A New Season for a Dress Brand: Conversation with Gallagher
Modern style, may take a pants approach day to day but a good dress is a staple to have in your wardrobe. Back in October 2019, I was able to get to know the Virginia Beach based brand, Gallagher. The founders, sisters Sarah and Hannah, created Gallagher with the mission of creating high quality, made-to-order dresses for the occasions of women’s lives. The selected fabrics for their made-to-order pieces are naturally sourced and with each design works to minimize textile waste in production by being cut for specific measurements, rather than mass produced.
I was able to chat with co-founder Sarah to talk through their 2020 year, what they’ve been up to (they’ve been doing a lot — the pandemic hasn’t kept them down!) and what’s to come. I also was fortunate to try out one of their favorite styles, the Charity Shirtdress in Heritage Pear. See more about the Charity dress at the end of the post —
interview with Gallagher—
We talked about Gallagher a year ago (October 2019) on the blog! What has changed or developed for you all?
Oh my, Gallagher has undergone so many changes since this time last year! With our fourth collection now under our belts, we’ve expanded our product line to include tops, skirts, masks (cause, ya know, covid) and even a new jumpsuit! However at our core, Gallagher’s main product and first love will always be dresses. The biggest change that’s come for Gallagher this year has been the opening of our retail location in downtown Norfolk! We joined Selden Market’s incubator program in June and officially opened our doors on July 10th. Trust me when I say we had no plans to open a brick and mortar shop this year- and certainly not in the middle of a pandemic- but the opportunity presented itself when we were desperately needing a bigger work space and bringing Gallagher to life in a storefront has always been a long term goal. We’ve loved the feedback and new customer relationships we’ve made since being downtown and have been pleasantly surprised with the local foot traffic, all things considered.
Tell us a little bit more about your team! Who do you work with and what does that look like?
I founded Gallagher alongside my sister, Hannah Westergaard, in early 2019 and we have remained Gallagher’s sole owners and operators up until this point. Building a business with my sister (and best friend) has been a dream. She is truly the ying to my yang and the visionary behind the brand at large. Where I handle the seasonal development and daily production of our product lines, she acts as our graphic designer and photographer as well as creative director, carrying out the management of our website, social media platforms, email communications, and additional marketing initiatives. While we’re so proud to have built this business with our combined talents, sweat, and tears, we are excited to announce that we are now hiring for shop assistance, as well as production support. Local aspiring creatives, retail gals, and fashion fans can reach out to sarah@shop-gallagher.com for more information.
Even though 2020 has been unexpected, What has been a highlight for Gallagher this year?
Without a doubt, opening our storefront this summer has been the biggest highlight of the year. As I said before, it was completely unexpected but has been very rewarding and pushed our business to a new level. Before this big change, another highlight was living and working together as sisters and business partners when Hannah and her husband Daniel came down to Virginia over “quarantine”. They currently reside in Chicago, IL where Hannah tackles agency work as an art director and graphic designer in addition to her duties at Gallagher.
As a small business, what steps have you taken to engage your community during this year of quarantine and changes within the industry?
As luck would have it, our spring collection launched just two weeks into the nationwide lockdown, at a time when our community was an unusually captive audience on social media. Having cobbled together a small photoshoot the week of the lockdown with just my sister, myself, and one other friend, we decided to utilize live video and stories on instagram the week of the launch, which we hadn’t really dabbled in prior to this collection. These videos were far from glamorous, shot on our iPhones in my spare bedroom, but we were able to candidly articulate what we loved about the pieces we’d worked so hard to develop, and had our best launch week yet in terms of sales and engagement. In early April we transitioned into mask making alongside many other brands in the industry, which again wasn’t something I’d ever imagined doing, but was another great use of our excess fabrics (sustainability!) and a necessary need at the moment. After testing out several patterns and methods available online, we launched 4 colorways in mens and womens sizes and sold over 300 masks in just two months.
Have you seen shifts that impact the fashion industry in general? If so, what is something that is shifting that you are looking forward to?
