The Fashion Brand Built on Comfort, Community, and a Very Clear Point of View

Speaker 1: Welcome to She Built It. I'm your host, Melanie Bar. Building a business means making a bet on yourself and on an idea that others have not seen the way you see it. The founders who break through are usually the ones who stopped waiting for someone else to make the thing that they knew the world needed. Today's guest did not build around a trend. She built around a feeling. The feeling of being put together and comfortable at the same time without ever having to choose between the two. Lauren Stevens is the co-founder and CEO of Dudley Stevens, a fashion brand known for its elevated fleece styles designed for real life. The school run, The Weekend, The Office, and the Outdoors. She turned a very clear point of view into a loyal and growing customer community. And she did it by staying close to who she was building it for. Lauren is also a podcaster, a writer, and someone who has built her brand and her personal platform at the same time, sharing her journey in fashion, beauty, and wellness alongside the business she's growing. She is a mom, a wife, and a founder who understands that a strong brand is not just about what you sell. It's about how you make people feel and why they keep coming back. I cannot wait to get into how she thinks about growth, community, and building something with staying power. Lauren, thank you for being here.

Speaker 2: Thank you so much for having me. It's great to see you and we've met before as we were just discussing. So, it's it's so nice to chat today.

Speaker 1: Yeah. So fun. We met at Reese Witherspoon's Shine Away and it was so it's so nice to be talking again and hearing more about your brand. What is the moment or belief when you said that Dudley Stevens the brand needed to exist?

Speaker 2: It was in 2014. I was working in fashion. Well, I was working in beauty at the time actually, but I was in the corporate world. I had a long career in fashion prior to working I was working for Lancome at the time and I missed fashion. I missed working in fashion. And my mom had this idea with my sister and I where she had just picked up boating as like a hobby with my dad. She felt like there wasn't anything that she could find that was warm and like a fleece like washable, versatile, like durable fabric that can go from like being on the boat, being on her boat, then coming off and going to dinner. And when she said this to my sister and I, a light bulb went off and we both thought, "Okay, that needs to exist. How do we make it?" Um, and we always talked about having a family company, but it was really that light bulb moment when our mom said that to us. And, you know, it was probably one moment where she said that, but then we just continued to talk about it and continued to discuss how there just was not enough out there for women that are stylish women. Like my mom is very stylish, but that is like outdoorsy but not super outdoorsy, if that makes sense.

Speaker 1: Yes. I remember when we when I saw your clothing at Shineway, I remember thinking it's so great for travel. So for any woman who travels for work or business, coming on and off planes, I thought you could look elevated but also comfortable at the same time.

Speaker 2: Exactly. Exactly. And that that has also just been this nice little surprise while we were launching and and while we're designing now and we realized that over the course of the years we were like, "Wait, this is actually the perfect thing to wear on an airplane or a train or wherever you're going." In fact, we just got some new fall samples in, which is crazy thinking about fall already. But I'm going on a trip next week. Oh, shoot. I'm going to just borrow this like even though we need to like photograph them. [laughter]

Speaker 1: Yes.

Speaker 2: But there it's so good for travel. I'm a mom of twins and I traveled every two months from when they were five months old to till they started kindergarten on so many airplanes. And it's just so nice when you feel like you're comfortable but you also look good. It just changes everything. I I know it really changes your mood and your motivation to if you're traveling for work and just feeling good. And I that's really what our customers love about our brand and us too. It's almost like a security blanket like when you're wearing one of our turtlenecks or our pullovers like it just is something that you really can put on and feel kind of like a hug that we always used to say that like a warm hug and and then you still look good too, you know? You still feel stylish. You could go to work. It really does all those things.

Speaker 1: Yeah. And I don't know about you, but I'm always cold. So I always have something with me in case you walk into air conditioning and all of a sudden you're freezing.

Speaker 2: I know. There is not a day even when it's I live in Connecticut when it's 95 degrees and there's a heat wave in August. I always have a Dudley Stevens with me. Like I it's just always in my bag around my shoulders. I hate air conditioner when it's too cold.

Speaker 1: Yes. I know. You walk in from a 100 degree weather and all of a sudden you're freezing. You're like, "How is this possible with the weather outside?"

