Okay, so I have never written any blog post before, so bare with me. I love to write and talk (if you've ever met me, you know this), but I still need to improve at it. So if there are any typos, I apologize.
I get questions about how I started this boutique and tons about where the name came from.
I'll start with the name of the boutique, Matilda Rose. Besides being a cute and catchy name, it has a sentimental meaning. Matilda is a nickname my stepdad Paul gave me when he and my mom first met in 2013. I couldn't stand the name for the longest time, and he loved to call it to embarrass me. In fact, he brought me lunch one day to school, and I went to the office to pick up my lunch, and when they asked me my name, they said there were no lunches dropped off under the name "Mattison." So after calling him and being confused about where my lunch was, he told me he put it under "Matilda." The office ladies thought it was the funniest thing, but sixteen-year-old me didn't. Now for where the rose comes into play... My sweet daddy had this faded old rose tattoo on the back of his shoulder. Although he had other tattoos, the rose was my favorite, and I couldn't tell you why. Since my dad passed away in 2012 and isn't physically here to see my business, I wanted him to be a part of it. So, therefore, the name Matilda Rose is for some of the most influential men that have been or are in my life.
My favorite thing is when people come into the store while I'm working and ask me, "who owns this?" I love telling them that it's me! So let's dive deeper into how and why I started this business. I loved dressing up when I was younger, just like most young girls, but I knew it was truly something I loved when I never stopped dressing up. In fact, I probably broke my moms' bank account trying to keep up with all the latest fashion trends in school. I dressed up for school, church, shopping, the gas station, the grocery store, etc... I always was dressed up.
So fun fact I went to three different high schools, but at the first high school I went to, they offered fashion marketing and design classes. Taking these classes nurtured my love for fashion. I will never forget one of our class assignments was to come up with a creative way to express our love for fashion, so being me, I wrote a rap song called "Fashion is my Passion" and performed it for the class. Fast forward to the end of high school when everyone was deciding where they wanted to go to college and what they wanted to do. I had absolutely no idea. I finally decided that I was going to go to a local community college and just get an associate's degree in business. I still had no idea what I would do with this degree until one day, my mom told me, "why don't you research what it takes to have an online boutique?" I instantly got on my computer and started researching and writing it down. It was almost like a light bulb had gone off, and I knew this was what I wanted to do. After doing all the research and applying for the license, I went and bought a couple of clothing items and set up an online storefront.
Stay tuned for the next blog post about how the brick and mortar store came about!(: