For as long as I can remember, my mom has loved Clare V. One of the first luxury items I received from my mom was a Clare V. monogrammed coin pouch. Since then, I have made many memories in the Santa Monica Clare V. store getting everything from purses to passport covers monogrammed with my initials, making each new item uniquely mine. I have treasured each of my Clare V. pieces dearly and use each of them consistently in my day-to-day life.

Clare V. was founded by the uber-stylish Clare Vivier. Vivier has built her business from the ground up and is a wonderful inspiration to female entrepreneurs everywhere, as she has turned a creative vision into a thriving enterprise. I hope you enjoy this interview with Clare in which she shared many words of wisdom that will leave you inspired excited for the future of Clare V. and fashion as a whole. Enjoy, and be sure to check out Clare V. online and in stores!

1. When and why did you start Clare V?

I started Clare V in 2008. I started with a computer bag. I needed a laptop bag. I knew how to sew, so I started to sew my own laptop envelopes in various forms of fabric – I was not working in leather yet – but various forms of cotton, canvas, linen, and nylon. I was trying out a lot of different paddings and all that stuff. I started making them myself. Then, I eventually wanted to make more complicated designs. I went in search of production in Los Angeles. Then, eventually, after asking around and going on a wild goose chase, I found my first factory in Los Angeles. And I started with a website, and that’s how I started the company!

2. There are so many handbags on the market. What makes Clare V. handbags different?

That’s a question that I posed to myself when I was just starting out. Why would anyone want to buy this bag? Sure, it’s cute, but there are many different bags that are cute, and also there are a lot cheaper bags because you can go to Urban Outfitters or someplace like that and get something that is made overseas and costs $30, versus mine that were already a couple hundred dollars. So, the way I thought that I was going to attract a following and give my bags a sense of value and desirability was through a blog. I started a blog way back in the day, even before 2008, and I was just kind of telling story of my life with my young child and my French husband and my exploits of starting of a new business- everyday, I would be going downtown to get new materials, I would be in search of a factory, or going to my factory – so, the blog was how I marketed the brand. And I think, 10 years later, it is no longer a blog, but it’s Instagram and it’s through my stores. I think the thing that really makes Clare V different is the founder-driven aspect and that people know there is a woman behind it whose lifestyle in Los Angeles and France is similar to theirs in a way. Even if they live in Kansas, they see the similarities, and they see that I am a woman who had a dream and worked hard, and every day I am pursuing this dream. I never feel like I achieved a dream. I feel like I am constantly in the process of trying to continue the business. Just telling the story and the founder-driven part makes Clare V. special, besides the fact that we have cute products! Beautiful products made of beautiful materials. I think that they have not only learned about me and my lifestyle, but I think that more and more people are interested in the “made in Los Angeles” aspect of the brand, and that is something that is starting to resonate with people when they realize, Oh, creating jobs in our own communities is a good thing to do!

3. What elements of your style are California-influenced and what elements are French-influenced?

I think there is a playfulness and a part of my collection where we are never taking ourselves too seriously. I think other brands do that really well, and that’s not who I am and that’s not who we are in Los Angeles. I think there’s a bit of a natural aspect that we appreciate in Los Angeles, and it comes from our beautiful weather, it comes from being outside, and the wildness of nature. It plays out also in our lifestyle and then my designs, and I think that’s definitely the California side. And then the French side I think that I am always attracted: very classic designs and very symmetrical designs. Obviously Paris is known for being the capital of haute couture, so, you know, very classic designs that live on for generations, and that is something that I would love for my designs to do.

4. At what point did you decide to extend your reach in the fashion world and design pieces outside of handbags?

That was when I opened my first store in 2012 when I realized that we were going to have to merchandise an entire store, and I thought now was a great opportunity to take some of these elements that I was doing on my bags and put them on sweatshirts and t-shirts – so a lot of Franglais and French sayings that Americans are comfortable pronouncing and kind of know what they mean even if they don’t speak French fluently. That’s when I started with the sweatshirts and t-shirts, and as we’ve grown as a company, it’s just been a very natural progression to add a few more ready-to-wear pieces every collection because they are just selling well. We have now nine of our own stores, soon to be 11 of our own stores – we kind of say 11 and a half because Amagansett is only in the summer – but we have these retail opportunities to tell the story, and we see very firsthand what is selling in our stores, and we see that the clothing is selling really well. Also, another interesting point in that progression towards ready-to-wear was the pandemic because we really had to pivot very quickly because people were not buying handbags, per say, during that time. They certainly weren’t buying work bags. The bigger ticket items nobody was buying – travel bags or work bags –  so we really had to lean into the clothing aspect because people were staying home, but they wanted to wear something that made them feel cute.

5. What has been the most rewarding or exciting moment of your career thus far?

There’s been so many. I can’t really pinpoint anything, but certain moments stick out in my mind. Like I loved when we opened our second store which was in New York City in Nolita, and it was in 2013 and we had a big opening party. My dad, who has since passed away, was able to come to that opening. We had a big dinner afterwards with a bunch of people in the press, and my dad gave a really nice speech thanking everyone for being there and how much it meant to him that these were all people who had helped me along the way or appreciated the brand in some way. So that’s one thing. I think having a pop-up at Le Bon Marche in Paris was a real highlight for me. It was just really special and pretty magical. Every time we open a store it’s pretty wonderful! We are opening in Seattle, and we are opening a bigger store in New York City this summer, so that’s always exciting! I think one of the most rewarding aspects has been the jobs created both within Clare V. as we grow and also in our local communities with all of the factories we now use in Los Angeles, which is five different factories. I’ve seen all the factories grow as we grow the factory, so that’s pretty cool.

6. What is the biggest challenge in running your business?

Production. There are so many moving parts in production just to get one bag made a couple hundred times or a thousand times. There are just so many things that go wrong, and they do! So, production is always the most difficult, and then I think the hiring of great employees. Especially during the pandemic and even after because now a lot of people are still working from home, but keeping the culture of the company and giving our employees a true sense of what it means to work for Clare V. Why should they work here and why should they be passionate about it? Those are things I didn’t really think about when I was just starting out because, starting out, I was just one person in my house making bags or driving to my factory every day. As it grew from one person to three people to eight people to 15 people, and now we’re over 100 people, you suddenly start to realize, Oh, wait I don’t really know all these people. We need to make sure they know why they’re here, why it’s so great to work here, and what Clare V. stands for.

7. What advice can you give to women who want to start a business?

It’s always the same advice: follow your passion, don’t listen to the demons within yourself that are telling you that you can’t do it for this reason or that reason, just put one foot in front of the other, every day make some progress, every day you are going to make some steps backwards, as well. But I think the one element for starting your own business is just tenacity. I think you just have to show up every day and be the last woman standing basically. It’s really hard work, but if you truly feel like you have a great idea and you feel like the world would be a better place with whatever your idea is, you have to believe in it, stop comparing yourself to others, and keep moving forward!