Yes! I have been so encouraged by the industry response to the events of this year- which I’ve been following weekly through the Business of Fashion podcast. I was especially encouraged to read “The Open Letter to the Fashion Industry” that was published by a coalition of major designers back in May. These industry leaders wrote emphatically and pragmatically about the glaring needs and opportunity for change, that for too long had been ignored. These changes, including slowing the fashion calendar, discount cycles, production overload, and the irrelevance of the traditional runway show, reflected a real desire for innovation and sustainability that has not been taken seriously up until this moment by the most powerful players. To propose tossing out convention, pomp and circumstance in favor of what's best for the customer and environment was shockingly refreshing to see. I am looking forward to seeing their ideas come to fruition in the coming seasons as year after year sustainability continues to surface not just as a buzzword but a necessity in forward thinking design.
You all have released a ton of new styles! What products are you all creating that you’d like to highlight?
It's hard to choose from our current collection (which is undoubtedly my favorite yet) but I’d have to say two pieces that I’m most proud of are the Charity Shirtdress and our updated Jessalyn wrap dress.
First, our shirtdress was named after textile designer Charity Kittler, who created the inspired heritage pear print exclusively for Gallagher. This print has transformed a classic wardrobe staple into our collection’s statement piece- having garnered adoration from our online community as well as our Norfolk natives alike. I’ve always been a sucker for a shirt dress but it wasn’t until the recent acquisition of an industrial buttonholer (it may seem silly but these specialized machines can cost a fortune!) that I decided this piece would come to fruition this season. The Charity is one of those dresses that holds a world of possibilities through the wearer’s styling of it, and we love seeing how you’ve rocked this frock, Kelly!
Our recent special release was an update to a beloved favorite from last fall, the Jessalyn wrap dress! With each season we try to synthesize our customer feedback into future designs, and this dress was one we knew we had the opportunity to improve upon. With a couple small fit changes and a statement cuff sleeve we’ve brought new life to this style in our best-selling tencel and two new (seasonless) colors. This fan favorite won’t last long as our fabric stock is especially limited again this year (and sold out twice last year!) so make sure you get yours before the holiday season is upon us.
What’s something that you all are working on for the future of the Gallagher company?
We’ve got lots up our sleeves for Gallagher’s future and are always dreaming up new ideas! We are excited to host more events this holiday season and into the new year to grow our local community as we make our physical storefront our home. Welcoming others into our space has always been a core value of Gallagher’s and one that can now be realized to a much fuller extent with a brick and mortar location. Product-wise, we will be releasing our first maternity-friendly dress next spring, selfishly in lieu of my own demands as a soon-to-be mama, as well as our first collection of outerwear pieces later in the fall! We’ve been dying to venture into outerwear and have gorgeous new fabrics already picked out. As mentioned before, we have high hopes to grow the Gallagher team soon which will help increase efficiency, our ability to serve more customers, and at the same time sustain a healthy work life balance that’s been challenging to strike between just the two of us. Lastly, in the new year you can look forward to the addition of other complimentary brands represented within our shop, to include co-founder Hannah’s new line of greeting cards, Kindly!
the charity shirt dress—
Size and fit
I ordered an extra small in this style and Sarah cut the dress to be hemmed for my height at 5’3”. It fits true to size with the hem being a true midi-style, hitting right at my mid calf. The bodice is form fitting (like a tailored button down) and the fit is really nice on the arms and shoulders — no crazy pockets of excess fabric! That’s always a win, as I often have issues with a button down style of dress because of movement in the shoulders. The dress skirt is flowy and moves well as the buttons go all the way down the front of the dress. And with the waist tie to be adjusted to your comfort, it’s a great fit for work or an event.
Fabric and Design
The 100% cotton fabric is soft and light with enough stretch that it allows plenty of organic movements. Again, my arms feel amazing in it as I move around!
The fabric print is beautiful and unique with florals, pears and other eclectic plant print. This print style adds a fun balance of “pop” for a timeless silhouette and a neutral navy base color. Plus the contrasting finishes of the darker navy fabric on the sleeves and bottom of the dress is beautiful and so well done!
Check out more from Gallagher on their website.
In Virginia? Visit their storefront in downtown Norfolk’s Selden Market.
And follow them on Instagram — @shopgallagher
