Being Geek Chic is a blog about one woman navigating the male-dominated industries of production and tech. It's written by Elizabeth Giorgi, Founder, CEO and Director of Mighteor - one of the world's first internet video production companies. Learn more about Mighteor here.
I only do laundry once every 60 to 90 days. For some people, that may seem totally insane. Maybe even gross. Quite honestly, I feel a little embarrassed that I know this about myself. But ever since I started my business, my life has become all about efficiency and reducing the amount of shit I do in my life that is totally and completely time consuming for no good reason at all. Laundry and dry cleaning was one of those things.
It all started when I went to go pick up my “go-to” suit jackets and sheath dress from the dry cleaner and the bill was $89. For three damn items. In case you didn’t know this already: there is a lady-penalty at the dry cleaner. A men’s shirt will get the steam and press for anywhere between $3.99 to $9.99. My silk shirts? The absolutely absurd price of $19.99. It’s the opposite of economical. And it just caused me a lot of stress always trying to figure out when I was gonna pick up my wardrobe.
And then I discovered this big secret: what if I didn’t even need to own nice clothes? Besides the basics, of course. What if I could avoid understanding trends and just let someone else do that for me?
Well now that is exactly what I do. I rent roughly 75% of my work week wardrobe and it’s awesome. No laundry. No dry cleaning. No unexpected dry cleaning bills. And no worrying about what to wear. New clothes just show up at my front door. Then, after I wear them, I send them back. I don’t have to wash them. I don’t have to steam them. I just wear and return.
This is how I do it:
From Monday - Wednesday, I wear my Rent the Runway Unlimited items. These tend to be my most busy “meeting” days, so it’s a lot of high end Diane Von Furstenberg dresses and Vince and Theory jackets and blazers. These things going extremely well with my existing accessories, so it’s super simple to just throw on a DVF sheath dress with a pair of heels and nice earrings and that’s that.
Then, on Thursday morning, the UPS guy picks up my RTR items and I pick my items on Friday for the next week. The nice thing about RTR is that you don’t have to send everything back at once, so you can hold onto that romper that makes you feel like a badass and send back the other items and just get two more items that week.
For Thursday and Friday (and the occasional Monday when UPS fails to deliver on time) I wear the items from my Le Tote. Le Tote is a funny thing. It allows you to rent the whole gamut of wardrobe items from gym attire to dressy dresses. Because you get five items at a time, I tend to be a little more adventurous with my Le Tote and have even bought one of the sweaters I had in one of my first Totes. The types of items I generally get from Le Tote are things like a sassy French Connection sweater or a Free People blouse. They tend to be my Friday items, when I’m not as likely to have a bunch of meetings but still want to look good just in case something does come up.
Le Tote does require you to send everything back at once, so I do have to plan a little better and there have been a few times when I did send something back without wearing it because the fit was bizarre or I just didn’t like the item on me. But I figure, in the big picture, it’s not a big deal.
The other really unexpected bonus of this system is how much simpler traveling for work has become. These days, I pack my LeTote and RTR items on every trip I go on, wear them for the work excursion, and then have my hotel ship the items back for me. I go home with a super light bag, which means I usually just fold it up into my laptop purse, and within a few days of being home, a new wardrobe is on the way.
What does this cost me? Altogether, I spend $200 per month on these two services combined. I don’t shop anymore. I do less laundry. And I’ve eradicated my twice monthly dry cleaning bill. I am pretty confident when I look at the numbers, I’m saving money.
Of course, most of my friends are baffled by this. But here’s the thing: there are SO many things I have spent a hundred bucks or more on in my closet that I’ve worn once and then I felt tremendously guilty forever because I never wore it again. You know what items most commonly suffer that ending? Yeah, they are the things that are colors. The blue dresses. And green skirts. And that one pink blazer I bought because I was losing my freaking mind. And while I don’t think this is for everyone, I do think it’s for people who like to dress up and want to look chic and polished for their job, but just don’t have the capacity to actually pull it off.
