I spent many evenings, as I’m sure lots of other people did, to make my resume stand out from the crowd. I worked even harder to get the job in the first place. I don’t want to minimize a career of seven years. I was as tight-lipped as kid in a warhead challenge about it because I didn’t want the job to define me. While doing all of this, I was juggling a full-time corporate career in financial marketing (I know, I know, most of you had no idea I was doing things like appointment setter services and lead generation).

But the workload was mine and exciting, so it didn’t deplete me. So yes, I made the most of my city and got fully ingrained in my fashion work. At one point, I even tapped into the tech infrastructure (like that offered on ) in Austin to help me build a startup to solve the fit issue in vintage fashion (project on hold, re: News). It’s an unlikely combo I never expected to pivot into but fusing the two has been fascinating. If you’re curious, I spoke about this at length at SXSW. I thought “localizing fashion” would work in other cities too, especially if we want to realize the idea of Made in America beyond NY and LA. Why not local clothes (I’m talking fiber to mill to finishing)? So went my thinking: We have local food at farmers markets. If you’ve been a reader since my mirror-selfie-just-ordered-my-first-biz-cards days, you know I’ve taken The Peahen from a humble blog that unpacked complex issues in fashion ( à la my journalism degree), to a place to discover wearable “ethical clothes” (styled by mua), to a launching pad for my in-person advocacy and public speaking (TEDx, Global Sustainable Fashion Week).Ībout three years ago, when I moved The Peahen to Austin, I got embedded even deeper on the real-world front and started eco-styling, curating vintage, and carving out a community for Austin-based ethical brands.Īfter navigating the emerging fashion scene here, I got hooked on the idea of localizing production infrastructure to support local designers and brands. In all seriousness though, this is a monumental career shift for me and, quite frankly, something I’ve been working toward for over six years. Like ripping a band-aid off (but an A++ experience without any hair loss!). I’ll spare you the scroll to the bottom left of my profile, although humble-braggedly, it is top-notch: “July 2019 - Kasi started work at Fair Trade USA and moved to San Francisco.”

It’s the kind of News (emphasis, capital N) that I’ll get REAL out of character for and make a Facebook life event, even though I typically reserve the platform for such low brow activities like selling lost-case TVs to innocent UT grads (sorry: no remote) or stalking teak dining sets I have no space for (MCM or bust). I’ve been bottling something up, Sara Bareilles-style for two months.

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