A Gifted Fashion Designer and Tactician
Lauren Fryan is a senior fashion product designer with diverse industry expertise, infinite wisdom, and rare talents. She’s been helping Xena to express its vision through beautiful form & innovative function.
A few fun facts about Lauren Fryan. She loves to spend time outdoors. She simply refers to herself as a product designer, yet this humble façade hides her rare talents. Lauren is a fashion industry expert who is skilled in logistics and knows what it takes to craft great brands. She has been officially working with Xena to express our vision through beautiful form and innovative function.
Let’s travel back in time to see how a simple side-hustle shaped the course of Lauren’s talented career. In High School, Lauren got the urge to enhance the look of her plain-looking clothes. Her small Wisconsin town didn’t have these local services, so she just started working with paints, fabrics, threads, and embroidery to trick out her shirts. Soon classmates caught wind of her self-taught skills and requests started pouring in. All of a sudden everyone wanted to get their personal look that only Lauren could deliver!
She started considering fashion as a viable career. At the time, New York City, was THE FASHION capital of the world if you wanted to get the best experience. Lauren was eager to leave Wisconsin to join a top school in the big city. Her joyful parents embraced this ambitious but had a few things to say about the possible move 🗽🙅💰😔➡🏫🎓💸.
Lauren accepted their advice taking her talents to the Kent State of Ohio, a top-5 fashion school, that jumpstarted her career while saving a ton of Benjamins along the way. She summed up her experience with:
Fashion school was intense. They want you to hit a breaking point with crazy workloads, strict deadlines, and consistent all-nighters. It shocks the system, but ultimately helps to prepare young dreamers for intensity of the industry. I’m glad they put me through the ringers!
During her junior year, Lauren landed two internships at respected fashion brands in NYC. These were dream opportunities that transported her to a whole new world. As an intern, she was able to jump in and contribute immediately gaining valuable experience and knowledge. After graduation, her career quickly took off. She worked for inspiring companies of different scales and capabilities: Carhartt, Kohl’s, NESH athleisure. This diverse experience made Lauren a multi-faceted design expert.
I learned that good designers acquire multiple skillsets and learn to properly apply rational thought. You need to put personal emotions aside to focus on consumer needs while factoring in price-points, margins, trends, technological constraints, and supply logistics. This may come as a surprise to most, but fashion industry chisels logical tacticians from gifted artists.
Earlier this year, Lauren met Ana and fell in love with her vision. “Xena is at the forefront of a workwear revolution. I believe there is an emerging demand for more adaptable and versatile work styles that seamlessly transition through life. Successful brands have a real-time pulse on evolving consumer behaviors AND actual customer needs … Xena executes both exceptionally well!”
Lauren’s wisdom had a lasting imprint on our philosophy. Start small, listen, learn, improve, listen, perfect, then expand. She believes that nimble startups have an advantage in that they can focus to become experts in their craft by “doing less amazingly well.”
Life taught Lauren to be strong and independent in order to succeed in a demanding industry. She openly shares her knowledge with other women to help them succeed. If you need support or expert advice, just drop Lauren a note: lmfryan@gmail.com
