Balancing being a business owner and a mom is challenging — to say the least. For Paris Jo, her children will always come first, but she’s learned how to make time to both raise her children and pursue her passion as a fashion designer.
“I’m basically a stay-at-home mom slash designer, and I put stay-at-home mom first because that takes all of me,” Paris shares. “I have to make sure that [my children] are my first priority, but I also don’t want to forget my business and my brand.”
Video Transcript
Meet Paris Jo: mom/designer
Paris: So I'm basically a stay-at-home mom slash designer, and I put stay-at-home mom first because that takes all of me. My children are my first priority, and because they're so young, they need all of me, literally all of me. As you see, my son is breastfeeding. I have to make sure that they're my first priority, but I also don't want to forget my business and my brand. I'm the only one doing it. I'm the only one designing, the only one sketching, the only one meeting with clients. So sometimes I have to just — like when I was pregnant with my daughter, I think I had four or five prom gowns. There were times where I couldn't — I was having morning sickness, so I couldn't meet with a client, and I had to stop or switch the schedule.
(Paris works at a sewing machine)
I was having contractions, and I had two fittings that day, and I had to cancel those two fittings. And so just having clients who are very understanding of me being a mother first is really, really important.
(Soothing crying baby) I tried to give you my boob, but you didn't want it.
As I'm flipping through — and this is one I really wanted to make but my daughter destroyed — but as I'm flipping through my sketchbook, I see all these sketches that I just drew for myself that I really want, not for me to wear, but for models to wear. It's just inspiring me to really not give up, to keep going, because I would love to just put out an actual collection that people can purchase from. Because that's something I don't ever really get to do being a designer for other people or custom designing — you still have to make sure you're being true to what they want. I do look forward to actually creating some of these looks and bringing them to life.
Paris: It's my turn?
Paris’s daughter: Yeah.
Paris: What's her measurements?
Paris’s daughter: Beautiful.
Paris: Beautiful?
Paris’s daughter: Yeah.
Paris: Okay.
