Handyma’am was born in 2014 when Bella found herself underwhelmed with the selection of well-made, durable clothing for women in the marketplace.

Working as a hairstylist, with a ton of hands-on hobbies—woodworking, riding motorcycles, tearing down walls and building new ones—Bella needed workwear that could fit with her can’t-sit-still lifestyle. So she got hands-on and made her own!

Bella had no background in design or fashion, but she found the resources she needed to create a technical, super-durable women’s workwear piece. Bella’s story is something else. We talk in detail about using kickstarter to launch a business, then & now.

Bella shares her vision for slow, quality product-focused growth, talks about the challenges of producing clothing in America and shares what she’s learned about business and herself through her work with Handyma’am.