Speaker 2: Exactly. Exactly. And we have lightweight fabrics too. fleece fabrics and a waff we have new fabrics that we've launched the past 10 years but we do have lighter weight things that work in the summer too so they're perfect for

Speaker 1: layering tell us more about who you are what Dudley Stevens is and the work you're leading right now as your brand grows

Speaker 2: I'm a mom of two also I didn't have twins I had Irish twins so yes just as busy yeah just as busy I live in Connecticut yeah our kids are nine and 10 we started the company in 2015 15 over the course of 10 years things can change and and shape shift in a way like what as what they were when we launched. We launched really small company when we we began in 2015 and we were just very scrappy and we still are very scrappy honestly but

Speaker 1: now yeah so today we have this wonderful brand that we're all so proud of. It's still all familyowned and operated between my mom and dad and my sister. And so we really lean on each other as it relates to day in and day out, what you would call the workday and just work in general. And so we just feel really thankful that we've gotten here to this place. And I would say every day our mission is to make stylish fleece clothing for women. We have men and children styles as well. And we I mean we say fleece, we we do have other fabrics like I I mentioned. Today it's like there's never a dull day. There's always something going on with the kids with Dudley Stevens. And with fashion, we're always designing a year ahead, right? So right now I'm actually thinking about I'm actually thinking about fall 2027 at the moment. It's funny talking to you now and discussing what's going on with our brand now, but but we're already thinking ahead in all ways. I love what I do. I feel so thankful to have built this company and to be running it every day. I just love meeting new women and like such as yourself and and speaking on podcasts and trying to like really get the word out because I think every day we're just on a mission to find new women that we know will love our product. Those are my goals every day. Find new women that will love Dudley Stevens, be with the kids, and then run our amazing team and our company that work so hard um to help us every day.

Speaker 2: Yeah. And I know all of everyone listening is busy traveling and building businesses and can relate to everything you're going through and the your daily life. Um, what lights you up the most about working on Dudley Stevens?

Speaker 1: I would say the product still like I am at the office today and I just unpacked two fall sample two boxes of new fall samples that we will start launching in August timing or so. And so we're already almost in July, which is well, not really, but we're approaching it on July. So like our fall drops start in August, which seems like it's around the corner. But what's funny is that opening these boxes still feels like Christmas to me. I get so excited to see the new styles that we've put so much time into. And we've only seen them in a fitting and they're not in the final color or a final they're not done yet in the fittings. and then we adjust them in the final fitting and then they make the samples that we will then use for photo shoots and whatever we need in the office. When I open the final samples, it's so exciting. And so I think that's really what drives us every day is the product, how it relates to our lives and how much easier it makes my life wearing our product, how excited it makes me and how just good it looks and and how it feels on. All of those things together really light me up every day. And I I think I I think that's what for the course of now almost 11 years motivates me so much is that I just want every woman to have something like this in her closet from Dudley Stevens because I I truly believe in it. And then I would say also working with amazing women. I know you interview and speak to so many of them as well. And I'm constantly inspired by women that we work with that I meet and it really gets me going. I am such a proponent for all of that interactions such as as this today. It really thrills me to to be able to work with such amazing women. And it has to be so fun to have something go from an idea to seeing it live. And it has to be so fun to open the boxes and see that come to life.

Speaker 2: Yes, exactly. Yeah. It's crazy how that all happens. You just see a sketch on paper that our designer has done and then all of a sudden you open the box and you have it in real life and it's so great. And I'm sure the early days

Speaker 1: wasn't easy, especially as a mom with a family. But it's so great you can lean on your other family members throughout the business, but I know what it's like and I know anyone listening knows what it's like to think, I want to be farther along. I want to be farther along every day, but then you look back over the years and think, "Wow, we've created this really amazing business."

Speaker 2: Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. There's there's all of that. Like I feel like it's like raising children. You're in the hard stages when they're toddlers. Oh, I can't wait till they can do XYZ. And like what you just said is so spot-on. Sometimes as an entrepreneur, you're like, "Oh, we're not here yet or we're not doing this yet." And then you have to look around and appreciate everything that you have at the moment, what you've already built, even if it's you're one year in. It's so important to do that.

