An Interview With The Founder Of Souljourn Yoga

Jordan Ashley, the founder of Souljourn Yoga, first came up with the idea for her company at the age of 25, while feeling frustrated in a yoga class in New York City. She was discouraged by the lack of community within the studio; everyone seemed isolated alone on their mat: “There’s a massive disconnect between people who call themselves practitioners of yoga versus people who are living a yogic lifestyle of kindness, compassion, and service.” Ashley had just returned from living abroad in Southeast Asia, an experience that had her thoroughly convinced that there was more to yoga than just stretching and green juice. Two years (and one TED Talk later), Ashley would be running yoga retreats all over the planet to raise money for girls’ education and empowerment.

Souljourn Yoga is an NGO dedicated to building the cross-cultural connection she felt was so sorely missing that day in Manhattan. We caught up with this fearless entrepreneur to discuss career advice for breaking into the travel industry, as well as tips on maximizing both your yoga practice and your global perspective. The two go hand-in-hand, of course. “Yoga is more than standing on your hands and looking cute—it’s about being a warrior of change and rising to action by your own volition,” says Ashley. So rise up, read on, and prepare to feel inspired. After all you, you may not be able to rack up frequent flier miles while in quarantine, but you certainly can master your downward dog. Namaste.

It definitely was a journey, to say the least, and creating a charity that uses global yoga retreats to support female education and empowerment came from a place of frustration and disappointment from the local yoga community. There’s a massive disconnect between people who call themselves practitioners of yoga versus people who are living a yogic lifestyle of kindness, compassion, and service. And I think it’s so important to differentiate between the two. Yoga is more than standing on your hands and looking cute—it’s about being a warrior of change and rising to action by your own volition.

Texas’ Ranch Water Breaks Into The Hard Seltzer Market

“Ranch water” might not sound like a refreshing cocktail, but people in West Texas have been enjoying this drink as a way to cool off from the sweltering heat for a long time. The summertime beverage is typically made with tequila, Topo Chico and lime juice—with the option to add ice for a colder sip.

Katie Beal Brown and her family have been drinking ranch water on their Far West Texas ranch for as long as she can remember. The exact origins of the cocktail are unknown, but it’s rumored to be the creation of a rancher in West Texas in the 1960s. The spirit of the drink supposedly had him following the stars all the way from Fort Davis to Marathon. At the end of his journey, he was found asleep under a piñon tree.

Brown started Lone River Beverage Company in 2019 with the goal of offering something different in the hard seltzer category. According to her company, the hard seltzer brands that are currently available leave the consumer with few options beyond a “skinny can with fruity flavors.” Looking to provide a new alternative, the founder and CEO decided to sell ranch water in a can and make it approachable on all fronts: taste, price point and availability.

The product is also a celebration of her own heritage and West Texas, where her family settled generations ago. “When I think of people from West Texas, I think of no frills, get-the-job-done kind of people,” Brown said in a statement. “I think that's also what Lone River Ranch Water represents.”

Lone River is a blend of 100% organic agave nectar, natural key lime juice, a gluten-free alcohol base made from sugar and carbonated seltzer water. How does it compare to White Claw, the frontrunner of the hard seltzer category? In a 12-ounce can, the ranch water contains 85 calories, 3g carbs and 4% alcohol. A 12-ounce can of White Claw has 100 calories, 2g carbs and 5% alcohol, and comes in eight different fruit flavors. The lower-calorie White Claw, which debuted earlier this month with two flavors (pineapple and clementine), contains 70 calories, 0g carbs and 3.7% alcohol per 12-ounce can.

Fashion Retail Is Getting Ready To Reopen–And It Will Be ‘Weird’

New York’s Governor Andrew Cuomo hinted that we might possibly be able to open the Tri-State economy by the middle of May, when our lockdown is scheduled to lift.

This is a welcome and interesting turn of events, as it coincides with the anniversary of the last performance of P.T. Barnum’s “Greatest Show on Earth,” which was also held in New York - at the Nassau Coliseum May 21, 2017.

While the closing of the Circus may (or may not) be considered a date to anniversary, there is little doubt that the visual image of what we experienced for years in the world of retail, will no longer be the same. Performers inside and outside the arena will now be wearing masks. This may seem strange to all of us, but the future of retail will largely depend on how well the attendees perform.

