WRITTEN BY MACKENZIE RAFFERTY PHOTOGRAPHY BY NAOHMI MONROE
California girl, DANIELLE NAGEL, is a fashion mogul and female entrepreneur inspiring and empowering women on a day-today basis. Nagel, as an artist, business owner and creative mastermind, has cultivated a community and network to help her in her mission to empower young women. Nagel’s portfolio of projects and businesses are: an art apparel line, Dazey La; Dazey Zine, a blog space to promote female entrepreneurs; Dazey Lady Shop, a section on the website to shop their products; and Biz Babez, her second company which is a female co-working space in LA made for collaboration and women-fueled creativity. Fashion has always been a large part of her life. She started designing when she was extremely young – and I mean very young, baby doll clothing young. Later, fashion morphed into a form a self-expression during her shy and awkward middleschool years. This admiration for fashion followed Nagel into her professional life with the creation of Dazey LA. Dazey LA is Nagel’s art apparel line that focuses on the mission of women empowerment. Dazey LA had humble and simple beginnings. Nagel started the line by adorning shirts with positive, feminist slogans to remind the wearer, “Hey, you’re awesome and you got this.” Dazey LA launched right around the same time as the Instagram Story feature came out. On the first day, she showcased her entire design process from start to finish on the Instagram Story feature and it immediately sparked conversation among fellow female entrepreneurs.
92
Dazey LA, as a clothing line, is really inspired by the life and environment of California. Being a Cali-based girl, she is extremely inspired by her home-town landscape. Nagel loves gathering inspiration by walking around the “beautiful, dirty, diverse, and creative city” of LA. On top of the awesome California-laid back vibe of the clothing line, there’s also a large environmental inspiration and component behind the line. When someone purchases from Dazey, she noted, they’re supporting “small businesses, female entrepreneurship, ethically made goods, locally made goods, and furthering the slow fashion movement.” Dazey is a stark opposite of the fastfashion of today. Dazey Tee’s are hand printed and sewn right in LA by somebody being paid fair and ethical wages working in a safe, clean, and creative environment. Every year fast fashion leads to mass amounts of materials and clothing being left in landfills. Nagel aims to change that environmental nightmare– “It’s not a very common practice, and we want to lead the way.” In response to the conversation sparked by her apparel line, Nagel launched the Dazey Zine. The Zine is an online blog space online “where we shoot, promote, and interview fellow female entrepreneurs.” The Zine created a space to celebrate female empowerment, success, and drive through a creative and exciting platform. Through her business pursuits, Nagel aimed to break down the stereotype of competitive women working against each other. Instead, she aimed to cultivate a culture of collaboration, mutual support, and female teamwork.
