Meet Ashley Gootee | Fashion Designer: Empowering Women through Clothing.

We had the good fortune of connecting with Ashley Gootee and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Ashley, is there something that you feel is most responsible for your success?
It’s quite simple, at the end of each day my motto is to “empower women through clothing.” I create a custom items, reinvent a special heirloom pieces, or alter an existing items bringing out the best of each client. If I can do that everyday, I call that a win.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?

My goal since I started my craft at the age of 15, has been to empower women through clothing. As a teen in the early 2000’s –body image was always an issue, and I always had my favorite pair of jeans and top that would give me confidence because they fit my imperfect body, perfectly. And I thought I want to make women feel good through clothing.

I started patterning at the age of 15 when I told my parents I wanted to go to design school. They said “No, you don’t even know how to sew a button.” I said I wanted to take a class at the School of the Art Institute Chicago on the weekends. It was a pattern making class. I loved it! And decided to go to a school that had a design program, but wasn’t an art schoool, so I had options in case I wanted to change my mind, and ended up at Purdue University. While there I studied abroad in Florence Italy for a summer, and then did a six month fashion design exchange program in Hong Kong at Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

After studying abroad I spent the summer interning in New York at Zac Posen, and worked 2 of his New York fashion weeks. I was a production intern, and this opportunity gave me the understanding of how to construct, fit and know quality of high end apparel. From there I continued in NYC working for Peter Som- also worked two of his fashion weeks.

Wanting a different pace, away from late nights in a high end studio, I ended up working for a licensing company, Li & Fung USA, on their Walmart team, doing tech packs for some of their labels. I did not enjoy sitting at a desk filling out excel sheets all day.

In 2009, I was one of six designers accepted into the Chicago Fashion Incubator, a program supporting new designers with continued education, access to industry mentors. I started a women’s contemporary line focusing on blouse design. After running my line for 7 years, I needed a break, was suffering burnout, and no longer wanted to have nightmares about button colors, and mismatched zipper pulls. However, I still was creating things on the side, as my friends were getting married, and couldn’t find what they wanted in a store.

As I continued to create high end garments for my friends, I enjoyed that there was no timeline, no fashion calendar to keep up with, I was able to make my own rules.

In 2017, Something You Couture was born! My best friend from high school was visiting and we had both gotten fired that day (I was consulting for a new fashion brand). After a bottle or two of wine, we both created our current companies! Something You Couture, and the Growth Incubator were born. At that point, I was living in Nashville, TN.

Fast forward 2.5 years later in January of 2020, I started Something You Couture in Birmingham, AL full time. I was working in a 450 square foot basement I found on Craigslist, and gave myself two years.

In September of 2022 SYC moved to our current location, 2219 2nd Avenue North in downtown Birmingham. It’s a stunning 2200 square foot fashion design studio, which can be seen here: https://maps.app.goo.gl/8pXHmt5mhJQwdC3R9.

At Something You Couture, we focus on the following services:

-Custom Couture- taking an idea and making it a functional one of a kind piece whether it be a lace topper, a mother of the bride/groom dress, debutante gown, or wedding gown.

-Garment Reinventions: modernizing an heirloom piece, i.e. communion dresses, d blazers, and gala/wedding gowns.

-High End Alterations: reconstructions of garments, changing necklines and adding sleeves.

At the end of each day, we hope to empower women through clothing!

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?

We would start the weekend off by going to an Open House at one of my favorite custom rug stores, English Village Lane. They have the best quality rugs, with the kindest owner, Angie. If you don’t shop there, you are missing out. Then we would do a tour de la 2nd Avenue north, and hit, El Barrio, Le Fresca, Bamboo and Bocca.

Saturday am, we would wake up and hit Pepper Place’s Famers market for some fresh produce for that nights dinner at home to be able to catch up, watch tv, and just hang. Sunday we would go to the lake to get some Vitamin D and nature by kayaking and water skiing.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My family & friends. You know who you are! They have been there through all my fashion “pivot points,” and have never stopped believing in my talents, even when I have gone down a rabbit hole.

Website: somethingyoucouture.com

Instagram: @somethingyoucouture

Facebook: @somethingyoucouture