Meet Meghan Hogrefe: Fashion Designer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Meghan Hogrefe and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Meghan, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
I started Work in Process clothing line because I was looking for ease after working out, mainly surfing in the morning before work at the time. I needed clothing that was professional looking yet resilient to the factors of my lifestyle such sand, salt, seaweed, sweat! I also needed a clothing line that was easy to get into when getting out of a wetsuit and or sweaty work out clothing! I looked at so many luxury brands and department stores, at the time, 2016/17 there was not many choices that could bring me to the level of corporate dress. That is when I decided I would solve my own problem. I started seeking material that was reliant and I thought why not material that is similar to wetsuits. After so much searching I found a neoprene blend that was not only resilient yet super smooth and flattering. Thus Work in Process was born! As a nod to my inspiration of the surf industry, I created a dainty and pretty pull zipper for all my dresses. Similar to a wetsuit, you can pull the back of the dress to zip it up with a pretty ribbon of my logo! It is efficiently elegant

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
Gosh, my career has taken so many different avenues of experience. I would say that what I am most proud of is being able to identify what was NOT the fit for me. I think there were jobs that I worked in that were passions because I made them become passions however they weren’t jobs that I woke up and thought “ wow, I am so excited to do this”. It was a perfunctory passion, if that could even make sense. Or maybe, as I answer this, I realize that passion is not the right word. I committed to work at these jobs and work to the best of my ability. However, we all know that your ability is uncapped when you have passion. Once I started to work on my own business in an industry that I knew absolutely nothing about, my passion grew and I found myself feeling very very fulfilled daily. What I have learned most recently in the last few years is to listen. Listen to advice and to feedback, because no one would share those things with you if they didn’t care and didn’t have your best interests at heart. I also learned that you need to collaborate as much as you can that makes sense for your business. I have found such inspiration and motivation from people that I have collaborated with. They have so much to educate and teach me and hopefully in turn, I do the same for them. The biggest challenge I have is that just because I have a dream or have a story of how I came to launch my line, it doesn’t necessarily need to resonate with everyone. What I really want to do with my clothing line is communicate to my perspective shoppers that I want them to feel good in my clothes. Feel confident and happy and overall comfortable. That’s all I really want! Its a challenge when you compete with fast fashion and established brands. What makes me competitive and unique or desirable? I think that is the $Million dollar question that hopefully resilience in this industry will give me the answer someday! Overall, I am just proud that I was able to create a clothing line that helped solve a problem for me. I hope that it can help others however at the same time, maybe my story will enable others to go after their dreams too!

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
OMGoodness, if I had to put together a “must do” list for guests I would say that for eating ( which is what I love to do, total foodie at heart), dinner, especially happy hour, Costa Brava on Garnett Ave in Pacific Beach. You would never know it is there unless you were looking for it. Most amazing Spanish tapa, amazing wine and also incredible service. They are like family to me and my husband. We had our wedding reception there! Breakfast wise, I love going to The Fig Tree on Cass Street. So we would start the morning with a run or walk on the boardwalk in Pacific Beach/Mission Beach, then we would head off to breakfast at The Fig Tree and then for an early dinner head over to Costa Brava. Next, I would absolutely have to take my visitor to tacos! The place I love is Oscars, it is sooo San Diego! From a true, must see, must do, I would have to say, rent a surfboard or paddle board and get yourself in the water! If you do anything, at least get your feet into the water. A secret love of sweets, I would have to bring them for a sweet delight to Sugar and Scribe, they have an amazing array of sweets but also, if in Lajolla, I highly recommend their brunch. Now with covid, I think just feeding my sweet tooth is satisfying enough! I think for the most part, without sounding like a commercial or influencer, the places to go are always so specific to where you are staying in San Diego. Any opportunity to head into Balboa Park and do that walk is always amazing. North Park has incredible restaurants, downtown San Diego has so many new breweries and Little Italy , anywhere, you can’t go wrong!
The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Gosh, the inspiration would be my fellow runners and surfers who spent early mornings with me getting ready for work at our cars! Truly, the ability and support to do this goes directly to my husband, my Scientist, my best friend. He really believed in this idea and said lets go for it! We knew that it would be a side hustle for a few years since we have a business /start up real estate development company that we started in 2016. So overall, we work together on our real estate development and then when I have any downtown, he supports me on Work in Process! All of the clothing has the middle names of all the people I know and love in my family or extended family and friends. For example, the A dress in particular is my mom’s middle name initial as well as the Flossie dress is my grandmother’s nickname. Another name that is sentimental is the only pants in my line, called the Erin pants, which is my husbands daughter’s middle name! All these people are special to me and continue to support me on this risky journey!

Website: Www.workinprocessshop.com
Instagram: Workinprocessstyle
Linkedin: Meghan Hogrefe, Work in Process
Facebook: Work in Process
Other: I will be venturing into Podcasting sometime in 2021. This changed so much due to pandemic however I will be working on this. I don’t tweet, I tried but it was just so much with all the other means of social!

Image Credits
Matt Brookes