Today we’d like to introduce you to Brooke Barry.
Hi Brooke, 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 actually learned how to sew from my grandmother, so fashion has been part of my life for as long as I can remember, but I didn’t set out to become a designer. I went to college and studied history, and somewhere in there I became completely obsessed with historical dress. The corsetry, the construction, the way women’s silhouettes evolved decade to decade, I couldn’t get enough of it. That obsession is really what pulled me toward fashion design, not the other way around.
From there I started teaching myself more about construction and pattern-making, and I eventually took some courses through Central Saint Martins to sharpen that even further. At the same time, I’d been building an audience online sharing my sewing, my style, and just my life in general, and that platform ended up becoming this incredible tool I didn’t fully anticipate. It let people watch me learn and grow in real time.
Since then it’s been this incredible, sometimes overwhelming, process of learning the business side of fashion, manufacturing, sampling, production, while also getting some incredible real-world experience, like designing stage looks for Megan Moroney’s Cloud 9 Tour. That project meant so much to me because it showed me I could do this beyond just pretty dresses for Instagram. I could actually build garments for the stage, for performers, in a professional setting.
So today, I’m in this exciting building phase, juggling being a designer, a founder, a creative director, and a content creator all at once, working toward my real goal, which isn’t just to have a clothing line. It’s to build a lasting fashion house rooted in the romance and glamour of old Hollywood, made for the modern woman.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Honestly, no, it hasn’t been smooth, and I don’t think anyone building a real fashion label from scratch would tell you it was. One of the biggest struggles has just been learning an entirely new industry in real time. I came from a sewing and content background, not a business background, so things like manufacturing, sourcing, sampling, and production timelines were a completely different language to me at first. There’s been a lot of trial and error, and honestly a lot of expensive lessons.
There’s also been the challenge of being taken seriously. I built my audience through social media, and I think there’s an assumption sometimes that if you come from that world, you’re not a “real” designer, you’re just someone posting pretty content. I’ve had to prove, through the actual construction and quality of what I make, that this isn’t a side project or a merch line. It’s a fashion company I’m building with real intention.
Balancing the two sides of my career has been its own struggle too. I’m a content creator and a founder at the same time, and those two roles pull at me differently. Some days I need to be in the studio focused on patterns and fittings, and other days I need to be creating content to keep growing the platform that supports the brand. Figuring out how to let those two things work together instead of competing with each other has taken a lot of trial and error.
And then there’s just the emotional weight of it. This isn’t a hobby for me, it’s something I’ve dreamed about since I was a kid learning to sew with my grandmother. So every setback, every sample that comes back wrong, every delay, feels personal in a way that I think only other founders really understand.
But every struggle has taught me something I needed to know before scaling this into the label I actually want it to become.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I’m known for that blend of nostalgia, corsetry, femininity, and drama, and for the stage looks I’ve designed for Nashville artists like Megan Moroney, Dasha, Avery Anna, Carter Faith and Jenna Davis.
Two of my biggest accomplishments stand out. The first is the look I created for Megan Moroney’s VMA performance in September 2025. I made it in three days, and watching my design on live television, on someone as talented as Megan, was insane. I called my parents and grandparents to turn on the TV, and they were just as mesmerized as I was. The second is debuting as a designer at Paris Fashion Week this past March, which was a full circle moment after years of dreaming about being taken seriously in the fashion world.
What sets me apart is that I actually build the garments myself, corsetry and pattern work included, thanks to my grandmother and years of self training. I also bring a storytelling instinct from my content background and a deep knowledge of fashion history most designers my age haven’t spent years studying.
Right now, I’m most excited about launching my first two piece collection this fall, the first time people will get to actually wear Brooke Barry!
Can you tell us more about what you were like growing up?
Growing up, I was always the entrepreneurial kid, in the funniest, smallest ways possible. I started so many little businesses throughout my childhood that I honestly look back now and laugh at how early that instinct showed up. My very first business was in first grade, selling pop up greeting cards on the playground for twenty five cents. I specifically sold them on Wednesdays because that was twenty five cent popsicle day at recess, so I’d sell my cards just so I could buy my friends and I popsicles. After that came bottle cap necklaces, duct tape artwork, and eventually my most successful childhood venture, monogram decals I made on my mom’s Cricut machine and sold on Etsy and at school fairs.
The other thing about me as a kid was that I never wanted to wear the same outfit twice in a school year, but my family didn’t have a lot of disposable income for clothes. We got about five to seven shirts, a couple pairs of jeans, and one pair of shoes at back to school time, and that was pretty much it for the year. So I got really creative with what I already had, reworking and upcycling old pieces into something that felt new to me. Even at Christmas, while my siblings were asking for toys, I was asking for clothes.
Looking back, I think both of those things, the constant tiny businesses and the need to make my clothes feel new without any money to spend, were basically foreshadowing the exact career I ended up building.
Pricing:
- Brooke Barry sits in the contemporary/bridge fashion space, meaning pieces are more elevated than mass market fashion but still accessible compared to true luxury or couture.
- Prices for our first collection will generally range from $200 to $500 depending on the garment, with more complex or structured pieces (corsetry, tailored bodices) landing on the higher end.
- Our goal is for every piece to feel special and elevated while still being wearable and attainable.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.brookebarrydesigns.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brookiebarry/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61583535639708#
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@brookiebarry
