Episode 026 ✿ Dance, Sustainable Fashion, and Creating in Seasons  ft. Richelle Navales-Yau of Dancing Kind

Today’s episode is an interview with the amazing Richelle Navales-Yau of Dancing Kind. Richelle is the founder/owner of Dancing Kind which is Richelle's brand and shop where she sells curated vintage clothing as well as more recently, in-house designs that are designed by Richelle and are sustainably handmade in Los Angeles, CA with deadstock fabrics sourced here. Dancing Kind is also special because, as the name suggests, dance is a prominent theme within the shop-Richelle shares the clothing she finds and creates on social media often by dancing with them on, encouraging the idea that the clothing you wear should make you so happy you want to dance!

Richelle and I talked about her journey as a creative to where she is now with Dancing Kind. Richelle was originally a dancer, and she still dances but we talked about her experience in the dance world in her early 20s, to becoming a teacher and then to starting Dancing Kind and eventually creating her own in house line.

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Topics discussed:

-Richelle introduces herself and Dancing Kind

-Richelle’s creative outlets as a child

-How and when Richelle started dancing

-Stopping school to pursue her dance career

-Family concerns about Richelle pursuing dance

-Deciding to go back to school

-Becoming a special education teacher

-The competitive nature of dance

-The shift in her relationship with dance

-Discrimination in the dance world

-Richelle’s love of fashion and vintage

-Running a vintage Etsy shop in college

-How, when and why she started her vintage shop Dancing Kind (originally Happy Dance Vintage)

-Gaining confidence through Dancing Kind

-The predominate whiteness of the vintage community and being a woman of color in that space

-Working full time while also working on Dancing Kind

-Giving too much of her time to the shop in the beginning

-Working in “seasons”

-Unlinking self-worth from productivity

-Art relying on our well-being

-When and how Richelle began production on her first in-house design - the Isabel dress

-The process of producing and releasing the Isabel dress

-The reaction to the Isabel dress exceeding Richelle’s expectations

-Newer Isabel dress fabrics

-Sourcing deadstock fabric

-Goals and future designs for Dancing Kind

-Going back to school for movement therapy

-What Richelle does for fun- alone time, being outside, eating good food

-The importance of alone time for introverts and extroverts

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