Chelle Summer is about confidence, about moving forward, about the inspiration to be who we believe we are supposed to be. And make those steps toward being that person. While Chelle Summer as a brand came about ten years ago, what I do has been a lifetime in the making.
From the age of six, I wanted to be an author and most of my school life was geared toward helping me achieve that. I did become an author, but my first book was not the beach reading sort I always planned for it to be. It was about coping with sibling suicide, the stories and lessons I learned from the journey of losing my younger sister Denise to suicide.
It led me to so many more things- writing more books about suicide grief and self-help; speaking around the world; a doctorate; and then realizing that the journey had to change, it wasn’t just about moving forward after suicide anymore. I had done all I thought I was supposed to do in that realm. It didn’t mean I was leaving behind the fact that I lost my sister to suicide, it meant I was going forward to do other things; it meant I was going forward to show that no matter what happens to us, we can still have great lives.
I had thought I would be speaking more about how to help people move forward in a more formal, obviously way, but Chelle Summer began to bubble up and lead me where I am today- inspiring people through the handbags, clothes, and home decor items that I make.
And that leads me back to this photo. The crazy thing in all this is that I love to make swimsuits. It’s been hard to launch that with everything else because our bodies are all so unique and fit is unique to each of us (why so many people hate swimsuit shopping– items in stores are actually created to fit within two sizes). To get people on board with Chelle Summer, I had to become the face of my brand, of what I make. This hasn’t been as easy as many people think it was. I was never a very photographic person. I was the person who always had to have retakes in school because my eyes were closed.
But I learned early in Chelle Summer that people reacted to what I wore and the handbags I carried. I know that if I want to share Chelle Summer, I have to be right in front.
This photo was taken in January on our trip to Los Angeles. I haven’t been able to make as many swimsuits for myself as I would like (although I am on a little hiatus as my winter gym pool time has ended and I’m waiting for own pool to warm up a bit from the 54 degrees that it was yesterday), but I took the time to test some new fabric I’d gotten in December and this was the result.
It’s not just about the swimsuit as it again all goes back to what Chelle Summer is- moving forward, inspiration, confidence. There are many messages in this one photo and that’s what I’ve come to understand about what Chelle Summer means as I continue to create and learn myself. It’s about the inspiration to be who we want to be and live a meaningful, inspired life.