Our Story

The journey of Ava&Ziva started almost 20 years ago. 

From my earliest memories of being a child and dreaming about the future, I dreamt of being a designer.

I would watch ‘Fashion Television’ with Jeanne Beker and would day dream about being on the other side of the screen.  I would practice my designer walk (the walk a designer takes at the end of a fashion show) up and down my parents’ hallway. I would imagine picking out fabrics, working with a team on design alterations, and being on set at photoshoots. 

I begged my mom to teach me how to sew and I quickly began designing and making my own patterns. As I kept sewing, the pull in my heart to start my own clothing company only grew stronger. 

 

Fast forward 14 years. It’s 2017, I have graduated university and am working a full-time job.

Now, not only do I think about starting a clothing company, I think about starting this clothing company. For years, I would day dream about what I want the brand to stand for, the type of clothes I want to make, the employees I would hire, the office we would inhabit, the stores we would open. The more I dreamed, the clearer the image got.

But I was too scared- I couldn’t even bring myself to even write it down in my journal, let alone share it with people, or take any action towards it. 

I tried so hard to suppress this dream. There were countless times that I would talk myself out of it. I would attempt to convince myself that I didn’t really want it, that I was happy doing something else, that there was another path for me. 

But the pull kept getting stronger. And no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t let go of this dream.

Then, one Tuesday night, after a beer and a burger- I told a friend about my clothing company. I shared that I thought about it everyday and I can envision so many aspects of it. 

She encouraged me to write it down. “Just call it ‘my crazy idea’ and write down what you want. You don’t have to act on it, just write it down.”

So I did. On Monday, May 27th, 2019 at 11:22 am, I opened a document on my computer, named it “My crazy idea.” And started typing.

Ava&Ziva vision in 2019

Again, years went by of dreaming about the company that I wanted to create and being too afraid to act. I would go through the cycle of convincing myself that I didn’t want to start it, just to have the voice come back louder and clearer.

And now here we are. 

There wasn’t a single moment that made the difference between fear and faith - in fact, I still experience both within any given week or at any given moment- instead, it was thousands of tiny steps, tears, encouraging words, and deep breaths. 

Throughout all of these years, my vision for Ava&Ziva and what it stands for has remained steady:

We are more powerful than we know. We are already exactly who we need to be in order to create everything we’ve ever wanted. We are already beautiful, smart, capable, worthy, loveable, enough, [insert what you desire here] and clothes can help bring that out in us.

I, Christa, and Ava&Ziva are evidence of this truth.

With my whole heart,
Christa