Daily Inspiration: Meet Jessie Daavettila

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jessie Daavettila. 

Hi Jessie, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I’m Jessie, a mama of three beautiful babies, all under the age of three, and expecting baby #4 this coming September! I grew up sewing in my mother’s sewing machine dealership and ended up obtaining my BFA in Fashion Design in Chicago, IL. 

My journey in the fashion industry started ten years ago as a designer, developer, and pattern maker. Growing up in a family of entrepreneurs, I always knew I wanted to start my own clothing brand, but not just any brand. I wanted to create something special and unique that would make a difference in the lives of real moms. 

After my first pregnancy, I realized that there was a need for fashionable, ethical, and quality maternity and children’s apparel that could last throughout the entire pregnancy and postpartum journey. That’s when RASKANA was born. At RASKANA, we focus on designing and developing clothing that is not only stylish but also practical for real moms. As the brand founder and mother of three, I personally design and develop each piece with equal emphasis on pattern-making, fit, function, and design. 

My mission is to bring comfort and joy to the maternity apparel market by offering unique, practical, and fashionable clothing that can be enjoyed throughout the journey of motherhood. As a veteran of pregnancy and motherhood, I understand firsthand the challenges and joys that come with motherhood. Our products are wear-tested and developed during my pregnancy journeys, ensuring that they meet the needs of real moms like you. 

After all, nobody knows what feels comfortable on a bump more than a veteran pregnant mama who has been sewing and pattern-making her entire life! (Well, almost! I started sewing seriously at the age of seven.) 

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Starting an apparel business is no easy task to say the least! 

It takes about 12-24 months to get product from an idea on paper to an actual product ready to sell online. Prior to starting RASKANA, I was a design and development contractor that specialized in helping many other start-ups just like myself. But because of my experience working with small start-ups in the past, I have had a very realistic outlook on the amount of work and determination it would take to launch my brand. 

We started development for our product in the middle of Covid, so we had to deal with a lot of design, development, sourcing, and production delays from material shortages and factory timeline delays. We originally planned to launch 9 months sooner than we did, but we finally made it to our launch date early fall last year, which was a huge feat within itself. 

I wouldn’t say it was a smooth road, but I did have very realistic expectations from my 10+ years of experience creating product and working for start-ups in the past. Currently, all our fabric mills and sewing factories are 100% in the USA. It is pretty difficult to source high-quality garment in the USA, so we take a ton of pride in having pulled that off for all our products currently on our website. 

After we launched, my husband and I have worked really hard on marketing our brand to mothers and seeking feedback from our customers to prove that we have a “market fit” for our brand. It turns out that other pregnant mothers have had a similar struggle as me, and we have received phenomenal feedback and reviews from our customers. Another pleasant surprise is that our return rate has been much lower than other DTC apparel brands, which is incredibly encouraging to our future growth plans. 

Currently, our latest new challenge is raising capital. Now that we have a proven market fit, we are in the process of raising capital with the main goal of scaling our brand faster. We are looking to bring quality fitting, comfortable clothing to mothers everywhere, which will take a significant amount of capital to support our inventory and marketing needs. 

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
What makes me stand out from others within the apparel industry is my strong background in small, medium, and large companies. Working in each gave me unique skills and experiences and helped me learn the challenges of doing business on three different scales. This has given me the ability to; design, develop, manufacture, and sell almost any good on any scale while maintaining a clear vision and realistic path to success.   

My unique set of skills also comes from my extensive background and experience in sewing & patterning. I started sewing when I was 7 years old and soon began to teach classes in my mother’s sewing machine dealership. In this dealership, my mother and I worked alongside each other: learning, teaching, and traveling to Husqvarna Viking international sewing conventions together. In high school, I dual enrolled in art classes and went on to study Fashion Design in College, where I received my BFA in Fashion Design from The Illinois Institute of Art – Chicago. During high school and college, I never left the industry, working hard in upholstery and interior design to pay my way. 

I then went on to work in design and development roles for the companies Klim, Stio, and Nike to refine my skill sets in a variety of businesses and scales. After working at Nike, I retired from the “employee life” and started my own design and development contracting business Dart Apparel, to work for 50+ small startups before launching my own brand RASKANA. 

I currently still work with some clients from my contracting company, but I am working towards gradually shifting all my efforts over to RASKANA as we grow. My “new” goal is to grow the brand to make it my only focus and continue to bring mothers everywhere style that fit great before, during, and after pregnancy while maintaining the comfort and function all mothers crave during pregnancy. 

What do you think about happiness?
My 3 kids and husband! (And baby #4). 

Being a mother is the biggest blessing in my life, and I hope I’m blessed with many more children. My husband and I both grew up in big families (I’m 1 of 7, and he is 1 of 9), so family has always been very important to both of us. 

I feel incredibly fortunate to have been able to combine my passion for apparel design, pattern-making, development, and sourcing with my passion for family and having children. If you asked me when I was 18 if I would end up designing maternity clothing, I might have laughed, but looking back now on my career path, it all makes sense. How better to start a maternity brand than a pattern and design expert that happens to want a big family! 

Maternity clothes have been such an underserved market in terms of fashion, fit, and comfort, so I it seemed so obvious to me after my first pregnancy to launch a maternity brand. It has been a few years filled with tears, sweat, and passion, but it is such a joy for me to share my passion of family and fashion with our community of RASKANA mamas. 

Pricing:

• SUPERFINO || EVERYDAY FULL LENGTH MATERNITY LEGGING || BLACK$98
• LUXE INTERLOCK || MODERN FULL LENGTH MATERNITY SIDE SLIT LEGGING || BLACK $108
• RUBY || MODAL SPANDEX MATERNITY LOUNGEWEAR PANT || BLACK $142
• RUBY || MODAL SPANDEX MATERNITY LOUNGEWEAR LONG SLEEVE COWL TOP || BLACK $118
• ELLE || FRENCH TERRY MATERNITY JOGGER || TAUPE GREY $148

Contact Info:

• Website: raskana.com
• Instagram: @raskanausa
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/Raskana/100086298788784/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/78426851/admin/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/raskanausa
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@raskanausa

Image Credits
RASKANA