Professor uses her apparel expertise to teach TMD students
Elaine Grullón has a passion for both teaching and her apparel companies. Photo contributed by Elaine Grullon.
Elaine Grullón, a lecturer for the University of Rhode Island’s textiles, fashion merchandising and design (TMD) department, implements her first-hand experience of starting her own apparel companies in her classes.
Over the past 15 years, Grullón has founded multiple brick-and-mortar apparel stores in both Rhode Island and Florida, as well as an e-commerce business focused on children’s and women’s clothing, in addition to being a lecturer at URI. Her business, Elaine Grullón LLC, is run almost entirely by herself, where she oversees both the business and creative sides of her company.
Fifteen years ago, Grullón said that she saw a big need for a specific market for children’s wear around the same time as e-commerce was beginning to gain momentum.
“I wasn’t really committed to doing a brick-and-mortar store so I was really drawn to how e-commerce was just beginning to move forward,” Grullón said.
Many retailers were not taking advantage of e-commerce due to how new and unknown it was at the time, so Grullón was able to successfully start her e-commerce business.
After living in Florida, Grullón and her family decided it was time to return to Rhode Island, her family’s home, leading Grullón to start a brick-and-mortar store.
“When we left Florida and came to Rhode Island, I then opened a brick-and-mortar store with the e-commerce component,” Grullón said. “I said ‘I could never leave e-commerce’ because it’s really my field, and social media at that point was really booming.”
In the midst of running her brick-and-mortar and e-commerce apparel store, a teaching position opened at URI in the TMD department. Grullón had always loved teaching and applied for the position, getting hired soon after.
“I love to provide knowledge to empower others and to perfect themselves and find their directions and that is what gravitated me to URI,” Grullón said. “That was an interesting turn of events, going from studying the topic to practicing the topic to now teaching the topic.”
Grullón said that her teaching has become a passion and she has enjoyed teaching at URI.
“For me it’s not work, it’s actually fun so I think that’s what really defines the difference,” Grullón said. “I find what I do to be enjoyable because it’s a passion, I don’t do it for the money I do it for the passion and desire I have for the industry as a whole.”
In addition to providing students with firsthand knowledge on e-commerce and beginning one’s own business, Grullón also emphasises diversity in the fashion industry, which she tries to implement in her own work.
“One of my main focuses, in all of the collections that I’ve always shown is I’ve always included a sense of diversity,” Grullón said. “I like to show that my garments are really for everyone, every body and shape, every height, and I always try, especially when selecting my models, to select diverse and even in color as well because it is so important to represent that in the industry.”
Senior Christie Swanson who has taken classes with Grullón believes that she is a positive asset to URI’s TMD department.
“Grullón has a lot of great first hand knowledge she is able to provide students with and it’s inspiring to see someone who has made their way in the industry, doing a lot of the things that students such as myself want to do in the future,” Swanson said.
Grullón continues to run her apparel company as well as teach at URI. Her first-hand knowledge helps her students learn more about the fashion industry. Grullón encourages students to be innovators and forward thinkers in the industry, as well as following their passion.