Meet Stephanie Poe

Today we’d like to introduce you to Stephanie Poe.

Hi Stephanie, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story. 
After owning a boutique for 4 years, I (Stephanie) fell in love with selling those pieces that I found customers saying, “I will live in this.” After becoming a mom, my outlook on clothing had changed–I didn’t have time to get dressed or keep up with trends, but I still wanted to look good on a daily basis without breaking the bank and spending so much time trying to style myself. So, I set out to create a collection of pieces that are comfortable and classic while still being feminine and flattering.–the reliable closet staples that you know are going to look good and feel good every time you go to put them on. 

My background is in fashion design, so a few months into building the brand concept I brought on Chloe, who had experience in the manufacturing side of fashion and loves great basic clothing. Together, we built the first collection and introduced it in our brand-new store in June 2023. 

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It’s been anything but smooth! The retail industry is already a rollercoaster of successes and failures, but throwing in design and manufacturing has been a massive learning experience. Being in Cleveland, we don’t have access to the same resources as quickly as you might if you were in LA or New York, so that’s been a challenge, but we are taking it day by day and moving at the pace that’s best for us and our brand. It’s hard to manage expectations when you’re this new of a brand–you want things to be perfect tomorrow, but there’s a lot of kinks to work through, and it takes time to get things right. It’s a lot of trial and error with clothing design. 

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
When we set out to create our first collection for women, we wanted to create pieces that needed little to no styling; we didn’t want to give women a V-neck t-shirt and say, “Here you go, figure out how to make it look good.” All of our pieces are made to sit in a flattering and feminine way so that you don’t have to figure it out on your own. For example, our pride and joy is our “Illusive Front Tuck Shirt.” It’s made to look like you have your shirt tucked in, but it’s already sewn that way, so you don’t have to keep fixing it all day long. It took several tries to get it to a place where we were satisfied with the look and fit, but we think it’s pretty cool now and solves a problem that many women have with the front tuck struggle. 

Contact Info:

• Website: www.summercamp.life
• Instagram: summercampoutfitters