Christina DuVarney had a rough upbringing, but her clothing brand, Beautiful Disaster, is more than just a tongue-in-cheek joke about her own life. The brand had clocked $12M by the end of 2023, and DuVarney couldn’t be happier. However, the entrepreneur grew up in a much less happy situation.
A Hard Childhood
Young DuVarney grew up in a single-parent home. Her mom would struggle to make ends meet, and her alcoholic father abandoned the pair of them when she was still very young. She saw her mother working and fighting to provide for her, giving her that sense of need to make it in the world.
Another thing that she knew from a very young age was that most clothing brands never saw her as their target demographic. She had a hard time connecting to the marketing and designs of those brands. They never appealed to what she wanted to wear or who she wanted to be. This feeling remained with her throughout her life.
School Was Difficult
Despite seeing her mom suffer and provide for her, DuVarney was not good at academics. She tried, but it just didn’t take. She realized that if she wanted to leave a life like this behind, she would have to find another way to make money.
As with most people, she didn’t find her calling until she had already left high school and was trying to make it on her own. She wasn’t interested in the jobs she was working, but at the age of 25, something clicked. She quit what she was marking time doing and decided to open her own fashion brand.
A Daunting Prospect
Her first foray into the fashion business was almost her last. The first brand name she taught of as a young entrepreneur, she started printing onto t-shirts and other things she designed. They started selling really well…and then the cease-and-desist legal notice came. It turns out the name she chose for her brand was not up for grabs, and the original company didn’t appreciate her business idea.
It made her realize that there were many hidden things that she needed to do to create a clothing brand. The first thing was to seek counsel from an attorney who could guide her into setting up her own brand and imprint. After some exploration, she finally settled on Beautiful Disaster—something quirky but realistic.
Learning the Ropes of Online Marketing
DuVarney realized that competing with big businesses was not something she could do as a small entrepreneur. However, social media offered her a vehicle to reach millions. With a few well-planned posts and a handful of loyal followers, she started to use her social media platform to drive business to her brand.
Whatever she was doing worked, her sales grew, and before too long, she saw a marked increase in the number of people interested in her brand. From these early days, she learned much about what it took to be a social media influencer and business owner, marketing her brand on social media.
Never Stop Developing Yourself
For new entrepreneurs, DuVarney suggests that they focus on self-development. While you live and learn, sometimes the things you should know don’t come along until you’re supposed to know them. DuVarney describes herself as a self-development junkie because she spends a lot of time and effort learning about what she doesn’t know.
She says that no entrepreneur should ever be in a room where they’re the most intelligent person. Everyone else should know a little more than they do. By talking to people or paying for courses, an entrepreneur can find that hidden knowledge that will make them successful and really set them on the path to becoming an effective businessperson.
Don’t Be Afraid to Be Disruptive
Social media forms the core of DuVarney’s business marketing, and it all starts with the call to be a disruptive force in fashion. DuVarney believes there’s a lot of negativity surrounding disruptive forces, which shouldn’t be the case. Disruptors like Beautiful Disaster Clothing are supposed to make people think.
Being a disruptor is not just about having a new outlook on business or delivering something to consumers that others can’t. It’s about changing how people perceive themselves. Her social media outreach has focused on getting people to be more accepting of who they are and avoid the beauty standards that the traditional fashion industry celebrates.
Don’t Be Afraid to Use Paid Traffic
DuVarney says that you can’t expect to make money without spending money. To this end, she’s developed a surefire way to invest in paid traffic from ads that helps her business get the recognition she wants. By having her brand appear to people who are rejecting the norms of the fashion world, she’s finding the people who wish for her brand the most.
Beautiful Disaster Clothing’s presence on Facebook saw DuVarney utilize video ads and gain many followers. The platform’s robust targeting metrics allowed her to pinpoint her ideal audience, and high-quality video production did the rest. She says that new entrepreneurs ought to budget for spending money to get customers.
A Sense of Community Built By Brand
DuVarney also saw her brand become popular through direct interaction with consumers. Facebook’s groups allowed her to gather people who were loyal supporters of the brand. Here, the brand could directly contact them, answer their questions, offer support, and advertise to people who already loved what she was offering.
The Brand Continues To Expand
DuVarney isn’t entirely done yet. With so much outreach on social media, she’s created the ideal brand for people who don’t “click” with today’s fast fashion world. Paying attention to the people who use her product and ensuring they get what they want from it is a vital way of reaching the people most interested in what she has to offer. New entrepreneurs could learn a lot from how DuVarney navigates the social media space while still keeping her brand ideals intact.
