Introducing the Rhone Women's Capsule Collection
People often wonder where our secret lies. It’s not in the cut of our clothing, the fine nature of our fabrics, or the sophisticated seams. Our secret is our people.
Most notably, the women who run this organization with courage, compassion, and candor. They are mothers, partners, artists, competitors, contributors, and so much more. They are our inner strength.
Inspired by this team, the Rhone Women’s Capsule Collection carries forward our heritage of quality clothing made for a performance lifestyle. We'd like to introduce you to a few of the phenomenal women of Rhone who inspired this collection.
Meet Marisa
Share with me something about yourself that you are currently working on improving and how do you think it will make your life better run more smoothly?
One thing that I am working on about myself is actually not being as hard on myself as I am and as I have been. I think it will improve my overall day to day, both personally and professionally, in the sense that I will appreciate more of the things that I have, the opportunities I have, and everything that is really wonderful in my life.
Tell me about your parents. How did they influence you and what lessons did they teach you?
So my parents have influenced me in a number of ways, but I think the most important way they've influenced me has actually been giving me the freedom to make the decisions that I felt were right for me in that moment, throughout every step of my life. Even if they were not necessarily the best decisions at that time, being able to learn from it while also not feeling judged for it has had a great influence on me.
How does the following quote encapsulate your personal philosophy?
So this quote from Oprah Winfrey is actually one of my favorites. It reads, "If you look at what you have in life, you'll always have more. If you look at what you don't have in life. You'll never have enough." I think it's so important that each day we are thankful for the things we do have personally, professionally, and appreciate what and who we have in our life and never take it for granted.
How did your philanthropic work with Mr. Bones and Co make you better as a person?
Having the ability co-run Mr. Bones and Co., which is an animal welfare nonprofit, for a little over 6 years, helped teach me a lot about compassion and how much a little bit of help can go a long way for the animals in need, but also for people as well.
Meet Shelby
Describe your biggest obstacle in your working life and how you overcame it.
I'm really super duper lucky to work with two of my closest friends that I met my first year of college. I think that is like a double-edged sword because it can it could be tricky to work with your best friends and then have to balance your friendship with your work relationship. Because we're so close, the way that we communicate is probably like a little bit more honest and raw versus how I would communicate with somebody I just know a coworker initially versus like a friend later on. So having been here for almost two years, I think we've learned how to be friends and coworkers while we're clocked in and respect each other's time. I don't know if a lot of people could do it as well as we do. And it's something that we're still improving and learning how to do. But it just always gets better. As Rhone grows and all of our workloads increase, I think that we are learning how great collaboration can occur through it.
How does the following quote encapsulate your personal philosophy?
I love the following quote by Madame CJ Walker: “There is no royal flower-strewn path to success. And if there is, I have not found it, for if I have accomplished anything in life it is because I have been willing to work hard.”
This quote, in particular, stood out to me because in the small town in Maine that I grew up in, not many people get out. Going to college and then moving state is a really big feet. My dad was like, you have to put everything you've got into what your passionate about and just keep pushing it. So when he passed away, it was a promise I made to myself. I decided I was going to put everything I can into what I'm passionate about and make sure that I'm super successful and can take care of myself and my family. So my career, I think, is a reflection of where I've come from and where I am now. And I'm so happy and proud of all the things I've gotten to do and have experienced a lot of traveling and met a lot of people. A couple of the big projects I worked at my old job are like some of my most proud like projects because they're all over the world. People still take pictures and they send me my labels [I designed] that they see out in the wild. It's just like it's a nice reminder when I go home to see how far I've come due to like working so hard and being so focused.
How do the other women around inspire you?
The women here are so talented, so professional, come from so many different backgrounds and have so many different experiences that they can bring to the table. So I feel like the women here all hold each other to a really high standard and push each other and hold each other accountable. Also, there are so many great people on a personal level. You can enjoy your time working with them. Working with the women at Rhone just furthers my personal growth in my career in making sure that I'm always striving to be like the best coworker I can be.
Meet Geeta
Share something about yourself that you're working on improving and how you think it will make life run more smoothly once you've accomplished that goal?
So currently I feel like I'm working on standing up for myself or being more firm with my kids and with people at work and setting those boundaries as far as what their expectations of me are and what my expectations of them are. So with regards to work, I'm making sure I'm out at a certain time and that I'm also able to meet their requirements as far as deadlines. But also they need to know that I need to be home with my kids, etc.. Then at home, I think it's really important to be firm with my kids because as a mother I feel like they take advantage of me saying yes to them all the time. So I think it's important to have that consistency of putting my foot down and saying "no" to whatever it is and just having consistency with that. I think that's really important.