Speaker 1: How are you using AI in your business today? And where do you see the biggest opportunity for AI to support fashion and a lifestyle brand like Dudley Stevens?

Speaker 2: It's such a hot topic right now, right? Everybody's discussing this and yeah, it's almost too much even though it's important. We have to we have to we really have to and I think that's the tricky part with all of this is that if we don't learn and we don't stay up with everything we will fall behind and it's not going away. I think that's the the scare of it is that like this is here to stay. How we implement it and use it and educate ourselves on it is so important. So we are using it in a lot of ways. We're using it with our customer service. And actually, I would love to preface that because I know it's so controversial right now. It can be really triggering for people. And I think there was someone that gave like a college graduation speech and was like booed when he mentioned or he or she, I don't remember, when he mentioned AI in the speech because the college graduates didn't want to hear that. It's a hot button item right now and I think it can it's very uh polarizing. The way I view it, I'm hoping others can too, is you know, we are a small business. With that comes limited budgets, limited headcount, time, especially as a mom, time is so valuable and time is like

Speaker 1: money right now for me. It's everything. So the way I see it, this technology can change all of that for us as small businesses and it can really help us compete with the big brands, put ourselves out there in ways that we couldn't before that we our hands were tied. So, in a way for me it's it's really freeing and it feels like such an exciting time and and there's so much opportunity out there to implement it in the right ways if we can do that. We're using it in our customer service. We have one amazing woman who runs our customer service and we've been able to implement it and cut down on her tickets, we call them, with customers because it can respond to things quick and oneoff that are quick questions. So, we're starting to use it in that way. And we've seen a lot of productivity there. We are starting to use it for photography also, which is so controversial in the fashion industry right now. And I've listened to many podcasts with other founders of bigger companies. And some will come out and say, "We're never using it." And I want to reach through and talk to them myself. It's really it's too much to say that right now. You don't know. And because it's the technology is getting better by the minute. In fact, like soon you're not going to be able to know. You won't know. I I I think we don't know already. I think a lot of companies are using it already and we don't know. I think that like Word Dash is using it for food. In the medical world, it's already being used which in healthcare like it's going who knows what it's amazing what they might be able to do because of all this technology. To say that you're never going to use it is such a bold statement. And I'm the founder and running this company and I'm never going to say that. What we're seeing already and what we're researching is insane. If it's used right and properly, it can be a oneup for us as a female founded small company. Who wouldn't want that? Female founded and a small company, small business. I'm employing my sister and I have employees. We have agencies. It's adding to our headcount to be honest right now. We just hired an agency to help us with it and we didn't have that before. I'm sure it's going to eliminate certain areas and certain jobs, but I think if you're in any industry right now, I encourage everyone to embrace it and start using it and start showing your boss or your colleagues, whoever you're working with, that you know how to use it because those are the people that everyone wants right now. If you go to your boss and you say, "I'm using it to do this and I know I can do this and da da da." I'm going to say like, "Oh my god, that's awesome." Like, "Show me what you're doing. I don't know. I don't understand that." We need to embrace it and use it to our advantage. And I know there's a lot that comes with that. It's heavy. There's the controversies with the data centers being built and the environmental impacts of all that. We're all still learning so much about it. As female founders, we need to do the research and we need to know we need to know all the implications and then make decisions for ourselves and our company based on those decisions and like our beliefs too like what where we stand on on things. There's never say no to all this technology, right?

Speaker 2: Yes. [laughter] Yes. At the very start of this, I thought I can run towards it or away from it. And I thought, I'm absolutely going to run towards it because I have people say to me, because I produce and manage podcasts, what do you think about this? And the podcast hosts that I work with, we all want to have conversations with real people. And yes, you can create one that's not real, but podcasts are being used today for a lot of different reasons. And every brand uses it in a slightly different way. And like you said, AI can help with customer service to a certain point. I mean, at a certain point, you might want a real person, but you know, you you can use it every day to find answers more quickly. And you're right, to your to your point, a small business now can now more much more easily compete with large businesses or even surpass them in some areas if AI is mapped out in the right way. we can only afford to have one customer service person, but now we have this technology built in and we can have cut down on stuff and answer more people and efficiently get back to people. So, it's it's awesome in that sense.