All this anticipation brings us to the four basic questions that people are asking:

*When will we reopen?

*What will it look like?

*Will things be the same?

**The question of “what” retail will look like - will also be answered by the states in conjunction with individual retailers who will manage their own safety protocols. Several states have now mandated that face masks will be worn in public (in the absence of social distancing). Smaller retailers may require face masks, gloves and staggered spacing before entry. Some may even provide the face masks and gloves for their customers. In addition, malls and the larger stores may require temperature checks upon entry, which could also be helpful.

**The “will things be the same” question has a short answer – NO! Everything will not be the same (at least in the short term). Safety will sit in front of sales until we receive an all-clear that there is a vaccine or method of treatment for covid-19. There is too much risk in post mitigation to be careless, and we will all will continue to fear resurgence. The future operation of retail will follow the mantra “safe before sale.”

**Technology (likely advanced by Apple or Google) will help with our safety. Several apps will be available to help us. Hard to say whether the technology will use Bluetooth or GPS, but contact tracing will be in play. In China they are using a phone app that lets you know if you are near someone that poses a danger. While this is clearly an invasion of privacy, it just may be a tool that saves your life. There are apps for tracing, for tracking, and there are apps that give you a warning light for risk of exposure to another person. Red color may mean that you need to quarantine for 14 days, Yellow for 7 days, and green would be all clear. It is likely that when more testing is available for all of us, it may even be a requirement that your test and your app are linked.

As we wander through our current crisis, we all know that retail has been struggling for the last few years. The coronavirus pandemic has hastened its evolution.

*In 2017 we had more bankruptcies that we did in 2008.

*In 2018, we lost more than 100 million square feet of retail selling space.

*In 2019 we had more announced store closures in the first 4 months, than we did in all of 2018.

*In 2020 we are projecting more than double the number of store closures than we had in 2019.

On top of all that, if the liquidity crunch gets too great, or the time span takes too long, retail may have more bankruptcies in 2020 than we can possibly imagine. Some of the biggest brand and retail names, will never be seen or heard from again. On a brighter note, some of these great names will survive and be healthier because they have gone through the bankruptcy process.

Rest assured, this is just honest commentary and not meant to be doom and gloom. All this change is just an abrupt advancement of serious issues that have confronted us for years. Ultimately, we will emerge from coronavirus stronger - with a better handle on how to deal with the millennial consumer, and the marriage of e-commerce with brick and mortar. Likely, we will quickly learn the dance of protective shopping coupled with social distancing.

Looking forward, it is entirely possible that:

*All store personnel will wear masks and gloves

*All store personnel will have a temperature check before work

*Entrance to stores will be limited and a security guard will check your temperature as you enter.

*A flat screen TV will appear above the entrance door to measure store density. It may look like the screens that currently appear in parking garages showing how many spaces are available. If the store is too crowded, you will have to wait outside.

While these changes may appear weird, they will help us get back to work and the end-result is safety for everyone. 

GALLAKJOLER

One can easily imagine what this looks like in the real world we live in. Think about putting on your face mask and heading to an upscale Manhattan store to return an expensive sweater that you bought (on-sale) in February.

You walk to the store and find the salesperson who had graciously helped with the purchase several weeks ago. The return is abruptly rejected (in curt NY style). The salesman says that the sweater was purchased too long ago, the weather was now warm, nobody wants a heavy sweater in the summer, the design is dated, and there was no way he is going to refund the purchase.

You remind him that his store was closed for coronavirus, and no earlier return was possible. He barks back that we need to be more respectful of the store’s situation. The confrontation turns ugly and the discussion becomes heated.

How Fashion In Hollywood Benefits From Diversity

You don't have to be a red carpet maven to know that fashion and Hollywood are deeply interconnected. While movies certainly reflect and popularize the fashions of their time, film can shape the fashion world as well. From urbanite women donning menswear after watching Diane Keaton in Annie Hall to fans of 2018's Black Panther driving interest in Afro-futuristic clothing, fashion has always shaped movies. In other words, what happens in Hollywood will have a ripple effect across the fashion industry, touching both high-end catwalk models and ordinary shoppers.