To put it in concrete terms, these are the things I most commonly rent: Really bold patterned shirts and rompers, sheath dresses in all kinds of colors, special event dresses for parties, networking events and big deal sort of activities, blazers and skirts.
And these are things that I don’t rent: Bras and underwear, accessories and jeans or my black skinnies. Socks, obviously. Shoes or footwear. Also, my purses usually last the whole year or two, so those I skip too.
The last, and perhaps, the most emotional reason why I just can’t imagine stopping this lifestyle switch any time soon is because fashion is so, so wasteful. When I think about how many crappy items I have purchased from Forever 21 and H&M over the years, only to donate those items one season later, it makes my stomach hurt. While wasting money sucks, ultimately, it’s the fact that most of that clothing winds up in a landfill somewhere that really gets to me. I literally can’t handle it. So while some people might be weirded out that I’m essentially “sharing” a wardrobe with hundreds of other women - that doesn’t bother me one bit. The way I see it, we share our cars, our homes and now, we share our closets.
Never in one million years did I think this would be a topic on this blog, but it’s turned out to be this great thing in my life. I love how it simplifies my life. And I love how it gives me space to free my brain of wardrobe questions and instead look at how to spend my energy on my business every week.
If you want to try one of these services, I’ve got coupons, because why the hell not ask, right?
Le Tote will give you $25 off your first tote (50% off) if you use THIS LINK HERE . OR the first three people to email me with the subject line GIVE ME A TOTE at elizabeth(at)beinggeekchic(dot)com - I will send a free tote to you!
Rent the Runway will give you $30 off your first rental or $30 off your first month of Unlimited if you use THIS LINK HERE.
Share economy, FTW.
When I decided to start my company, I had already spent a lot of time on the traditional path. I had been working in different parts of media, marketing and communications for 8 years before the glimmer of entrepreneurship even caught my eye and I can still remember thinking: “Really? Me?” So imagine being four years into your college experience and already knowing that the path we’re sold and told to follow isn’t for you. That’s what happened to Erin Winik, Founder and CEO of Sci Chic and our guest blogger for today.
From day one of college as an engineering student, you are told repeatedly to get leadership experience, hands-on practice in engineering, and internships as soon as possible. Get your resume in tip-top shape for recruiters. Network with large engineering firms at career showcase. Get leadership titles. Inundate your resume.
I have always been someone who has striven to please the teachers and people around me, and therefore I dove into my classes and my school’s chapter of the Society of Women Engineers headfirst to work to fill up my resume with exactly what these companies wanted. I worked my way up through the organization and took any opportunity someone would give me.
As I entered my 4th year of college, I was struggling to find the exact company that fit me and my personality. My resume was full to the brim of what everyone else thought I should be, not what I wanted to be. I can now easily get offers for jobs, but they are not the ones I want. I have passions for writing, photography, business, making, sewing, and so much more past the technical experience that I can fit on the front side of one sheet of paper.
At this moment I had a thought, why I am I following this path? Sure, it is the path that college most easily funnels you towards, but forget company name recognition. Forget stable jobs. Forget the normal path. Is this my dream?
Why not make the company for which I am so longing to work?
If the company is not out there, I could be filling a gap both in the market and in my life by creating it. Thomas Edison once said, “Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work”. I decided that the work was worth it, and what better time to take a chance than my senior year of college. This led me to creating Sci Chic in October 2015.
The biggest lesson I have learned in college is that you do not have to wait for someone else to deem you worthy to get experience. You can make those situations yourself.
At Sci Chic we used advanced technologies like 3D printing and laser cutting to create customizable science inspired jewelry. I am able to get experience learning about finances, business, manufacturing technologies, marketing, and so many more things that would have taken years for me to get a chance to experience waiting for someone else to give me the opportunity.
