“For as long as I could remember, I have always been passionate about fashion,” Anna Medeiros said when explaining her love for aesthetics. Only after her sudden layoff at a software company was Anna able to take this passion to the next step. Her situation, an all-too-familiar circumstance in our struggling economy, can leave many a reserved person completely bewildered but Anna concentrated on the positive.

As she attempted to come up with a new professional strategy, Anna’s focus began to flit back to the idea of pursuing living on another continent. She had been toying with the idea of moving to England to enroll as a student at the University of the Arts in London.

Her dream of living in London became a reality when she earned her postgraduate Fashion certificate in Fashion Marketing and lived seven months in London. “I always wanted to live overseas,” she said. “I definitely think that it enhanced my career.” Her fashion portfolio was also improved when she worked for Nordstrom’s and Anne Taylor. Her time in London broadened her fashion knowledge by not only attending school but also by working for Ralph Lauren located within the world-famous Harrods.

Starting Point: London and Harrods!

“It feels almost like an amusement park,” Anna said of her environment at Harrods. When she tried to compare the store to that of one in the states, she said she would compare Harrods to Neimen Marcus but really it’s a store of its own. The customer service was also amazing. “If you want it they’ll get it for you,” she said. Another perk to her job at Harrods was making some great contacts with people in the industry. Some of the people she came across were more quirky then others.

Harrods is known for telling a story and they create stories around their merchandising she said. One manager in particular that she worked with had an interesting way of interpreting how to tell the story of her clothes. The manager would name all her mannequins and she also created story plots.

Though she found her time at Harrod’s rewarding, she knew she couldn’t stay indefinitely. Before she moved to London she had already started thinking about opening a boutique but wasn’t ready financially. “Honestly I never thought of myself as an entrepreneur,” she said. “I sort of kept hitting this wall in my professional life and I didn’t see a direct track for growth.” Opening her own boutique would afford her the ability to showcase all she had to offer and she thought she could do it all on her own.

The start of her launching her business, Muito Fino, was a lot of work and for a year and a few months she continued to work full-time while trying to launch her business in her free time. “I worked in the evenings and weekends. I could have worked 80 hours in a week and I would use my vacation time to fly to speak to vendors,” she said. Although it was work, she said that it was also fun.

Reality Star: Muito Fina

As for her clientele, Anna said that the majority of her customers are based on the east coast. She believes the reason behind this may be that the clothes that Muito Fina (which means very fine) features are dressier. Californians tend to be a little more casual possibly due to the climate.

In regards to fashion and her target audience, she tends to think of the Sex and the City girls but her inspiration also stems from her experiences abroad.

“Being in London completely opened my eyes to a different consumer,” she said. While living abroad she realized the differences in American fashion as compared to European fashion. “Americans are a little more conservative and are pretty simple when it comes to fashion,” she observed. She also got a lot of her fashion inspiration when she visited Portugal. On a particular trip when she was five years old, she remembers being so excited about the shoes she got while there because the shoes were completely different from what her classmates were wearing. “I like being different, a little more fashion forward,” she said.

Her style has matured and the clothes she sells reflect that fact. Anna characterizes the clothes sold through her online boutique as young contemporary fashion items for women who are are transitioning from college to the workplace. Her pieces are a little more conservative but at the same time classic with staying power.

As for parting wisdom that she feels she could share with other young professionals, she said that knowing your market and who your competitors can be instrumental in making or breaking a business. In addition, knowing your resources can be very beneficial to a company’s growth and so is educating yourself when it comes to the industry. “One thing I would say is I definitely did my homework,” she said. In looking back, she could have done things a little differently and there were times when she had been in tough situations but no matter what her mistakes she always found that no matter what position she was in that she always had an opportunity to learn and grow.