EQ first came about during the March 2020 Covid lockdown after a conversation with my husband surrounding the lack of US made sexy loungewear- casual lingerie, if you will. Sure, there were a couple of US made underwear brands- but at the time they were very Mommy & me in their marketing and customer base. Plus, the brands were lacking true basics and loungewear options. There was a hole in my own wardrobe and I wanted to fill it. Id been feeling this newfound confidence that only your early 30’s (and a partial hysterectomy) can bring. A real unique experience of -feeling more mature and wiser than ever - but also younger and fresher and more confident than ever. I was now past my nursing and pregnancy chapter. My husband and I were having regular date nights and our sex life returned to its pre-co-sleeping glory and nothing about my home-clothes were reflecting my new hotter-than-ever feeling. I wanted to reconnect with my sexier side- and I needed to be comfortable while doing so. No itchy lace or wires poking.. just casual, but hot. I was moving away from oversized dresses and flowy fits and drop crotch jumpsuits and reaching towards high waisted retro gym shorties and shorter skirts and cropping (ok, a slight crop) my vintage tees and overall entering a new era as a woman and a mother. I wanted to look how I felt.

It had been just shy of a year and a half since we closed our beloved shop Found Company and I was itching to get back to work in some capacity. I knew I still wanted to be in fashion, but I also knew that I did not want to return to curation: wholesale / retail. This burst of creative energy (honestly it was probably a manic episode) made it feel like the perfect time to start my own brand. My interest had shifted to design and production and I felt like I had a good understanding of what I could expect while navigating this new venture and pivoting to a new chapter of the industry. Many market trips and buying trips taught me a lot about cost breakdown per garment, but more importantly it taught me that my real passion was in the actual brand story vs the act of curating. I am a loyalist and always feel drawn towards brands with a strong brand identity vs brands with a trendy collection or viral piece here and there. I like the story behind and I wanna know who the designer is and I wanna know why she went DTC vs finding stockists or vise-versa. So this felt like a natural next step.

I will go into real detail with video and receipts one day, but for now the short of it is: Covid 2020 brought along a lot of emails and phone meetings and a big lack of in person factory tours and face-to-face contact. Starting a brand during the height of a pandemic is not something I would recommend to anyone, let alone a first timer. I had initially heard of Nesis Brand Group from a contact in the industry who worked for a brand I had carried in my shop. I cross referenced that recommendation with a glowing blog post / interview I saw on Maker’s Row. (Maker’s Row is a “trusted” industry platform providing a massive contact list and a plethora of other resources one needs to run a small fashion brand. It’s a paid membership type of thing, and not a cheap one.) I trusted them when they recommended Nesis Brand Group which was a stupid move on my part. My eagerness to get started and hire a female owned company would unfortunately cost me over $12k and 3 1/2 years to finally launch the brand. Over a year into our “4 month contract “ NBG owner Jazmyn White disappeared with all of my money / clothes. Covid was the perfect time for her to take her schemes to the next level. Jazmyn could now avoid face to face meetings. She could pretend to be many different people working for Nesis Brand Group. “Our cameras are down” for scheduled zooms became a common theme.

Anyway, I would later learn that Jazmyn Keann White is a con woman and I was in the company of dozens of other designers. She had conned us of a collective $200k+ and still to this day -almost 4 years later - I am still being contacted by new & current victims. She operates under a few business names; most recently Nesis Brand Group, Kinder Sewing Group and Bonjour Amour Swim (this last one seems to be some sort of money laundering front or something) It seems like she’s currently scheming her way around LA after fleeing NYC all while getting her google reviews deleted (again).

If you’re reading this Jazmyn, I hope you get the worst fucking antibiotic resistant UTI that takes months to fully get rid of and just when you think it’s all over… you’re hit with the worlds worst yeast infection and that ultimately fucks your PH up for life… leaving you with chronic BV, you nasty fucking crusty cunt.

Anyway- I had to start all over. With my wonky patterns and some really shitty samples I set out to find a new pattern maker and sew team. I landed on Blank Canvas Development, based in both Savannah Georgia and NYC. One call with Anna (the owner) later and Early Quit was back on track. Anna was very patient and understanding about working at my super slow pace as I tried to financially recover from the NBG scam. I decided to re pattern and resample 5 of 8 designs and slowly but surely we moved closer towards production. In June 2023 I dropped off over 77 yards of fabric to Annie at her studio in NYC to have our first pieces made. At the end of July 2023 I finally received my shorties and mini tanks. Early Quit officially launched in November 2023. A long-as-fuck 3 years and 3 months later :)

Im still looking for the silver lining / blessing in disguise about the whole scam thing. So far the only one I can come up with is: SLOW fashion. Instead of releasing 8+ designs at a time, I am producing 1-2 designs at a time and in very low MOQ’s. So, here’s to the positives: Less waste and zero overproduction and the fact that the worst is already behind me. It can only go up from here. I cannot lose something that is already lost :)