However, starting your own company does not come without risks or difficulties, and the difficulties of a senior year of college compounded with this caused some issues. Company deadlines and group project deadlines can often interfere. Needing to study for a midterm can get in the way of the ten emails you really need to send. Add this onto the fact that I am already a minority in mechanical engineering as a woman, and a now a minority as a female entrepreneur/business owner. I somehow seem to always pick the paths where I am a minority, but am happy to do so. I am proud to represent women in an area where we are still so underrepresented.
Strangely though, the thing I have struggled with the most is publicly selling myself as an entrepreneur. Up until starting my own company I have stayed on a traditional college leadership path that didn’t draw any attention for being different. Breaking into entrepreneurship has had to be very public for me since I am trying to draw on many of my college and social media connections to support my business. This makes both my successes and failures within the business very public and open judgement of my choices is not something to which I am accustomed.
But then I hear a story of a little girl wearing our jewelry every day to school. I 3D print a new jewelry design. I go out and meet people who are excited about what we are creating and realize I could not get this experience anywhere but with what I have created and I am grateful for making myself balance classes with this company. I realize that this is where I am meant to be and that all the struggles that come with it are worth it.
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Erin Winick is a 4th year mechanical engineering student at the University of Florida and the founder of Sci Chic. Erin can be found on Twitter @bcofengineering.
You’ve already met the creators and writers of the new webcomic, “Fashion Forward,” sisters Shawnelle and Shawnee Gibbs. Catch up on their Lady Geek(s) of the Week feature here. Now, get introduced to Linda Chung, interior page artist, and JM Tolman, the cover artist.
Together, these ladies bring the story of a young, time-traveling fashion designer to life. Read on and get to know them!
Q: What drew you to Fashion Forward as an artist?
Linda: It’s comics about fashion!
And time traveling! But mainly, fashion! I love looking at
fashion and how things are designed so it just clicked for me. When I met
the creators/writers Shawnee and Shawnelle Gibbs, they were such an
enthusiastic and creative pair. The storyline was great and so I jumped
into it. With Fashion Forward, it was definitely a new and different thing for
me to draw–kinda like trying a new and different fashion style. It was
exciting as an artist.
Q: What was your process for creating the art pages for Fashion Forward?
Linda: The process starts with the writers giving me the text, layout, and loose description for a set of pages and then I create them using photoshop on my Cintiq. There were reference images of fashion and people that they sent me and I would also look up. It was a fun challenge for me to incorporate them throughout the comics. The most enjoyable part was getting to finalize the sketches! It’s such a delight to look back on the pages and see it all come together.
Q: What did you consider when creating the cover for the inaugural issue of Fashion Forward?
JM: For covers, I always start off with four rough sketches, each illustrating a different idea. Once one idea is chosen, I do a slightly more refined sketch with four color variations. After the final rough is chosen, I move onto the inking stage, which is entirely digital.
Finally, after the inks are done and approved, I color the piece, which is my favorite part. I love playing around with color!
Q: A little bird told us that you two know each other from art school. Was it serendipitous collaborating with an old friend?
JM: I did! We even graduated at the same time. And it was very much a serendipitous thing- while I did read the story before I drew the sketches for the first cover, I didn’t realize who the interior artist was until much later. It was a pleasant surprise!
Q: What do you want readers to take away from your art?
Linda: As an artist, I would love it if readers can immerse themselves in the world I created and travel through it fluidly. I love telling a story visually. On a deeper level, I hope readers understand that fashion, like art, is unique and different for everybody, and there are many ways to enjoy it and share it with the world.
Q: When did you discover you were “geeky”?
JM: There was no discovery, unless you count the first time I heard the word. When, at the age of four, you drag a Godzilla figure everywhere you go and your hero is Princess Leia, it is very, very hard to deny that you are a geek. I didn’t even try, heh.
Linda: Sometimes I’m still rediscovering my geekiness! There are so many new and amazing things to geek over. The first recollection would probably be in middle school when I watched a lot of anime and made fanart and cosplayed. I thought it was something that everybody liked and did for a hobby, and I hung out with people who enjoyed the same throughout high school. Looking back now, what I thought was cool and popular was considered “geeky” and not widely acknowledged.
