Today we’d like to introduce you to Kathrine Dooley Miller
Hi Kathrine, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I’ve always had a love for fashion, art, and pretty, historic buildings- and Miller & Muse combines each of these things! However, getting here wasn’t the most linear path. During high school I had plans to attend college in South Carolina (I’m originally from a small town south of Kansas City, MO) and had received scholarships to do, however due to personal reasons made the choice to stay home after graduating high school early (in Dec of 2019) and attended cosmetology school (starting in Jan of 2020) instead. While I enjoyed aspects of the cosmetology field, I still found myself putting more time and energy into other things at the time: my part time retail job (where I worked as a wardrobe stylist and created social media content for the store), competing in pageants and personal and commissioned art/design projects I was doing on the side, also at the start of cosmetology school I found out about some medical things I was dealing with that made working as a hairstylist a rather painful job and knew that this likely would not be a career I did long term. So after graduating cosmetology school, I chose to go back to school at a local community college while working part time as a makeup and hair artist and full time as a marketing specialist for a luxury apartment company which allowed me to exercise my design, social media, and event planning muscles which I truly enjoyed! I stayed in this field until I was recruited and won a local title allowing me to advance to compete for Miss Missouri in 2022 and then I left my full time job to pursue preparation for the pageant and continue with school. After the pageant, I felt that it was time to finally go to South Carolina (I had wanted to move to Beaufort since I first read about it’s history and architecture when I was 12) so I got a job cutting men’s hair part time at a salon franchise back home (so I would be able to transfer locations if I was accepted into school out state), applied to college, applied for a scholarship and was accepted and packed up my car and moved 2 weeks later! However, when I got to move in day, all of my dorm info and class schedule info had been lost from my student portal so I went into the main office to find out what had happened and because my scholarship had not been applied (so no payments had been covered for me to start) I was posed with the choice of paying out of pocket and starting that day or waiting another semester and starting later. Because I wasn’t prepared to pay tuition upfront that day I chose to wait, that afternoon I called my boss and ask if I could work full time instead of part time since I wouldn’t be attending school and was actually offered the opportunity to manage a salon location locally and I took it! Barbering truly reignited my enjoyment of the cosmetology field and I truly considered trying to make a career out of it! However, after about 6 months of some super long hours as a stylist I had a scary incident occur where I started to feel some serious pain in my upper body and by the time I had gotten home that day had completely lost feeling in my arms, back, and neck and had my boyfriend (now husband) drive me to the ER. When I was able to be seen we found out that most likely due to high stress from working for such an extended period of time without a break my nervous system had “shut down”. I returned to work after a few days of recovering, but for some reason after being at work for a few hours the numbness would start in and resulted in me accidentally cutting my hands and fingers a lot in a very short period of time and I knew I needed a change of pace. So the day I put in my two weeks notice I filed for an LLC (not really sure what type of business it would be) and got started on creating a website and business cards and networking! Wildly enough on my last day in the salon I met someone who was willing to give me a chance to help them with their marketing and design and allowed me to learn about real estate and economic development! This was such a neat and valuable experience that I still am thankful and cherish to this day! Later that year I got married and very shortly after my husband and I found out that he was being temporarily assigned to a duty station in another state and would be deployed. Because of this I found myself needing the flexibility to work remotely and less often as there was a lot of travel him and I were doing to see each other and family before his deployment so I put a pause on things and took a part time job as a stylist a ladies’ salon in town where I made some great friends! But both myself and the owner noticed my passion just wasn’t there for it, but that I had a love for creating content at the salon so after a conversation we decided I would start doing the social media management and content creation for the salon and I still do that to this day! Switching to this allowed me more time and flexibility to pour my energy into my business and since at this point my husband was deployed and I was alone at home with all the time in the world I knew the world truly was my oyster and I could turn this business into anything I wanted it to be. So I prayed about what I should do next and I felt that God had told me to sell my art and use it as a way to grow his kingdom. I knew that I wanted my subject of the artwork to be the beautiful architecture and history of the cities I loved, I had always wanted to have my own clothing line, and I wanted to be able to help historic preservation efforts. So I took a look at the market and noticed that there was actually a gap where a product like this would fall: Locally inspired products for locals and tourists that didn’t have a “tacky tourist” vibe to them- so with that the Miller & Muse brand was born. I began designing prints for products that paid homage to the heritage of the cities that inspired them but that expressed it in a way that was timeless and elegant. I chose to opt for products that could be versatile, convenient, and beautiful and wouldn’t require myself or future retailers to carry multiple sizes which is how I fell into the accessories world! After getting the prints designed and finding a facility that manufactured the products with a great level of quality control I began sharing about the process and products on social media and making phone calls, and in person visits to different retailers in the local area to discuss having Miller & Muse products in their stores. With those conversations came open doors to hosting exclusive events with private clubs, historic societies and foundations and requests to make custom designs for retailers, organizations, and individuals. Miller & Muse is truly a product of passions and excites me daily!
