Julie Allen: Disrupting the fashion industry at Mary Rose Boutique NW

Companies That Care

Read more and view photos on my website. The Companies that Care podcast highlights business leaders who are making a difference in the world. I have a passion for companies that care and give back to their communities, like Mary Rose Boutique NW.

Julie Allen founded Mary Rose Boutique NW and the sister Mary Rose Foundation, a 501C3 nonprofit. Julie has a mission of helping ALL people feel beautiful and confident. With every purchase, Mary Rose donates a portion of the sales to the Mary Rose Foundation to fund eating disorder treatment. As someone who struggled with eating disorders herself, and who also has not always felt beautiful in a dressing room, Julie is disrupting the fashion industry.
“I am on this mission to fight diet culture…I had anorexia and bulimia for so long that it has opened my eyes to the way things are spun and the way things are portrayed in the media.”

Julie has a mirror in her shop called an affirmation mirror. Customers write affirming messages with dry erase markers on the mirror, like “I am worthy of love,” “I deserve to love myself,” and “I am beautiful.” When people come out of the fitting room, those messages are the first things they see.

I asked Julie what advice she has for others who want to create companies that care. “Find something you care about, something you are very passionate about and that can get you through hard days…when you have a bigger mission to what you are doing, that is what will get you through those hard days and give you motivation to keep going…find whatever you are passionate about, whatever fills your cup and can fill others’ cups…find whatever that is for you and stick to that and filter everything that you do through that lens. Ask, ‘Is this serving my greater purpose of why I am in business?’”

I interviewed Julie again after reading that she's been rebooting her inventory to be more sustainable. She realized how damaging the fashion industry is for the environment. “The fashion industry is terrible for our planet. It's the third leading contributor to waste and pollution...we had a massive, 5000-square-foot warehouse…It was just overwhelmingly shocking to me how much stuff was there.”

This epiphany caused Julie to shift the way she was doing business. “Fast fashion” helped her business survive COVID, but she had to put a stop to it. She realized her efforts to promote size inclusion and dismantle diet culture were contributing to environmental and ethical damages. “There's no such thing as cheap fashion…somebody, somewhere is paying for it…whether it's you or I on the consumer end, or whether it's the worker that is not paid an ethical wage…”

Julie cut out 90 percent of her vendors. It’s been a positive change. She’s had a challenge finding sustainable clothing in inclusive sizes. Now she is working to develop her own line of sustainable, size-inclusive clothing.

Julie recently hired an executive director for the foundation. She is particularly interested in helping middle school youth. The foundation is working to develop education and outreach programs to help increase youth self-esteem, promote body acceptance, body love, and self-love; and create positive coping skills to prevent eating disorders.

Julie was a fun, dynamic guest and I look forward to meeting her in person!

On both of my podcasts I strive to highlight voices from underrepresented populations, especially people of color, women, people who are LGBTQIA, non- Christian, and immigrants, people who don't always get a platform. You can find all the information on my website and social media.