Daily Inspiration: Meet Missy Champlain

Today we’d like to introduce you to Missy Champlain.

Hi missy, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Champlain Couture got it’s start in the rave scene. I never really fit in anywhere else until I heard that heart thumping beat, felt those welcoming hugs from strangers, and saw eye candy everywhere. I couldn’t stop staring at the club kids and the fabulous makeup, so much so that I got up enough courage to ask the most brilliant looking raver just where in the world did they get their outfit from? When her answer was, “I made it” something exploded inside of my head. I just couldn’t believe one could do something like that, even though I grew up pretty crafty. I couldn’t stop thinking about it. There was a Halloween rave that influenced this new desire to create a costume and that’s just what I did. My first dress was made out of Astro-turf and interactive toys. I was a flower. I also started out making outfits for others immediately as that wasn’t the only thing I made for that rave. I also made Snuggle Bear. My first male outfit. These costumes made me feel like a million bucks. Never had I even been showered with so many compliments and the acceptance I felt, healed so many broken parts of rejection and heartbreak that it became everything to me. First it was one free outfit, then it was 4, then it was 10, and next thing I knew I had my own little Gogo posse of models and dancers. We would go to parties, all coordinated, and the love was abundant.

Everything just kinda grew from there. I did my first fashion show in Pueblo, CO, where I grew up, and that began an obsession for showcasing outfits that has manifested into what it is today. Everything I do is free, and I don’t involve money in this fashion designing journey I’m on. I have given away thousands of pieces and I mainly try to raise money for different non profit organizations. This is what I stand for. God gave me a wonderful gift, passed on from my Maternal Grandmother, and it’s a gift I give to others. The joy that flows from this mindset keeps me afloat in the day to day rigmarole that life can be sometimes.

Champlain Couture is about fashion with a loving purpose. It’s all inclusive, always unique to the model, and always free. I do not use patterns or even know how to. Everything is made and given to the model to show off. I do not sell clothes, I sale shows.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Honestly, if it wasn’t for models flaking or their bad attitudes, the road would not be too bumpy at all. The hardest struggle can be the peopling. I’m very socially awkward and I don’t have a lot of patience for mean behaviors, which can trigger a fight/flight response that I don’t get to wish away. Sometimes when you make a vain person upset, they will really try to destroy you via social media, and I think that is the hardest thing to deal with when you sacrifice so much. I’m learning how to roll with the punches though <3

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I am actually mentally disabled. It is embarrassing for me to admit because you cant see my disability. I have OCD, BI-Polar, PTSD, Panic Disorder. I take a myriad of medicines to combat this and I attribute a lot of my success to the hard work that comes with therapy and responsibility for mental health. If you look closely you can see my need for cohesive collections and how beneficial it has been to steer myself into something that makes these hardships work with me. I have a very specific process I use to sew and create with that channels my OCD and anxiety in a positive and healthy manner. There is just something magical and soothing for me when it comes to creating outfits.

I am most proud of my children. I have 5 and they are absolutely amazing people. They are very supportive of my work, even if a few of them are too shy to be in fashion shows, they all let me dress them up. I have tried to raise them in the Christian faith, minus all the hateful stuff.

What sets me apart from others is not only the non profit way I do things, but my style to dress up models from head to toe. My leg things really are like a signature too.

Let’s talk about our city – what do you love? What do you not love?
Denver has always been a place of magic for me. It welcomed me when my own city thought I was weird, it showcases my work in the most phenomenal of ways, and it holds some of the most amazing models I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with.

The only thing I don’t like is the drive. I get a bit paranoid at the distant driving stuff but it’s worth the reward of being in a place where dreams come true.

Pricing:

• FREE

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/missychamplain
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/missy.champlain.27