Speaker 1: Yeah. As you built your brand, how are you thinking about visibility and positioning in a world where algorithms are changing and own media matters more than ever?

Speaker 2: It's been so tricky. 10 years ago when we launched, I kind of saw that Instagram was becoming this thing, right? And there were fashion bloggers arising and mommy bloggers starting and my background was in PR in fashion PR before and so and where we worked with magazines that print which is like now seems no longer. Yeah. Kind of saw this opportunity to use this social media tool to get our brand out there. And it was as simple as that. Free advertising like post a picture. I would just model the product. We reached all these new women and we we also reached out to fashion bloggers and and sent them product and we paid them a very small amount post about us and they did and then they loved it and then organically and word of mouth people would just talk and and so we we grew through that in 2026 it's become a whole new ball game and it's totally different. There's video, there's real all these things that didn't exist in 2015 that none of us knew in 11 years. Never did I think I'd be like speaking to camera and doing video. That never even crossed my mind. Goes back to the AI conversation. We all need to just stay on top of all these trends and things and it can be so exhausting and there are days when I really feel as if I never am going to understand it. I'm getting old and I can't keep up and it's

Speaker 1: trends and all that. It's so hard. If we continue to stay true to our message and true to our mission and who we are, we can overcome like that algorithm issue. There's so many interesting things on Instagram right now and I feel like the brands that are really doing a good job are the ones who are speaking to camera, being honest, being authentic, showing how the product is really worn or, you know, whatever the case may be. And I and and AI can't do that. Or maybe it will in the future, I don't know. But I think being like Yeah, we're not robots yet. I don't think we're not robots yet. And I I and I think that's also where like being a the face like as a founder is also so important right now. Having that recognizable figure in the reels, talking about things, we have our podcast so that we can get extra content and it's my sister and I chatting and bantering about business. All of those things remain really important with the new algorithms and how things are going and where people are seeing things and where people are discovering new brands. It's changing so much constantly. But I think that if we continue to speak to our customer, speak to women who are like us, who would like our product and just keep doing that and and really staying true to our core. I'm not a big fan of following algorithm trends on on Instagram just to like get eyes. I hate to use this example, but like people smoking cigarettes on Instagram, that seemed to be people were like, "Oh yeah, let's just be real." cuz it was showing that that people were just being real like in a way like it felt authentic in a way that like everyone's just kind of fed up with like trying to be this like perfect facade or whatever. That was kind of the explanation behind why that was picking why people resonating with that. But we're always just going to be who we are as a brand, stick true to that and not pick up on a silly trend that doesn't feel on brand. Sure, if it feels on brand, it's cute and we can do it, whatever, that makes sense. But just because you have like a million views or hundreds of whatever, it doesn't necessarily sell the product. I think that's also part of it. Going viral, you might not sell anything. You really might not because if it's a viral reel that's not speaking to your brand or your product or who you are, people just are going to like it and move on and scroll up and and think it's funny, but that's it. your social media and who you are and your brand and what you're promoting needs to stay and be consistent no matter the algorithm because otherwise you're going to find yourself with a viral video that was funny that didn't sell anything but it didn't translate exactly as much as we want to try to keep up with the algorithm we still need to think about like who we are

Speaker 2: and it's so smart that you're taking your your customers on the journey with you on the business journey with you and going through all the challenges because

Speaker 1: we're all going through the challenges every day there's a new update or a new something happening and it is a lot to keep up with. It's exciting at the same time it's a lot.

Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 1: What is your biggest growth challenge right now and how are you thinking about solving it?

Speaker 2: It really goes down to reaching new women and it's become more expensive. We still advertise on Meta and Google. That's a big part of our business is that that advertising and we set out from the beginning to have our own email list. Those things we own are are really priceless now. And I think reaching new women has become harder than ever. Reaching new customers and that therein is the biggest challenge. How do we get to that next layer of women that like I met a woman this past week through a friend. We were playing golf actually and I had I didn't know her and she lives in Marin County in San Francisco and she had never heard of us. I don't want to like stand my high horse and be like, "I can't believe you've never heard of us. Where you live is like perfect for our products like climate wise and all that and and lifestyle." So, there's always women there. There's so many that have never even heard of us. And so, I that is my challenge every day. I literally think of it every day. That's the biggest hurdle now. And I think because it came so easy in the beginning because of where Instagram was and social media was then we've had to really shift our thinking bend and shape and and figure out different ways to to reach women. So that is definitely the biggest growth challenge for us. And we do not have investment money. We are all family funded from the beginning and and so we don't have a bankroll. We don't we we really are all always scrappy. So growth is hard right now. It's it's

Speaker 1: definitely a challenge. I love that. But you also can now make your own decisions. You know, you're not relying on having to do

Speaker 2: Yes, exactly.

