Meet May Han of Los Angeles

Today we’d like to introduce you to May Han

Hi May, 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?
About 8 years ago I quit my long time job as a fast fashion designer and decided to take an overdue time off for a year.
During that time I went to the Rose Bowl Flea Market every month and helped my ex boyfriend since he had a booth there. I was fed up with the fast fashion world and the vintage felt very new and attractive.
I started taking some of my boyfriend’s vintage clothing and reforming it. I took a small corner of his booth and started selling my reformed items and it sold pretty well. I loved the idea of reforming and bringing vintage back to life.
My best friend Jamie also felt the same love for vintage so we decided to create a brand. This is how we started I Stole My Boyfriend’s Shirt.

We are based in Los Angeles and we specialize in custom hand embroidery on vintage and cut and sew sweatshirts and tees. Our main goal is to use recycling and up cycling to give life to old used clothing. We wanted to create a line that doesn’t get effected by trend.

We source vintage garments and rework them into unique pieces, often featuring personalized embroidery. We also buy leftover and over ordered fabric from factories which are called dead stock fabrics. We reuse these fabrics for our cut and sew line which allows us to reuse and divert materials that could potentially be going to landfill and instead we create clothing that can be treasured for a long time in everyone’s closet.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
We’ve fairly had a smooth road but being a small business we did have some minor struggles along the way here and there.
When we first started our brand I exclusively created the hand embroidery placement on the neckline with the California embroidery. At that time no one else had done this and it was quite a big hit.
We started selling to many large department stores etc. and had larger companies who reached out to us asking us about growing our company into a larger business. We were afraid that this will turn our brand into fast fashion company which initially was the reason we started our brand, to get away from fast fashion.
We decided that we want to keep our business a small business. We started selling to small boutiques around U.S and individual customers through our website. We loved the fact that we can work with each customer more intimately and help create a special custom piece for them.
We had some small businesses/individuals on websites like Etsy etc. who’ve reached out to us and thanked us for inspiring and giving them ideas to start their own small business. We are grateful that we can be an inspiration to others.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I started as a graphic designer in 2005 at a brand called Miss Me Denim but at the end I became a head designer for the
junior line and worked there for 11 years. They are well known for embellishment and so I created a lot artwork which used silk screen print, embroidery, patches and different trims.
I love doing creative work using different sources and I feel like what I did previously all helped create the base for my creativity for I Stole My Boyfriend’s Shirt. I have confidence in my professionalism as an art director/designer to create
art on garment.

What’s next?
For now I plan on keeping the business small and steady but also at the same time I want to be able to create something bigger through our business.
I want to share my business with others in meaningful ways and give out positive energy to them.
This year my goal is to go out into the world amongst others and not only stay within the inner circle. I would love to give help where needed. We not only want to focus on recycling and upcycling garments but take part in helping others to create a better world.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://istolemyboyfriendsshirt.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/istolemyboyfriendsshirt/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/istolemyboyfriendsshirt/

Image Credits
The 10th image is from the movie Twisters 2024 , the main character of the movie wore our military jacket.
The last 2 black and white photos are from the Clutch Magazine Japan when our brand was featured in it.