Do you have a personal philosophy or quote that you love?
A quote that I love is "We need to start work with the idea that we're going to learn every day." I think this really resonated with me because I feel like every day I come in and I just have to make sure that I come in with an open mind. I feel like I want to always be in a setting where I'm learning something vs. knowing everything, because then obviously things can get quite boring. Every day I feel like I learn from my coworkers, from people overseas, and just people that I don't normally even work with. Just anyone. So I think that's really important.
How did the other women inspire you?
From each woman that I work with, I see different things. So, Rachel--I love the fact that she's just able to pull inspiration from being from anything and just her knowledge of just worldly things. Rita, the same. Just the designers in general. It honestly gets me so excited to work with them because they are so creative and I learn so much from them. Even the production and product development team, it's always exciting to see what they pull for fabrics and trims and how that'll affect the product. It's just exciting to be in a workplace that has so many people that are so creative and to just work around that. It's really great.
Meet Rachel
Describe your biggest obstacle in your working life and how you mastered it.
My biggest obstacle in my working life is probably myself and the doubt that I think a lot of women have about their abilities. Imposter syndrome is really huge, especially for women, and I don't think I've fully mastered this either. I just have to keep being kind to myself and remind myself that I worked really hard to get where I am and I deserve to be where I'm at.
Do you have a personal philosophy or quote that you love?
The quote that I picked is "When shall we live if not now?" by MFK Fisher, who is one of my most favorite writers. She's an American food writer, and specifically as it applies to food because I love to eat. But also, it's just a great philosophy because it really helps you to live in the present and appreciate what you have. And.
How do the other women of Rhone inspire you?
The other women of Rhône inspire me by just being incredible. They're beautiful, inside and out, kind, and extremely helpful. I feel like we're all here for each other. And whether it's just riding the train home together or offering help doing part of our jobs that may not be the other person's job, they're just always there for you, celebrating you and helping you accomplish your goals.
Meet Cortney
How does being a mother make you better at your job?
Well, there is no time to just sit around and chat and talk. It really just makes me do everything I need to do quickly, productively, and get it done so that I can get my work done to the best ability that I can and then go home and be with those little animals.
Tell me about your parents. How did they influence you and what lessons did they teach you?
So my dad is a psychologist. My mom was a Headstart teacher for over 30 years, which is teaching three and four-year-olds in the inner city of Milwaukee. They were super, super active parents in our lives, both my brothers and myself. Almost like parents, weren't back when we were kids. I'm 41 years old--I grew up in the 80s and it really meant a lot to me and my brothers. So my husband and I are extremely involved in our kid's lives. We love to take them to their sports. My husband coaches all their games as much as he can. And they just really taught me that you never get that time back, so to be just as involved as you can when your kids are at a certain age because you never get that back.
Describe the biggest obstacle in your working life and how you overcame that.
So when you're a working mom, it's really difficult. There was a great quote that I read that says, "Everyone expects women to work like they don't have children and raise children as if they don't work." So being a working mom is challenging because you're always feeling guilty. If you're at work, you're feeling guilty because you want to be with your family and with your family, you're feeling guilty because you should be at work. So that's always something I've struggled with for the last 13 years. But being at Rhone has been a great amount of balance for me. They understand that I can get my job done and I can be great at my job, but it doesn't mean that I have to stay until 7:00 or 8:00 at night. I can leave at 5:00 and take my kids there after school activities and run out so I can go see them at a concert or in a play or watch them play a game. So it's really helped my work-life balance and made me feel good in both areas of my life.
Do you have a personal philosophy or quote that you love?
So I love this quote by Maya Angelou. It says, "I've learned that people will forget what you said. People will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."
It really resonates with me because I try to teach my kids to be kind. I want to be kind. You want to be kind to your coworkers. And it's true--you'll forget everything else, and at the end of the day, when you think about somebody that you haven't seen in five years and 10 years, even a week, whatever it is, you will never forget how they made you feel when you around them. If they made you feel good, you're always going to associate them with positivity.
Meet Liz
Tell me about your parents. How did they influence you and what lessons did they teach you?
My parents have influenced me through pretty much every aspect of my life. I think the biggest thing that they've taught me is integrity and honesty. And it doesn't matter how smart you are or how much money you have or how successful you are if you don't have integrity and if you're not an honest person, then the rest doesn't really matter.
How do the other women of Rhone inspire you?
There are just so many women here at Rhone, and they all bring something new and exciting to the table. I think just overall, a lot of women here are mothers and have families and just the balance that they are able to strike and be great moms, but also be really good in their profession and at what they do. It just really inspires me for the next few years of my life where I'll be starting my own family.