Fashion designer weaves the calm with the chaos

Fashion designer Stacy Igel’s new book, Embracing the Calm in the Chaos (Harper Collins Leadership), offers advice for entrepreneurs, but there are lessons for everyone given the chaos we all experience on a daily basis.

“Whether you’re an employee, whether you’re a mother, whether you’re a father, whether you’re a young child, or an entrepreneur, if you can take that energy of that chaos and push it to guide you in the right way… you get through those hurdles, which is really hard,” she said, speaking from her home office in New York City.

Igel, a Chicago native, knows quite a bit about coping with chaos and channeling it into something productive. She launched her global athleisure brand, BOY MEETS GIRL®, the week of September 11, 2001 and immediately planned to give back to the victims of the terrorist attack. That decision set a pattern for the future.

“I vowed to become a mission brand that would raise awareness through the products I created and donate money to causes that would help others,” she writes.

Since then, Igel has helped raise more than $500,000 in charitable donations and brought attention to a variety of issues: bullying, racism, antisemitism, breast cancer, and the challenges faced by Holocaust survivors, and the LGBTQ community.

Her “pinch me” moment came in January 2020, when BOY MEETS GIRL® partnered with the Chicago Bulls on a collection called “Inspire With Us.” A percentage of the proceeds were donated to the Center on Halsted, and Igel spoke on the court during the Pride Night Game. “It truly doesn’t get better than that,” she wrote.

Igel learned early on the importance of giving back and connecting with others. She recalls filling the tzedakah box along with her sister in their Lincoln Park home and inviting friends over to celebrate Shabbat.

“Your weeks are so busy, and so Friday was that time for us to really decompress and be together, whether it was with friends or family,” she said, recognizing that moment as a time to find “calm in the chaos.” She continues that tradition with her husband and young son.

“My book is there to show people you can make money, you can give back, and you can still be there for your family,” she said.

Igel says her passion for fashion started at age 3. By 7, she was selling jewelry to classmates, and by 11 she was visiting fabric stores in Chicago and making her own clothes, like the houndstooth skirt she wore for the first day of sixth grade at Latin School of Chicago. At just 12 years old, she got a job at The Gap.

“I don’t remember a time in my life when I wasn’t into fashion and the beat of it,” she wrote in her journal, which is featured throughout the book along with quotes and stories from high-powered friends and colleagues like actress Rosario Dawson and model Veronica Webb.

Igel also details some of the biggest challenges of her career, including getting fired from a luxury fashion brand without explanation and watching other designers copy her ideas.

While the book includes practical lessons on protecting your intellectual property, collaborating with others, and marketing a brand and product, Igel also sends the message that entrepreneurship is demanding.

“If a fashionista who’s 13 is reading this [book], I want her to understand that it’s not easy. You have to learn math, get to business classes, and learn all the other things within the fashion industry because all of those pieces make up how to be an entrepreneur,” she said.

And when life gets chaotic, Igel said, embrace it. “Take a moment for yourself to breathe, take a walk outside, and really think about what’s important to you.”

Julie Mangurten Weinberg is a Northbrook-based journalist with more than 20 years of experience in broadcast, print, and digital media.