Today we’d like to introduce you to Calah ‘Cae’ Shields.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I have always been a creator and innovative. I grew up seeing my family create things and service the community so naturally, it was in my heart to figure out how I could do the same. My parents have their own custom clothing company and my grandmother was a designer with her own brand. As a family we would be in custom pieces all of the time, I believe my passion for fashion has always been in my blood. Though I grew up seeing glimpses of this design world from different perspectives, I came into the world of creating on my own.
We lost my grandmother to her mental illness fight before I could take any sewing lessons with her and my parents have tailors for their company so they do not cut and sew. I sewed a little in high school but after my Nanna passed in 2018, while a junior in college in my dorm room, I began teaching myself how to sew more in-depth things to pay homage to and feel a connection with my grandmother. Sewing became a way to heal through the trauma. She and I were really close so her passing away has been very hard for me, she bought me my first sewing machine in high school. I look at that sewing machine from my Nanna as one of the greatest investments into my life. Before I knew it, I was fulfilling orders in my dorm room between classes.
Four years later and now I have my own custom clothing brand and e-commerce business that I run in another state than where I was born in. I have built my brand Haus of Shiéc. around the foundation of accentuating one’s inner beauty and energy while bringing it out into the world that my clients can put on.
I am truly grateful for all of my growing pains. I look back and smile because I’ve been able to build and will continue to build something that brings a little more good into the world even when it comes from me having to heal through it. I just want to thank everyone who shares my posts, websites, and refers Shiec. I am able to continue to grow because of my supportive community.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
Being self-taught anything is never easy. Part of the struggle is learning discipline, setting up systems that work for you and having faith. You have to believe in yourself and your plan. For me, I believe that I was created by my Creator to be a creator, so I have to remind myself that I was created for this. It gets hard at times trying to figure out what moves are the best ones to make and knowing how to use wisdom to know when to say “no.” Mistakes will happen but as one of my old professors used to say, “Fail Faster” and learn from them meaning just go for it. I am learning how to have patience with my journey and myself. As an emerging brand (my alternative verbiage to small business) at times, it is easy to get caught up in feeling like you’re competing with bigger brands. When this happens, I recenter, focus on my community I am building and listen to what they’re saying or have said and I look to see what they may be needing.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Shiéc. pieces are intentionally made by acknowledging the aspect of energy and that it does transfer. Each piece is hand made and created intentionally with love, care and good energy. Every collection and piece of clothing I design I hope to make our community feel something or think from a more “Up” perspective about life. I’m sewing love, confidence inspiration and peace back into the world with each garment. So when each client receives their package, they just have to see it, touch it or wear it and they and others will instantly feel that energy, which also becomes a reflection of themselves.
There are so many devices and systems in the world to push trauma and sadness. The truth is Fast Fashion is Slave Labor, people are working in inhumane conditions and sewing their trauma into what they’re being forced to make in those conditions. Wearing clothes created this way is adjacent to the effects from slaughterhouses for the food we digest, trauma can be passed on. Haus of Shiéc. tries to combat this by providing an alternative and luxury experience. We define luxury as the ability to have options.
With Shiec. not only can you purchase handmade with care pieces, you can also place custom orders with me as well. Our mission is to create for all body types, natural bodies- you don’t need to change anything about yourself. I feel like a lot of fashion today is catering to “BBL Couture” as my friends like to call it or the extra slender community making people feel like they always have to lose weight or change their bodies to simply just wear beautiful clothes.
But that’s not realistic, why is it that we have to change something about ourselves to wear something that is supposed to make us feel like ourselves? I believe you should be able to look in the mirror when you buy an outfit and see you. If you don’t see yourself, you shouldn’t wear it, not the other way around.
Shiéc. provides our community the option to make things more custom to them for them.
Is there any advice you’d like to share with our readers who might just be starting out?
You’re going to have to remind yourself to not give up on yourself. When you see the vision write it down and hold on to it. Believe in yourself so much that you can put your pride to the side and take risks not knowing what the outcome will be, these are the moments that will help build you and your understanding of your passion the most, in the vulnerability and uncomfortable stages.
Pricing:
- Customer order consultations- $25.00
Contact Info:
- Website: www.shopshiec.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shopshiec/
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@thecaewayy?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc
Image Credits
Photo of Kali: @Khavon Thomas @khavon420 Ig
