning beach walks or driving all over LA, a few favs below:
How I Built This (for business inspiration and guidance)
Rich Roll & Mel Robbins (for personal development)
Smartless (for a good laugh)
Pricing:
- Mini – $50
- Midi – $55
- Classic – $60
- Tunic – $95
- Rattan tote – $50
Contact Info:
- Website: ausoleilsarongs.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/au.soleil.sarongs/
