Tomorrow, August 18th, I am headed back to the beginning of EMMYDEVEAUX. I'm headed to Las Vegas.
In 2017, I was working full-time as Executive Director of the School of Retailing at the University of Alberta. An unusual position for someone who at the time was a retail consultant and had no degree or academic qualifications for such a position.
I've always loved fashion but have found myself mostly on the side of projects where consumer psychology was involved. I was fascinated by the subject of "why people buy" from a really early age like 16.
I started consulting at the age of 16, high school wasn't really for me and as a result I barely graduated. I was deemed unintelligent by a school system that just didn't understand that some people learn in a different way. No problem, I was raised by a dad who owned a school for entrepreneurs and was never an entrepreneur. In his time his company opened over 1600 businesses in the Edmonton area.
If there is a will....there is a way.
Leaving a six figure job and starting a clothing brand was no walk in the park. I was married at the time, we had just bought into a UPS Store franchise and my position was our stable income. Well....don't marry an entrepreneur because at any moment she's gonna blow that shit wide open.
Here is what I knew:
I excelled in fashion class in high school, I competed in pattern drafting and I knew how to sew.
I was an avid shopper, learning from my bad buying habits when certain items or fabrics would fall apart.
I owned a modeling agency where I learned about studio photography, posing etc.
I randomly became the Southgate Stylist when I suggested a program to a shopping centre and agreed to run it for the first bit which ended up being 5 years and a client list of over 800 women. I learned a TON about women's bodies and how they wanted to look and feel.
I had been a consultant for countless fashion brands, H&M, Zara, Winners, lululemon, Aritzia, etc.
I had worked for countless years with shopping centres and knew basically everyone and how the mall structure worked.
I didn't however, know how to deal with manufacturers, international supply-chain, product development, pattern making etc.
So....in August 2017, I flew to Las Vegas to go to one of the largest manufacturing events in the world...Magic.
I knew exactly what I wanted to make. I know this made the process a lot easier. I was setting out to solve one of my problems and of course that is how most businesses are started. In my position with the University, I was traveling a lot. My program was funded by sponsors/donors which included large retailers and shopping centres.
I was always headed to either Vancouver or Toronto for in person meetings. I would get frustrated because I knew I was being judged on my overall presentation as an executive yet I felt my looks were complicated, over accessorized to make up for poor fitting clothing, and hard to pack because nothing went together.
This combines with another event that was happening in my life. I had lost about 90lbs and had decided to get 11lbs of skin removed off my stomach, greatest thing I ever did!
So...here I was ready to show off my flat stomach however.....I still have a lot of cellulite on my legs so I knew I needed thick fabric to do that. I started buying cheap single layered bodycons from Forever 21 and layering them together. I discovered that 3 of them layered covered my cellulite and this became my first goal in the development of my brand and product. The Double Layered Bodycon Dress.
If you have purchased one of our dresses, you know when it arrives and you pull it out of the bag that it is substantial. Our pieces can sometimes way a pound and our jackets up to 5lbs!
On December 10th, 2017 I was in the Dominican and in the early morning I got the very first picture of my bodycon dress with my label EMMYDEVEAUX on it. I knew in that moment my life was going to change.
When I got back to Canada, I met with the Vice Dean and Dean and handed in my 8 months notice. (it was a big job) I will never forget the look on their faces "what are you going to go do?!?!" basically I had been given the golden handcuffs and they couldn't believe someone would leave such a position. I said "I am going to start a clothing brand." The response was priceless..."well that's a stupid idea".
I just laughed it off knowing....we are not the same. I am cut from a different cloth and you can sit here and try to "teach" entrepreneurship but I'MA GO DO THE DAMN THING and show you what is what.
I remember the day my bestie Leanne came over to try on one of my samples. She had just had a baby and wasn't feeling her best. She came out crying and we both just cried and knew we had something big that could transform how women felt.
This part is iconic.
In February 2018, I had organized something called the Thought Leadership Conference where the Founder of Indochino was our keynote and West Edmonton Mall was our main sponsor. At the same time, I had leased a small pop up space right in the mall outside where the conference was. I would say we had about 450 people at the event from across Canada.
Guess what day was launch day for EMMYDEVEAUX? The same day as the conference.
I was the host of the conference so I was on the mic the whole day and just casually mentioned that just in case anyone wants to check out my brand on the break it is just outside.
Overnight, as one of Canada's Top Retail Consultants.....everyone and I mean everyone in the retail industry knew about my brand. We were called the next lululemon and I had huge plans for what I was going to create.
Within just a few days of our pop up and selling out I knew we were going to be huge.
This was an adorable rendering of the size of the location in West Edmonton Mall, our final space was half this size!
From there it was a freight train
February 2018 - West Edmonton Mall
August 2018 - Edmonton City Centre
October 2018 - Opened 7,000 sq/ft head office
January 2019 - Toronto Pop-up
March 2019 - Vancouver Pop-up
August 2019 - Calgary Market Mall
September 2020 - 4300 sq/ft Airport Warehouse
January 2022 - Kelowna Store
June 2024 - Kelowna Shoe Store
February 2024 - Brand Partner Program
The pandemic for us was interesting. In the back of my mind I had heard this saying "disaster creates opportunity" and so while everyone was closing their doors I was being strategic and ultimately it worked. We built a warehouse and doubled our business during the pandemic. We switch our designs to be focused on comfy home based clothing, we partnered with Air Canada to test shipping on passenger planes and in those two years we didn't slow down for a second.
The effort that it took to thrive during the pandemic definitely took a toll on our whole team. It was very hard to keep the energy up and also to deal with international supply chain. We made it through because of our incredible community.
They say comparison is the thief of joy. I had these grand business aspirations which kept taking me further and further away from my craft. I kept comparing my business with other women in my industry....but here is the big difference between me and them. They have design departments, a team that does all of that. EMMYDEVEAUX was me, the design side of our business wasn't something that I could give up or something I even wanted to give up.
I started to burn out hard and to make it worse we were about to embark on some of our biggest challenges yet starting with a flood in our head office. I then faced two years of serious hard times in the business, we were still performing well and trying to innovate but everything I added kept falling back on me.
I was handling so much my life started to really suffer. Then in December, we were hit extremely hard during the Canada Post strike and lost about $200,000 which as a retailer the holiday season is critical to operations. I knew I had to make drastic change in January 2025.
It was at this time that I admitted defeat that I just couldn't go on, the people close to me were worried for my health and watching me fall apart.
I announced the closure of our business in March 2025.
Since then so much has happened. I have had a lot of time to think and recover. I know I love being a designer and I love creating and I don't want that to stop. We are back in a small way and will be keeping it that way. Our expenses are low, our operation is streamlined and now I am going to get to design again.
I have learned a TON about this business yes but more about myself and I have all of you to thank for that. Your support and your willingness to see us through the ups and downs over the last 7 years is incredibly inspiring.
Tomorrow I will head to Las Vegas to get re-inspired and to see not only some of our manufacturers but to meet others and see what else we can create.
There is still so much to tell, I will wait for another story time. Happy Sunday!
Love you all,
Emily Salsbury-Deveaux
