This week on #FacesofFavour we caught up with sister’s and co-founders of No Less Than Los Angeles, Sylvia and Betty Shin. We chatted about everything from starting their business to self-care, while running a family business during a pandemic – read the full Q + A below!
Q: Tell us who you are, where you’re from and what you do.
A: We're two sisters from Los Angeles in the clothing business with our family!
Q: Why did you decide to start NLT?
A: Our parents were in the wholesale fashion industry for over 25+ years and were doing domestic production. We were blessed to have this foundation and resources set up by our parents to build our own wholesale line. We started NLT to keep domestic manufacturing alive and create everyday essential garments.
Q: What is your mission / goal with NLT?
A: Our goal is to make laidback essentials that can be worn effortlessly. Our passions lie in domestic sourcing, development, and conscious manufacturing. We want to build a brand that is reasonably priced while being developed and produced ethically in Los Angeles. Eventually, we would like to move into using sustainable fabrics and packaging.
Q: What is your favorite thing about working together?
A: Working together has its ups and downs but the best thing is the fact that we can throw around ideas that come to mind at any given moment and create something together.
Q: Starting a business with family must be a little bit stressful. What do you do to help relieve the stress?
A: A lot of self-care whether that's reading, going to bed early, spending time with our dog, or hanging out with our friends. I think it's important to understand balance and self-awareness and make sure that I do something for myself even on a bad day.
Q: You guys jumped on making masks pretty quickly once the pandemic started. How did the pandemic and quarantine change your business and what you do on a daily basis?
A: The pandemic was the catalyst for going direct-to-consumer. Before this year, we were strictly a wholesale business. This February, we attended one of the biggest trade shows of the year. We were getting ready to send out the first shipment of orders to our customers until the shutdown happened in March. All of our wholesale orders were getting cancelled back to back until we were left with nothing. There was a lot of anxiety in my family and we didn't know what to do, until we came together with a plan to use the fabric that we had in-stock from our Spring collection to make non-medical masks. We were able to launch our retail website within one week because we had full capability to cut and sew masks at our factory in Los Angeles. Fast forward to now, we are making domestically sourced, developed, and produced garments all in-house and building a brand where we can directly connect with our customers.
Every day looks different and with a small team, there are a lot of times where we're juggling many things at once from design/sales meetings, packing orders, writing emails, handling customer service, visiting vendors, and getting ready for a photoshoot all in one day. With the pandemic, our daily routines haven't changed much because we're a small team and we're always balancing many different tasks at the same time.
Q: In that vein, how did the pandemic change up your daily self care routines?
A: With the pandemic, it feels like there's more time to focus inward without all the distractions and noise.
Q: How does Favour work into your self care routine?
A: I've felt a sense of calm when I've taken it. It's nice to have especially on the days when you're feeling extra restless.
Q: At the end of a long work day how do you do yourself a Favour?
A: I think there's a lot of pressure to always be doing something productive all the time, and it took us a long time to be okay with spending time doing things that aren't related to work. Reading, journaling, spending time with our family and dog are a few things that give us a great sense of happiness and peace.
To learn more about Betty & Sylvia, head over to their Instagram here.
About Faces of Favour: Faces of Favour is a weekly series where we sit down with members of our community to highlight how they're using Favour in their everyday routines. Want to be featured? Send us an email here!