Esther Lee of STHR Studios
Esther Lee is the founder and designer of STHR Studios, a New York City-based luxury brand that is redefining the pace of the fashion industry. In this interview, Esther speaks on her experience working in the fast fashion industry for 5+ years where she witnessed firsthand the poor labor conditions of factories in China as well as the harmful environmental effects of the constant production cycle. Esther also shares the pros and cons she experienced starting the brand amidst the global pandemic, a time where the Asian American community faced hate crimes due to xenophobia rooted within a false narrative that the Asian community was to blame for Covid-19.
Where did you grow up?
I was born in Seoul, South Korea. My family immigrated to the U.S. when I was around the age of 5 to Seattle, Washington because a lot of my cousins and aunts were already living there. I come from a background of artists. My grandpa was a very famous war photographer in Korea, my dad is also a photographer, my mom used to be a painter and my sister plays the violin professionally.
I would say I was pretty introverted growing up and still am. Doing anything creative like drawing always felt like a safe space for me, so naturally, I always knew that I wanted to be in the creative field. I think around middle school was when I really started getting into fashion and clothes and when I knew it was something I wanted to pursue full time.
Where did you go to school?
I always said I would go to Rhode Island for 4 years and then move to New York because New York is the hub of fashion and there is so much culture here and that’s where all the famous designers, photographers, and models are. So I graduated from college and majored in apparel design and then moved to New York City. I’m 32 so that was like 11 years ago, so I’ve lived in New York for quite some time now.
What was your first job upon moving to New York City?
So when I first moved to New York, it was 2011 and I was getting my portfolio ready and looking for any job straight out of college just to get my foot in the door. I actually worked in Sax 5th ave. on the men’s floor in retail, while I was trying to look for a design assistant job. I did that for about 3 months, I moved to New York around June and landed my first job as a design assistant in October. After about a year my company went through a lot of changes during which I was given the opportunity to work on a new brand which was incredible considering I was so early in my career, I think I was 24 or 25. That’s when I really learned how to do concept and how to build a brand.
And that’s when I thought, “Someday I want a brand of my own.”
Why did you decide to start Sthr studios during the pandemic? When did the idea first come to you and when were you ready to act on it?
I think the idea was always in the back of my head, I thought to myself, I’ve been at this company for a really long time, and there have been so many ups and downs and towards the end, I was feeling really unhappy. I had always had this scene in my head but I never really had the chance to act on it. I feel like living in New York, every day is just so busy, and you don’t really get the chance to pause and slow down.
“I feel like the pandemic made me become more truthful and honest with myself. I got to reflect on how to spend my time, my energy, and my money.”
It was last year in March when everything really started shutting down and by April I was like, “let’s give this a shot”. Let’s start small, it doesn’t have to be a big full blow commitment. So I got a sewing machine and started ordering fabrics online.
What really pushed me to start was the fact that I had been pretty unhappy working for a fast-fashion brand. Over a long period of time just producing season after season, I felt like the clothing that I was producing was non-meaningful and polluting the environment.
“During my position at this fast-fashion company, I got to travel to China about 2-3 times a year and I got to see first hand the terrible working conditions that these factory workers had to work in.”
Eventually I also had to ask myself, do I picture myself spending another year working for a company where I’m kind of unhappy producing the same kind of clothes that are unmeaningful that I have no attachment to, that I would never even wear myself you know? So ultimately I was like,this is the opportunity to start something of my own.
What kind of fear did you face starting a company during the pandemic? What was funding like for you?
Absolutely, I was terrified. I don’t think that at that point I really knew how much money it took to start a brand.
“Starting a brand is just as expensive as planning a wedding, everything costs money.”
The company is self-funded, no investors, with the little saving I have from working the past 10 years. I’ve made so many mistakes already but I feel like I’m learning how to manage my money better.
I told myself when I started, I’m going to try and do everything I possibly can, and for the things I can’t do, I will spend money on them. I splurged on the photos, photographer, and the model and getting my logo made. I have freelancers that I work with but it’s not like I have a sales team or pr team you know. Everything is done by myself and I’m hoping that as Sthr grows I am able to hire more people to help because I’m not good at everything.
Sthr’s core values are slow fashion, you want to design pieces that can be worn for years on end that are classics. How do you go about deciding which design fits those guidelines? Do you do market research or is it just your personal taste reflected in the designs?
I think it’s a little bit of both. Because I have that whole fast fashion very trend-driven background, and making each piece and developing each piece is very very expensive. I told myself, whatever I produce, I have to be 110% about it, I have to love it.
I have so many ideas but I think one thing that helps me narrow down to a piece that is going to be timeless and live on for many seasons is that I sketch it out and then I sleep on it. I sleep on it for weeks and if I keep thinking about that one design then I’m like ok, maybe this is the one, maybe I should give it a try. So it’s not an impulse thing.