Speaker 1: do things do to investors. So, that's great.

Speaker 2: Yeah, it's very nice.

Speaker 1: What is one honest lesson about building a brand that you wish more founders talked about more openly?

Speaker 2: All of a sudden, if you're successful, well, I hate to use the word successful because there's so many different definitions, but all of a sudden, you get to a place where you're hiring people. It's the hardest thing. It was the hardest thing for me to do and I failed in many ways. and I succeeded in others and I learned so much about myself. It's like placing a mirror in front of yourself and having all the things you've been worried about that you do reflected back to you. It really is so hard. It's humbling. Had I known more and had I been a little more careful and and more educated on what it's like to lead people going into that, that would have been a huge help. It's an amazing thing, but it's also it just was a shock, I feel like. So [laughter] that would have been

Speaker 1: I think coming from working with family too, it had to be because you were probably a small team and then as you add people that are not family members, that had to be interesting and not every business leader is good. I'm certainly not good at everything. It's interesting when you find those areas where you're like, okay, I'm really good. I'm loving doing this, but I need to improve in this area. And everyone has it.

Speaker 2: Yes. Exactly. Exactly. So that was definitely the hardest thing I think that I experienced as we were really growing and like it was moving quickly. I just became so overwhelmed with it and felt like I was failing at so many points. But like as I'm telling my kids now or trying to the only way you're ever going to grow is to fail. And it sounds so cliche. We won't know until we see what we can't do or we see what we did wrong or how we handle those situations. So, I value all of this experience so much. It's led me to grow as a person and and and so if we shut down tomorrow, I I look at it like that, like, oh my god, I've learned so much, you know?

Speaker 1: Yeah. Being an entrepreneur, it takes so much tenacity because it's being on a roller coaster and it's getting up every day and not knowing the hurdles you're going to have to jump, but it is also exciting and fun at the same time. Exactly. Yeah. How do you make sure to protect and cultivate your joy as you're growing your business?

Speaker 2: For me, it's really having downtime and like alone time to think through things that I need big time. I love being creative. It's actually my joy. That would be another answer to your earlier question. In order to be creative, I have to give myself time and like quietness and space. And I'm I don't have a creative background. Before I started this company, I was working in public relations and I was on like the the flip side of like all the creative. Because of that, I I toggle between this like businessminded person and creative-minded person, which I think is a very huge advantage for running a company. Being able to tap into both sides and also appreciate both sides is really important, especially in the retail world. having downtime and to tap in and come up with ideas and strategize and and get to that headsp space of because that's what I we are as entrepreneurs. There's nothing that excites me more than having a new idea and running with it. That literally gets me up in the morning when I think of something exciting that could happen and how do we get there? What's the challenge? What are we going to do to make it happen? I really need that time to like get there otherwise it's too chaotic. I smiled because I'm a mom and it's really hard to find that self time. And this morning I usually watch something as I'm drinking my morning coffee, but I sat there in silence and I thought, is something wrong? And [laughter] then I thought, no, I just need silence.

Speaker 1: Exactly.

Speaker 2: For my morning coffee to have ideas and to let those sink in because the second I get my day going, it's going to go till I fall asleep.

Speaker 1: Exactly. And then before you know it,

Speaker 2: it's 10 p.m. You're in bed and you're like, "Wait, what did I do today?" and you did a lot, but like you did if you don't have that business time, that you time to like really think through about stuff, it it's so helpful.

Speaker 1: Thank you so much for joining us today and for building this amazing clothing line that we can travel and feel elevated in. Please share with us how and where we can find you.

Speaker 2: Great. So, our website is dudley-stevens.com and that's with a ph.