Oh wow, what a year. I’m literally shaking lol... just kidding. We celebrated one year at Illumination Forest last week, and I am really thankful for everybody that has supported us.
For those of you who have been with us since the beginning, where Illumination Forest wasn’t a shop and it was a space of motivation, art, a possible podcast, and insightful quotes that were coming from a place of trying to find my identity in this world that tells us that our identity should be based on what we are told is trendy and not weird, thank you. The way creating this shop unfolded is a dream come true.
I’m really grateful for my husband, who helped with the idea of creating athletic wear with my art as textile designs. He heard me for a long time talk about wanting to create a yoga and athletic wear line and then, on other occasions, saying I wanted to put my art on tote bags and put up prints and other material, so it was really amazing for the day that all of it came together and started to be made.
It’s fun because I feel like that’s how life works. It works in a serendipitous way, and it’s a dream come true to be able to start and create, for a whole year, something that I’ve been wanting since I was a little girl.
I shared the story a lot with people about how I did business camp when I was 13, and it was for a fashion line. At the time, it was for streetwear and urban wear, and it’s so amazing to see all the years that happened in my life for me to be able to train people, then practice yoga and teach yoga, and see the things that people were working out and moving in, and some of the things that I felt the most comfortable in versus what was viral. I think that color theory is so real, so it’s really fun to be able to put color theory to the test in my yoga designs/art, our super comfy and durable yoga wear and athletic wear. That is definitely a triumph, for sure.
Some of the obstacles that we dealt with in the year were being an independently run, self-funded brand and business. I never wanted to give my money to social media or follower apps to make it appear like people were supporting us. I wanted Illumination Forest to truly build real friends, real community, real love, and real art without the need for anything artificial. It’s funny that artificial intelligence is a thing, but I love being able to put raw art on the clothing.
Another obstacle was also just learning this business as a whole and learning that the way to keep going in a business is to keep on being true to yourself. I think that that is what helped me throughout this year. I never let go of my truth at the expense of social media or what other people were telling me to do.
I also realized that even if it was a small amount of likes or a small amount of sales that I made in a given month or so, those people were so worthy, and I’m really grateful for all the people that I got to know, all the people that got to purchase our leggings, joggers, sports bras, sweatshirts and more.
Thank you all for being a part of this journey. I’m looking forward to what this next year has in store and celebrating two years. If you haven’t gotten the chance to shop our clothing or our prints, check them out. And if you got all the way to the end of this post, let me know so I can give you a special gift discount.
xoxox,
Martine McKinney
