Dynasty George: Native Brooklyn Designer Creates Sustainable Fashion For You And Mom
Dynasty George
Written by Jessy Humann
Dynasty Casanova is a Brooklyn native who’s been working hard to establish herself as a sustainable fashion designer. Raised by three strong women, it's no surprise that Dynasty’s become one herself. Her passion to make and design sustainable clothing has led her to create her own brand, Dynasty George.
Dynasty George
There's a whimsical, almost magical feeling to the clothing designed and made by Dynasty. Clothes shouldn't just be about how they make us feel though, they should also be about the people behind them. It’s one thing to learn about the dresses or sweaters that Dynasty makes, but it’s another thing entirely to learn about who she is as a person. Understanding Dynasty on a deeper level helps generate a greater sense of appreciation for the clothes she creates.
You got your BFA in fashion design from The Fashion Institute of Technology. There were certainly many routes you could have taken after graduating. Why did you choose to make and design sustainable clothing?
Well, my first job out of college wasn’t as a sustainable designer. I was actually an Assistant Merchandiser for a company called Calypso St Barth. After about a year or so, I got hired as an Assistant Designer for a company that sold to Urban Outfitters and Forever 21. While working there, I was shocked at how low we had to make our wholesale price for these retailers, sometimes as low as $3.
It really made me wonder how much the people who made the items were getting paid. At this point I wasn’t well educated on ethical or sustainable fashion, the constant demands to lower our wholesale price was just very alarming to me. While working at this job, I saw a documentary called The True Cost and that really opened up my eyes to the dangers of the fast fashion industry. I knew from that moment, I didn’t want to contribute to the fast fashion industry. I stopped buying from fast fashion companies, thrifting more, and cultivating the values of my own brand.
I created my brand, Dynasty George, really out of necessity. The fashion industry is not kind and offers a small window of opportunity for women of color. The companies that did hire me left me underpaid, overworked, overlooked, and usually in toxic environments. I knew I could make my own company, make my own rules, and share my aesthetic with the world in a responsible way.
What inspires your designs?
I was raised by 3 phenomenal women, my Puerto Rican mother, grandmother, and aunt. My house was filled with vintage floral patterns, lace drapery, crochet placemats, plants everywhere, and my grandma always owned a bird or two. I didn’t realize it at the time, but my home was a huge influence on my developing style.
I loved going to my grandma’s room and finding clothing and jewelry to wear to school. I also grew up Pentecostal, and I would wear the cutest dresses to church every Sunday. I loved dressing up for church as a kid, I felt more beautiful in lace puffy dresses than I did wearing jeans to school. I think that vintage church aesthetic has a big influence on my designs today.
I try to make everything modest, feminine, and romantic. I want the women who wear my clothes to feel the way I did dressing up for church: confident and beautiful; embracing their own femininity. I also try to make my designs easy to wear and flowy. A woman can wear my clothing through all phases of her life. Through her young adulthood, through pregnancy, through weight gain, weight loss, and whatever else the female body endures. A present day inspiration would be the 2019 film, Little Women, the costume design was phenomenal.
The clothes you make are ethically and sustainably sourced. What are your personal requirements when you’re choosing raw materials to work with?
I source from many different places. One place I love is Fabscrap! They’re based in Brooklyn but just opened a store in Chelsea. They’re amazing because they source excess fabric that designers and large companies would usually throw into landfills, to collect and resell to smaller designers.
I also source from thrift stores; I’ve made clothing from vintage bedding. I went to Mexico a year ago and sourced woven textiles from artisans I met there. I saw the whole process of them weaving each inch of the fabric, it was so amazing to witness. The amount of work that goes into weaving textiles is insane, we really take it for granted. I’ve also recently partnered with a company that sells organic linen. I want to release a series of linen dresses soon!
Your brand is made for women, by women. Why is this something you feel strongly about implementing for your business?
It’s important for me to employ women because they are so under-represented in the fashion industry. Most fashion school graduates are women, but most Creative Directors of high fashion companies are men. Things are slowly changing now, but women are still placed at the lower end of the fashion chain.
Women, especially women of color, are not given the same opportunities or salaries as their male counterparts in the same position or industry. I pattern and sew all the garments I sell myself. I have an industrial machine in my home, and made my living room my studio.
Recently, I was chosen to sell at a sustainability conference in Portland, so I commissioned a seamstress from New York to help me sew some garments. She’s an older woman originally from Colombia and really proficient at what she does. It is important for me to highlight and employ a woman of color, who doesn't speak English well, who is talented but doesn’t have the same opportunities as someone who was born here in the US.
As my company grows I would love to employ more women and even create a kind of program where I can teach and then employ them. Maybe that’s a separate thing, but I know so many talented and willing women who could really impact the fashion industry, they just need a chance. So many Latinos I know started working at factories in the US when they first came here and because of their lack of English, were severely underpaid, my grandma included. I want to provide fair wages to qualified applicants regardless of their first language or background.
What are some of the challenges you face as a founder and CEO, and how do you move through them?
I think the biggest struggle is finances. My company is still very small and not at a place where I can run it full time. I often work full time jobs while focusing on my company, so it’s hard to be so passionate about something and not able to dedicate all the time I want to. I think being self-funded has allowed me to be more innovative and come up with creative solutions for issues that occur.
I love to educate myself and go to free seminars and workshops on business fundamentals. I have a mindset that I can learn how to do anything, and it has been my driving force. For example, I never made a website, but I watched numerous youtube videos, googled platform reviews, and designed my own squarespace website. After becoming proficient, I’m able to design squarespace websites for other companies and get paid for it, assisting the financial burden of owning a business. So you really have to be creative, hard working, and have a willingness to learn new things and wear many hats.
What do you think is the most important part about being a female founder, business owner, CEO, and fashion designer?
I think it’s important to see what’s lacking in the industry and how you want to cater to women. I try on all the styles I make, I make sure to get feedback from various women, I think a lot about the female body and wearability. As a woman, you have to make sure the fit is great because that’s the heart of your company. When someone finds a dress that caters to their body and makes them feel beautiful, you have a customer for life.
I don’t think as a woman you need to be very political persay with your business, but your brand should have a voice. You don’t need to advocate for every issue under the sun, but you do need a mission statement; you have to let people know what you stand for.
I think overall representation is the biggest responsibility of a female founder. I couldn’t even begin to tell you the issues that follow being a female founder. Only 2% of female owned businesses are invested into yearly, lower that number for black female founders, and lower it again for Latinas. We have a responsibility to be successful and pave the way for other female founders after us.
What’s something we can look forward to seeing from you and Dynasty George in the near future?
So much! I’m creating a made to order process where customers can see the process of their dresses being made. It’s going to be a lovely linen collection of fabrics I choose that are vibrant, colorful, and very feminine. I am also going to sell at markets this summer in NYC so I am super excited to sell this summer! With the made to order dresses, I will also make one of a kind dresses from deadstock fabric, to keep the momentum going. Everything is going to be a lot of work, but I am excited to see how the brand expands.
PAGE is focusing on powerful and influential women this month. There’s always something to learn from everyone. What’s one piece of advice you’d give your younger self?
I would say don’t be afraid to embrace who you are, your uniqueness is your superpower. I used to be so insecure of who I was, especially in middle school. I was ashamed of my background, how I was raised, my long skirts and dresses, my “weird” style, but all those things have become the backbone of who I am and the DNA of my brand.
Often, the things that make you different from others is what makes your product and business special. Instead of hiding it, embrace it! Once I embraced who I was and forgot about “fitting in,” I was able to become the best version of myself and people naturally gravitated towards me and the brand that I’m building.
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