Inside Volume One we interviewed muse Gillian Rose Kern founder of For Love & Lemons and their newest little line Lil Lemons. Gillian is such a Mother Muse we were honoured to talk to her about how she balances running two empires while being a mother. Read preview below

Full Name please and date of birth

Gillian Rose Kern, 10/2/85.

Full Names of child and age

Lilifaye Lou Kern, 10 months.

If you could describe yourself in one sentence.

mmm… Creative, sensitive but tough, loves to be challenged, procrastinator, and a lover of life, experiences, and my family.

What was your childhood like?

Non-conventional! My parents had a very relaxed parenting form. They ran a ski bar in Jackson Wyoming where there were live bands and lots of parties. My sister and I would run around the building exploring, sneaking treats from the kitchen, listening to the bands warm up, and would always be getting into trouble. That was just during the winter, in the summer we lived on a boat in the Bahamas, we caught all our food and took showers in the ocean! We did this routine on and off till I was about 12. My parent’s split up which wasn’t easy, but they maintained a good friendship. My dad loved to take us traveling and my mom was more of a homebody and taught us how to be creative by painting and drawing.

Tell us about your life before motherhood.

I was married to my career and my life revolved around it. Even my husband would agree with that! Now that I am a mom I am trying to get out of the office as quick as I can. My priorities changed for the better. Although, life was overall much more relaxed and easy going! Juggling motherhood, being a wife, and running a company isn’t easy, but it does push me to be the best I can, as it’s not just for myself anymore!

What inspired you to create For Love & Lemons?

Something inside of me needed to come out; it was a creative force that was bursting to be expressed! I always knew I had to create something, but it wasn’t until I lived in Australia for a year with my business partner, Laura, that I discovered my true passion for the fashion industry. There was something about living on our own in a different country that really pulled us out of our elements and inspired us. We talked about what we would create if we had our own line one day, and then soon enough we moved home to work and save up money to start our own line. For Love & Lemons just happened to be the best form of of expression I could have ever created.

Can you express some stories that have helped shape you in the industry?

We are in a time where social media controls everything. This has been great for us, as well as a challenge. We are an image-based brand we work really hard on creating unique images in-house to post. Everything is very carefully curated. This has been our M.O. since launching our brand. It grew our brand tremendously and really got us in front of lots of new people all over the world. It also convinced a lot of other people they need to do the exact same thing which has slightly over saturated the market and has been a gateway for knock-off companies in China to use our imagery and ship knockoff garments – which is so cruel and misleading to our customers. Fashion is not really protected, so we haven’t been able to do much about it. Instead we look forward, we have learned to focus that energy on creating new things. This has definitely shaped our brand into pushing the limits and testing us as designers as well!

Full Interview available here

Artist Robyn Taylor