What are some obstacles that you faced starting a brand during the pandemic or was any part of the process made easier because of the pandemic?
This is a good question because there are both pros and cons. When I started everything was shut down so one of the big things I had issues with was sourcing fabric. All the fabric stores were closed, I had to order a wide range of swatches online as opposed to going into the fabric stores and seeing it and feeling it in person. And with all the shipping being delayed I felt like oh god, to get like one swatch it took me 2 weeks and then I open it and I’m like, ok this is not the one. Then back to the drawing horse.
When communicating with the factories, in the beginning, everything had to be virtual and I was learning how to do that with zoom and I’m not very computer savvy so that was really difficult but
“I think on the flip side more people were willing to work with a brand new brand. Usually, factories and even some well-known photographers will ignore your emails when you’re a new brand, but because everyone was out of a job, more people were responding to me and more people were actually willing to negotiate prices, so I think that really worked in my favor.”
How do you feel your experience has differed from other business owners because you are a minority woman?
I’ve experienced differences in my experiences because I’m a woman running this small business versus a man with a small business. For example, at one of the factories I work with I ran into a little bit of production trouble, everything came out to be a size larger than it was supposed to be. When I approached the owner, who is an elderly male, and I was trying to say “hey this came out a lot bigger than it was supposed to, can you fix it?”.
“Working with a factory takes a lot of trust, I’m learning that everything in business is about relationships, and he kind of shut me down. I've never experienced anything like this before but he yelled at me in front of all of his workers, I’ve never been yelled at to that extent in my life by anyone and it was such an embarrassing and humiliating moment for me.”
It was kind of a wake-up moment where I was like if I was a male, maybe a white male or even a white female, would I have been treated that way? Would he have just embarrassed me in front of his whole factory workers?” Experiences like that just kind of motivate me to work a little bit harder and just to be a little bit more professional.
How have the recent hate crimes in the Asian community affected you and how has it affected the way that you run your business?
As an Asian American business owner, I felt, especially after the Atlanta shooting, the need to take action and speak up about it. I don't have a huge following or a huge platform, but I knew that I had a lot of other Asian small businesses or even Asian followers following the brand. I was actually really kind of scared to speak up about it but I felt the responsibility to and I wanted to. As a business owner, I felt like I needed to take action, that's why I did the whole collaboration with Francis and donating 5% of the pre-orders to stopaapihate.org.
“But personally when I take the business side out of it, just as an Asian American walking down the street, every day I’m actually very terrified, to be honest with you and it sucks because New York is like home to me.”
My husband tells me every time I go out he's like “ok, don't wear your earbuds, you have to wear a hat or sunglasses” and it's really upsetting and sad frankly. And every time I walk down the street I kind of flinch if someone gets a little too close to me or if someone brushes up against me. I feel like as a business owner I need to speak up about it, but as an Asian American individual I’m pretty terrified so it's been a pretty draining tough past couple of weeks.
Has there been anything that you feel you have learned and grown from over the past year of this pandemic?
I think this goes back to why I started the brand in the first place and that's that time is precious and you have to live every day being thankful and doing what you love, and to do everything with purpose and meaning. I want to make sure that each style has purpose and meaning and that the brand itself is giving back.
I think another thing that I’ve learned is that giving back is so important. Whether it is during the whole BLM movement or what’s going on with Asian hate, giving back is so important in everything that you do, that I do.
Also to speak up is another thing that I’ve learned, even if you see something that you feel is wrong like in the subway or on the street I think that a lot of the times people in New York are just kind of trained to ignore it and walk past it, I’m trying to make a continuous choice every day that if I do see something to actually take action and to speak upon it.
“Time is precious and you have to live every day being thankful and doing what you love, and to do everything with purpose and meaning.”
What is something that you feel really proud of in your identity as an Asian woman?
When I was growing up in Seattle it was predominantly white, I think all I wanted to do was fit in. Which meant to be more white I guess. As I’m getting older and becoming more comfortable in my skin, I feel like I’m proud of everything that I used to be embarrassed of. So I’m proud that my story has a different point of view, I’m proud that my upbringing as an Asian American has something different to offer.
Also, and I really felt this in the past couple of weeks, that I’m proud and blessed to be a part of a community of Asian women and not just Asian women but minorities.
“I feel there’s this really tight-knit group and a community that I know will always support each other and uplift each other because of our different backgrounds and because of our different stories.”
What is a piece of advice you would give your younger self?
One of the very first things is I would tell myself to start my 401k earlier because that’s so important and I didn’t realize that until I started dating my husband.
Also, I would tell my younger self to not follow the money. One of the main reasons why I stayed in the fast fashion industry was because my salary was a little bit higher than if I were to work in a smaller company with a high-end designer.