Empowering Apparel With Ferris Built

Ferris Built creates subtle apparel that addresses current events, issues and happenings as well as wood wall art that is created out of her woodshop in Seattle, Washington. Recently Meghan Markle was photographed honoring Feminist Icon Ruth Bader Ginsberg by wearing one of Ferris Built’s creations.

Wearing Ferris Built “Well behaved women rarely make history” shirt {gifted}

1- Let’s talk about you! What is your story? What made you start Ferris Built? For many years I’ve had an Etsy shop that I’d put art and things I’ve made up for sale on just as a hobby. In spring of 2020 I lost my company of 12 years due to the pandemic (event production) and decided to see if I could make a go of my wood art as well as dabbling in designs for apparel with current topics in mind. Very quickly my apparel items were outselling my art and I just kept designing more and more and started moving towards mental health topics and self-care as I feel strongly about awareness in these areas

2- Where do you get the creative ideas from to design/create your apparel and goods? I am inspired by mental health awareness the most and find that I naturally lean towards designing around this topic. I often look at different mental health challenges and the stigmas around them and try to create designs that help create awareness of the topic and bit of symbolism around what the mental health challenge represents. For my self-care designs I am inspired by activities, mantras and mindsets around taking care of yourself and your mental health and wellbeing. For current topics and events, I create designs around issues and things I feel strongly about.

3- How did you find out that The Duchess Of Sussex, Meghan Markle was photographed wearing one of your shirts? How did it make you feel? I was on a camping weekend, where I didn’t have good cell reception. When I finally got reception, I checked my Etsy shop, something I routinely did because I would get excited to see sales. I was surprised to see that I had three times the usual number of sales, in barely a day. I couldn’t figure out why I was getting all this traffic. With Etsy stats delayed I had no idea where he traffic was coming from. So I went to Instagram to see and someone had tagged me on a picture of Meghan Markle who was wearing my shirt. That’s when I learned from the press coverage, that in a move to support small business, she and her team had purchased from a few small business owners on Etsy, including FerrisBuilt. I was quite humbled by this as well as having a feeling of validation that I could make a business out of my apparel designs.

Meghan Markle wearing Ferris Built’s R.B.G. Tee

4- What is your current favorite design in the Ferris Built shop? My personal favorite is the Anxiety State design – because I’ve always loved vintage college sweatshirts which is what inspired this particular design. I had fun creating and coming up with the imagery in the elements of college sweatshirts but with a spin on anxiety. The emblem in this design has four images that represent and anxious state and then Latin for “I have anxiety” where normally it would be college verbiage.

5- Your designs are so unique and powerful to so many different current issues, why is it so important for you to bring awareness to these issues through your apparel? I cover topics such as mental health, self-care, empowering women and current events. I’m most passionate about my mental health awareness and self-care collections. Mostly I’m focused on creating more positive awareness around mental health as I see a lot of stigma surrounding mental health issues when it seems so many people are navigating a variety of mental health challenges and it appears more “normal’ to be navigating mental health issues than to not be having them – why such a stigma then? Because I feel so strongly about mental health awareness I’m able to now start giving back from my business and am donating 5% of every purchase to mental health advocacy programs.