When Leslie Presnall couldn’t find a fashion culture in Baton Rouge, she decided to create one.
Presnall is the founder and president of the Baton Rouge Fashion Council, a membership organization dedicated to supporting local boutiques and designers through networking opportunities and pop-up shopping events.
Founded in April 2015, the BRFC is rolling into its third year.
Presnall, a local fashion and lifestyle blogger, said she felt like a unified front was missing in Baton Rouge’s burgeoning fashion scene and wanted to create a space for small businesses to thrive.
Through her blog, Southern Flair, she learned to stop viewing other fashion influencers and brands as competition, realizing collaboration can benefit everyone, Presnall said.
She decided to incorporate this knowledge into the BRFC.
“It’s about thinking how can we work together to where we all grow versus how can we just compete,” Presnall said. “The motto I’m trying to live by is collaboration over competition.”
Presnall, a University alumna, went into the enterprise with little organizing experience, but without a similar organization to model the BRFC on, she learned as she went. The first year was a sharp adjustment, she said.
Organizing events requires considerable planning and forethought, which she initially overlooked in her excitement to get things off the ground. Deciding to host an event within a week’s time seems thrilling, but it’s not practical, she said.
Presnall said she learned to overcome the early road bumps by setting weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly goals to keep projects on track.
In addition to blogging, Presnall is also a middle school English teacher, making her time management practices essential. The multi-hyphenate said she devotes each Wednesday to council business and correspondence to ensure it receives her full energy.
Once she got the hang of managing event timelines, things started to take off, Presnall said.
“I didn’t know what any direction it was going, just that it was a necessity and I felt like it needed to happen,” she said.
The BRFC now includes 50 member businesses, with a roughly even split of boutiques and designers. The group’s annual Fall Fashion Fest has grown significantly, and Presnall said she soon plans to add committees to manage increased interest in the council.
Many of the member businesses are owned by fledgling entrepreneurs running a company for the first time. Helping them garner better name recognition and establish an audience is rewarding, Presnall said.
Rachel Vielee, owner of Southern Sophisticate boutique, is one such member. Vielee joined the council in May just before her store’s one year anniversary.
It can be challenging juggling the various caps a business owner most don, Vielee said. Participating in BRFC events has allowed her to connect with other business owners and pick their brains for advice and guidance during her business journey, she said.
It’s also allowed her to reach new customers and collaborate with other brands and designers on new projects, Vielee said.
Business ownership doesn’t have to be cutthroat, she said, and the BRFC provides an outlet for a group of largely female entrepreneurs to support one another.
Presnall said she aims to keep the interests of her member businesses at the forefront of each event. She regularly sends member surveys to ensure members are making sales and meeting new customers during outings, she said.
Presnall said she loves helping others turn their passion into a successful venture.
“Blogging was my way of starting my own business,” Presnall said. “I’ve created a career that didn’t exist at the time when I graduated, and that’s what I like about small businesses — you’re creating exactly what you want to do.”
Presnall is still deciding what she’d like BRFC to look like in the future.
She’s kept the organization’s concept and direction purposely fluid to allow it to adapt to what works best for the member boutiques and Baton Rouge fashion scene, Presnall said.
Looking to the future, she said she sees the direction of the council shifting. Pop-up shops don’t generate the same level of excitement now that social media shopping has become ubiquitous, Presnall said, and she’s looking to maintain crowd appeal by making council events more experiential.
Presnall said she wants to provide attendees and fans of the council with an experience beyond a standard shopping event and keep things fresh.
