the beginning of JReyesFashion.
Hiii everyone! Thanks for being here and being a part of the relaunch of JReyesFashion: the blog. To kick things off, I'll be sharing a backstory on how this all came to be. Continue scrolling and read all about it! 💖
The concept of JReyesFashion first began in 2015 when me, the founder, Jessica Reyes (you can call me Jess) started a fashion blog called "JReyesFashion. All props to my big brother, he came up with the name :)
I was in fashion school at FIDM at the time and all I did was live, eat and breathe fashion. I originally saw myself working for a magazine publication because the whole concept of writing and styling and graphics was so cool to me. So the idea of creating a blog was a no brainer for me. I used to write about my OOTD's and I would have my coworkers snap pics of me around the boutique I worked at. I also talked about new fashion trends and used my FIDM expertise to forecast upcoming trends. My blog was truly my digital fashion diary- and this is what I am aiming to bring back to y'all with the relaunch of the blog.
After I graduated FIDM, I discovered a new field in the industry that I wanted to explore. I'm a math girly, (I know many of you will probably cringe) and the idea of dealing with numbers AND clothes was even cooler to me- aka merchandise buying. Being a buyer means you get to pick the assortment for the retailer you work for, research fashion trends, study sales and shopping reports, etc. I dabbled into this for a few years post-graduation but it wasn't as fulfilling as I thought it would be. All throughout this time, "JReyesFashion" was still alive and breathing but I used the "name" for different things. For example, it was my Poshmark and Depop name and I would upload some items from my closet clean outs. I got a small taste of what it was like to manage online sales and I loveddd it!
Fast forward to 2020, the vintage scene was growing more and more and I started to see more sales coming through on Depop. As many of you probably already know, Depop takes a percentage of your sales and you're limited on how many photos you can upload per listing. At the time, I began selling some of my own vintage finds on Depop instead of the clothing from my "closet clean outs". Of course, the vintage pieces were performing much better.
It wasn't until the pandemic hit when I got furloughed and I had all the time in the world, that I had the idea of having my own website. I knew how to create a website from my previous job experiences, I had the knowledge of e-commerce sales from Depop and Poshmark, and I had styling & buying experience. So, starting my own website was much easier than I could have imagined.
In December of 2020, my first launch ever was vintage designer sunglasses that I curated over a span of a year. I launched on Depop but I wasn't too satisfied because I couldn't do what I had in mind for marketing on that platform. I wanted to create graphics, and have a banner on the home page and that wasn't possible on Depop. This motivated me to just do the damn thing and create my own website.
In March of 2021, my website finally went live and during that same week, I also did my very first pop-up. When people ask when I started JReyesFashion, I typically say March 2021 because this is when I felt like everything came together. I was doing in person and online sales and I was growing a customer base.
Honestly, writing all of this out makes me so happy to see how far I have come since I was a fashion student at FIDM. So much has happened since then and I truly believe that everything we go through is just a pathway to lead us to where we are supposed to be. I definitely feel that I have so much more to share and create for you all through JReyesFashion so I hope that you can follow along this journey with me cause I promise it's gonna be a good one!
XOXO,
JESS
June 21, 2015. The OG JReyesFashion blog.
October 18, 2015. #OOTD.
December 2020. First drop.
March 2021. First pop-up.