Emma Bauer is a Being Geek Chic Contributor. Clearly, she’s got great taste. She is a PR enthusiast, dog lover, tea drinker, art appreciator, and of course, aspires to Be Geek Chic. Follow her on Twitter: @emmalynnbauer
Picture this: you’re a young fashion designer with a background in engineering and a physicist for a best friend. Together, you create a time machine, allowing you to venture seasons ahead in time, seeing trends and looks well before they hit the runway. As a result, you find yourself on an adventure that may jeopardize New York’s most elite and change the future of fashion forever.
Sounds pretty amazing? Thank sisters Shawnelle and Shawnee Gibbs, the writers and creators of Fashion Forward. It’s a new webcomic that just debuted last month. You can download the first issue on Comixology, an online digital comics platform, here.
The Gibbs sisters are the definition of a dynamic duo. The award-winning writing team from the San Francisco Bay Area started their careers in indie animation when they began creating their own webtoons and animated shorts while in college. The Gibbs gals have a mission that we can totally get behind: telling contemporary and timeless tales with female protagonists.
Read on for their interview with BGC!
Q: How did you arrive at the premise for Fashion Forward?
Shawnelle: It was at least 5 years ago now that the idea came on a road trip on the California I-5 from our hometown in Oakland back to Los Angeles. Since the view of cows and dry grass gets pretty redundant after a while, there’s nothing much to do but talk or listen to music and we were in the talking phase of the 5.5 hour trip. I was telling Shawnee´ about a book I wanted to write about a Fashionista who time traveled for ideas. It started a discussion that started snowballing and became the webcomic that became the book. I still get excited thinking about it.
Shawnee: Shawnelle had me with the magic words “time travel” and “stilettos.” We’d been working on all sorts of out-there ideas about ghosts, an early 1900s circus performer and stuff about aliens, so a time traveling adventure was right up our alley. Shawnelle has a bit of a background in fashion–she’d produced on the show Project Runway and had briefly gone to school for fashion back in college, so it manages to spill out here and there. To start an idea, we first have to pitch it to each other (and we can be the toughest critics of a pitch). Sometimes we have to work extra hard to convince the other person of an idea before we write it, but I was immediately onboard with this one and I’ve gotta thank the long and monotonous California I-5 highway for it!
Q: How do you hope Fashion Forward will inspire readers?
Shawnee: At the core of the story is a tale of a young woman in a workplace environment that doesn’t value her very much. When you’re starting a job, particularly creative ones, (which we have a bit of experience with), wages are low and expectations are insane. Sometimes you’re treated terribly and you don’t know what to do. For those that don’t quit entirely, a lot of people grind it out and find themselves in a position where they can either be a part of the problem (the old horrible boss phenomenon) or rise above it all and create a new model.
We’re hoping our readers recognize the importance of staying true to yourself no matter how crazy the fill in the blank world is that you find yourself in–in our protagonist Sam’s case, it’s the incredibly unique and competitive world of haute couture. We hope our readers take away the idea of going against the grain and realizing you can take a stand no matter how much muslin you find yourself tied up in.
Shawnelle: My hope for Fashion Forward is that it encourages women to dream big in the STEAM world while making decisions along the way that they can live with.
Q: Talk about taking the story from script to comic book art.
Shawnee: Shawnelle and I come together to write the script where we plan the story, dialogue and early layout for the panels of a page but it’s our artists who really bring it to life. And we’re so, so lucky to have found two very talented young ladies: Linda Chung, our interior page artist and J.M. Tolman who’s our cover artist for the first half of the series and takes over sequential art for our later books, when Linda moved up North to do amazing things in the gaming world.
Our jaws dropped at these young women’s portfolios and they’re skill and work ethic is just phenomenal. These girls both have talent oozing out of their fingertips and we’ve been lucky enough to have them both on the team!
