Fashionable Future
By Madison Aron
By Madison Aron
Most girls Vivian Eck’s age are thinking about where to buy their clothes from. Eck, however, is focused on who she will sell clothing to. Ever since she can remember, the teen has had a passion for fashion. In fact, in a letter she wrote to her future self when she was a high school freshman, she discussed wanting to start a fashion related business. In November of 2019, as a senior in high school, she decided it was time to turn this dream into a reality and Everything Vivian Lynn (everythingvivianlynn.com) was created.
Everything Vivian Lynn (EVL) is an online fashion center that strives to provide on-trend clothing and accessories at an affordable price to teenage girls and young women alike. Nearly every item sold is under $50 and Eck personally inspects each piece to ensure it aligns with her brand’s mission.
“The EVL girl wants to be trendy, but she doesn’t want to break the bank either,” explains Eck.
So, how does she do it? Eck has become a master of growing her brand and customer base on social media platforms. Her younger sister even helps her with TikTok. Her preferred medium, though? Instagram. She uses Shopify for analytics on her posts and adapts her marketing and product selections based on the results.
When choosing pieces for her website, she typically gravitates towards items that she herself would wear, but also branches out to select fashionable finds that may not be her exact style, often taking into account what her friends and other peers might be interested in.
Recently Eck had to re-evaluate how she runs her business. In response to an increase in shipping rates as a result of the COVID- 19 pandemic, Eck and her team now do local deliveries. Their customers have responded very positively to the quicker delivery times, all while EVL has been able to keep its same pricing structure. All orders are packaged in the morning, and those that need to be shipped are usually sent out by the end of the day.
Eck wouldn’t be able to run her new venture without a few helpful hands and she is incredibly humble about it. She gives credit to those who have supported her by naming some of the pieces of clothing being sold after them. Her friends, Emma Decaigny and Juliana Gee, can be seen modeling the clothes on the EVL website. Another close friend, who she refers to as “The EVL Superfan” has also been helpful in promoting the brand on social media and by word of mouth.
Of course, she says, her parents were instrumental in getting the company started. When she presented the EVL business plan to her parents, they supported her in every way they possibly could. After hiring Elemento Media to create a website, Eck and her mother began the long process of creating a brand and a legitimate company. She had to obtain a business license, tax verification paperwork, and register at a wholesaler. After some time, she became a verified buyer and was able to select items for her boutique from a much wider range of products.
Everything Vivian Lynn’s latest drop was at the end of June and she is hoping to host a launch party once it’s deemed safe to do so. Before heading off to college, Eck plans to select more products for a fall collection and is excited to show another side of EVL with pieces that are not spring/summer focused.
As for where her future will lead her, Eck has an interest in marketing, which has played a large role in starting her company. In the fall, pandemic-permitting, Eck will be a student at Indiana University in the Kelley School of Business. She says she wants to use her education as a Marketing and Digital Social Media major to “take this little store and turn it into something the nation knows about it.”
Eck’s ultimate dream: owning her own fashion media company.
“I worked a marketing internship at Jameson Sotheby’s last summer, and it gave me the confidence to just go for it,” she explains, “Ginny Stewart was my mentor and I learned so much from her.”
Though she is not majoring in a fashion-related field, she plans to use her extracurricular involvement to blend the business aspect of her degree with her passions.
“Since starting this,” she says, “A ton of girls have reached out to me to ask me how I got started. The biggest thing for me is to just get involved. Start a blog, join a club, get involved in your own little way. I want to join a fashion club at IU to steer my degree into fashion.”
Everything Vivian Lynn is sure to be a success story, as will Vivian Eck herself.
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