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
It has not been. Starting a business from scratch and boot-strapping it is one of the most difficult things. There are financial hardships that come with it, lots of “no’s” that come with it, and of course personal things get thrown into the mix of it, but at the end of the day, I wouldn’t trade it for the world.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
Miller & Muse is a locally inspired luxury accessories brand. Each piece features architecture and local nature-inspired designs to pay homage to the heritage and history of the cities they represent. What sets Miller & Muse apart from other locally inspired product brands is the intentionality of the designs (each design is formatted in a traditional print style such as Toile de Jouy, Chinoiserie, Damask, etc.) making them not only timeless, but one of the only options on the market for a wearable city based accessory that doesn’t look “tacky” or “loud”. They are something that is elegant, versatile, and can be worn through the ages. Additionally, each piece of architecture featured in the designs has historic significance to the city the accessory represents.
In addition to the wearable accessories, Miller & Muse also offers a selection of Southern Inspired Fine Art (Oil Painting Reproductions painted by myself) to accessorize the home with.
Our retail offerings can be shopped by customers on our website millerandmuse.com. For businesses seeking to carry our products in their store they can check out the menu on our site for more information!
Our retail offerings can also be used for the purpose of giving back as through the site we offer virtual fundraiser hosting allowing organizations of any size to earn a percentage back on sales to go towards their initiative at their convenience.
Outside of retail offerings, Miller & Muse offers various design services such as custom/commissioned print design for retail products, corporate employee/client gifting, or personal gifts (a common personal use is a print design based on someone’s wedding colors, venue, flowers, etc. that can be applied to the client’s product of choice to give as gifts to the wedding party/bridesmaids/etc. Miller & Muse also offers website design services and social media strategy for small businesses (as that’s where the business offerings all began)!
Have you learned any interesting or important lessons due to the Covid-19 Crisis?
While I did start my business a few years after COVID, there were a lot of things that I learned at that time. Firstly, I graduated high school early in December of 2019, making 2020 the year I attended cosmetology school- seeing how that world and the retail world were so quickly impacted with no alternative options encouraged me to find work in a line that was more virtual. COVID also was the time I began to study social media, take classes about it, and mess around with it allowing me to learn how valuable being able to build connections virtually would be to brands and businesses moving forward.
When you work in the industries like retail or cosmetology, you learn that connection and relationships are the backbone of your success, you can be the best stylist or the most knowledgeable sales person in the room, but if you can’t talk to people and make them feel heard or valued, they most likely won’t seek you back out. But when in person connection is taken away you have to find another way to connect and that’s where I think social media comes in strong, by creating content that adds value-whether through education, entertainment, or understanding you can start to fill the gaps of connection virtually which ultimately helps your business or whatever you have to offer, excel.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://millerandmuse.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/millerandmuse/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/millerandmuse/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@millerandmuse
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@millerandmuse?lang=en