Q: When did you discover you were “geeky”?
Shawnee: I got the sneaking suspicion that I might have been a geek when Shawnelle and I were kids writing our own comic strips in grade school. But I think the big sign post geeky moments were being in high school opting to hang out late in our English Teacher Ms. Pyeatt’s room editing and drawing comics for the school newspaper while other kids were hanging out at football games and parties. I knew for certain that I was a geek at that point, and I was cool with it.
Q: If you could take any fictional character out for a drink, whom would you choose and what would you drink?
Shawnee: It would have to be Doro the Immortal from the Octavia Butler Patternmaster series. We’d probably drink Scotch—neat…as I try to pry the mysteries of the world out of his cold heart.
Q: What would you tell your 13-year-old self?
Shawnelle: Someone is going to offer you fried oysters in a few years, avoid them. And just go ahead and keep being your special brand of weird, you’ll end up totally fine.
Emma Bauer is a Being Geek Chic Contributor. Clearly, she’s got great taste. She is a PR enthusiast, dog lover, tea drinker, art appreciator, and of course, aspires to Be Geek Chic. Follow her on Twitter: @emmalynnbauer
Meet Mari Ruiz. She’s a talented designer, diehard accessorizer, and lover of all things geek chic. Living in sunny California, Ruiz creates geek-inspired handbags and clutches that will give your outfit an instant pop.
Check out her bags on Etsy here. Our favorites? The Super Mario clutch (when did Bowser get so chic?), the Stormtrooper clutch (for those ready to join the dark side), and the bob-omb clutch (for when you’re having a blast).
Ruiz is currently a Fashion Nominee for The Geekie Awards. The winners are chosen by public voting, so before you read her interview with BGC, give a fellow lady geek some love and cast your vote here: http://vote2015.thegeekieawards.com/.
Q: How did you discover your passion for designing geek chic accessories?
A: My passion for designing started at a very young age, and I have been developing this passion all of my life, it is what I truly love to do! I absolutely love creating, coming up with new ideas, experimenting and bringing those ideas to life. I am also a huge geekie fan, when I love something I want to surround my entire world with it and can’t seem to ever get enough! Clothing and accessories are a big part of that world, and love having fun with style! This is where geek chic accessories come in, they are great because you can add them to any outfit and instantly showcase your geekie side ; ) “A little nonsense now and then is cherished by the wisest men” – Willy Wonka
Q: Where you do envision lady geeks taking your clutches and wristlets
A: Anywhere, anytime! This is one of the things I love about accessories, the styling possibilities are endless and you get to be creative with the look! When I design clutches one thing I love doing is incorporating gems, studs and metallic fabrics so they are versatile enough to be worn everyday or as an accent piece for a special occasion.
Q: Where do you find your inspiration in life?
A: Everywhere! I find everything in life inspiring for both creative design ideas and for pursuing my dreams. I have an irresistible desire to be constantly creating; it is what I do for fun and it allows me to pull ideas from everything. I am also extremely passionate about following my dreams and inspiring others to follow theirs as well, there is nothing better than seeing someone’s imagination sparked by something I created!
Q: If you could take any fictional character out for a drink, whom would you choose and what would you drink?
A: Albus Dumbledore for a butterbeer ; ) …and in real life J.K. Rowling for a butterbeer ; )
Q: What would you tell your 13-year-old self?
A: I would share some of my favorite quotes that continue to keep me inspired and motivated everyday:
“Whatever the mind can conceive and believe it can achieve.” – Napoleon Hill
“Your future is what you make it. So make it a good one!” – Doc Brown
“Why fit in when you were born to stand out?” – Dr. Suess
Emma Bauer is a Being Geek Chic Contributor. Clearly, she’s got great taste. She is a PR enthusiast, dog lover, tea drinker, art appreciator, and of course, aspires to Be Geek Chic. Follow her on Twitter: @emmalynnbauer