Unfortunately, the lack of diversity has a domino effect that reaches the fashion industry. Attorney April Reign famously coined the #OscarsSoWhite hashtag in 2015 in reaction to the Academy picking all-white nominees for all major acting Oscars two years in a row. In short, have things gotten better since then? Some gaps are closing; people of color make up about 40% of the U.S. population and landed about 28% of lead acting roles in 2019 blockbusters, which is an improvement in relation to previous years'. However, these heartening statistics shouldn't distract from how far there is to go.

Recently. UCLA's 2020 Hollywood Diversity Report concluded that Hollywood still hasn't demonstrated the “fundamental structural change” required for true equality. Behind-the-camera and executive roles are still overwhelmingly white and male. Directors of 2019 blockbusters were only 15.1% women and 14.4% minorities, while writing credits were 17.4% female and 13.9% people of color. Of the eleven major studios UCLA studied, 91% of C-level executives were white, and 82% were male. These authority figures have an outsized influence on how business gets done in Hollywood, perpetuating a film industry where women and people of color get paid drastically less than their white male co-stars and actors.

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A Slow Fashion Brand Celebrating Asian Women

Natasha Sumant was working as a freelance art director in New York when she started exploring South Asian feminism.

"I found that there was a hole in the market and nothing was really speaking to us," Sumant, who is 28, tells Forbes.com.

Gundi is a Hindi expression used for women who aren't considered ladylike—or for female thugs.

"Gundi Studios is a progressive brand that celebrates outspoken South Asian womxn in motherland and diaspora," Sumant explains. "Gundi is the Hindi word for female-thug or gangsta, a colloquialism used to describe girls who misbehave. The brand was founded in response to the lack of representation in media of assertive and independent South Asian women."

Sumant had designed a piece of typography reading "Gundi" and had embroidered it onto a patch, and featured the patch on fashion shoots, which gained traction on social media.

"They really resonated with people, so I started selling the patches to others to pin onto their clothing and claim the word Gundi for themselves too.

"I started buying up vintage jackets and selling those with the patches pre-pinned. When I realized that people preferred buying the jackets over the patches alone, I decided to launch a collection that would enable people to wear their values. I moved back to India in 2018 to design our first collection, and build out our supply chain."

Gundi Studios' products are handmade in India, and clothes are produced in small batches. Sumant's hope is to turn the fast fashion industry on its head, by not just producing clothing, but also running a media outlet on the brand's site, which includes producing short narrative films.

"Our streetwear is created in a women-led supply chain, and our media addresses issues related to gender and postcolonialism. Women are often victims of the fast fashion industry on both the demand and supply side—advertising regularly plays off female insecurities to generate demand for products made by disenfranchised (and often female and South-Asian) garment workers.

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"Our clothes are made to last by a small and dedicated team of artisans, embroiderers and tailors based in India."

The studio uses aari, zari and cut dana techniques which are traditionally used on sarees and burkhas, but brings them into the modern day with streetwear-inspired styles.

Sumant said her company's target audience is similar to that of NorblackNorWhite and Brother Vellies, who both merge design with sustainability and traditional techniques. "But we talk to the South Asian market in a way that is very different to others," she adds. "Our campaigns and content speak to a market of underground South Asian diaspora. We make streetwear that takes sustainability, and traditional craft techniques into consideration and our supply chain is womxn led and womxn run."

Sumant's biggest challenge has been creating an ethical supply chain and employing South Asian women at "every level" of the business.

She says there are "real systemic problems" within the garment industry in India and while it's quite easy to find a factory that will make anything for you, it is hard to find ethical spaces.

"In India, on the factory floor womxn often occupy lower positions of hand embroidering, hand sewing or using machines. Pattern cutters are almost always men. Embroiderers that can do our signature zari embroidery work are almost always men, so it was a challenge finding skilled women who could execute our designs."

The types of embroidery the company uses require long stretches of uninterrupted time, which Sumant says explains why it is often the domain of male artists who have fewer responsibilities at home, and therefore more time to invest.

After dedicating most of 2019 to finding ethical partners, Sumant can now say her supply chain is "100% womxn led and womxn run".

The collection and feminist artwork has already hit Mumbai, New York and London, and going forward Sumant hopes to continue growing her audience.

"We'd like to get more of our pieces into consumer's hands so that we can provide the women working at our production partners with as much meaningful work as possible.

"We're also going to keep making work that uses eastern craft techniques and recontextualises South Asian art forms into genres and styles that can be seen across fashion and not just the "ethnic" section of Anthropologie stores and Free People."