Alumni in Focus
Paula Mattisonsierra

Running Her Own Clothing Company

FIDM grad Paula Mattisonsierra had a lot of practice before launching the maternity wear company, Maximum Mama Maternity. Her mother was a couture-quality seamstress, and everyone in the family was involved, but Paula was too young to operate the sewing machines. “My thing was interacting with customers, sketching, figuring out what they wanted.” When her first sister needed maternity clothes, Paula stepped in, and continued to help her sisters and sisters-in-law through all of their 13 pregnancies. “I always knew that I wanted to start a business, even back then,” remembers Paula, a Jamaica native who came to the U.S. at age 16.

After moving to San Francisco, it became time for Paula to follow her dream. She heard of FIDM through word-of-mouth -- a friend of hers who was a Fashion Designer had used interns from FIDM and was very impressed with the school. “I had an interview, took the tour, and they were great. I had a lot of questions and they were great with that. One thing that really hit me was their focus on the industry. The school was focused on fashion, which was unlike any other school in the area.”

Paula chose to major in Merchandise Product Development. “I loved the classes, because they were really focused on what I wanted to do, with real-world experience. And I loved the teachers, and the fact that a lot of them had very current work experience,” she remembers. “I knew what it was like to make one garment, but for me the thing I was looking for was producing one hundred, or one thousand.” At FIDM, she took the advice of an instructor to go into a clothing category that made sense for Paula personally. Maternity was the logical fit.

“My favorite thing [about being an entrepreneur] is interacting with my customers, and sitting down to put the project together, because I have such an intimate knowledge of who the customer is,” she says. Today, Paula oversees the designing, sales, accounting, marketing and publicity. When she first assembled the line of maternity fashions, the FIDM Merchandise Product Development department helped her edit ideas and gave input on her costing structure. Paula advises budding entrepreneurs to ”start applying for some internships. You have the opportunity while you’re in school to completely embrace knowledge, and you should.” 

For this successful business owner, FIDM played a large role in putting her dreams into action. She opened a Maximum Mama Maternity retail store in San Francisco, where the entire collection, from dresses and skirts to pants and intimates, are sold. Paula is also an instructor at FIDM, where she passes on her industry experience and expertise to future generations of FIDM graduates.

Please visit www.maximummamamaternity.com to learn more.

 

Please Note: The information contained herein was confirmed at the time of original publication