Today we’d like to introduce you to Irma Martinez.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I moved to the States when I was 18, and I came without a word of English. While I was attending college in Pensacola, I was going to school during the day, then working as a waitress at night and at a boutique on the weekends. It was hectic! But I loved it. I was doing that seven days a week for a long time, so I got used to this nonstop type of life.
While working at the boutique, I knew that to make a bigger commission, I had to sell more items, so I started to put together outfits just to make more sales. Soon, the store asked me to start doing the windows, and customers would buy the outfit exactly as it was shown. Eventually the company asked me to travel all around the States to do that. Around that time, artists and actors would come to me at the boutique and ask what to wear for a particular scene or event. I started styling without knowing it.
An artist asked me to join her on tour for 10 months. I didn’t stop—I had one day off in 10 months, which meant I didn’t get to see my boyfriend, now my husband, much at all, and that was very hard. I realized that the tour life wasn’t the life for me, so I pestered a TV producer I’d met until he gave me a job in the station’s PR department, and later, I convinced him to let me start a styling department for them.
Four years later, the television station laid me off one day. I had just had a baby—I had insurance and all those benefits, and then all of a sudden, I was out of a job. I started calling people I met through my network and told them that I was working on my own, and that was the foundation of Trendy. A first, I would work for very little: Once, a producer called me and I did a commercial for five days for just $100. They totally took advantage of me, and I said yes because I wanted to build my book. After a while, I was introduced to one of my first clients who would go on to become a big recording artist, and that’s part of the reason I am where I am today.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I had to learn to be a boss. It was very hard for me to delegate; it took me forever to learn because I never felt that anybody was going to do enough. I sent girls to set and was constantly texting and asking them to send me a picture. I drove them crazy because I wanted to control everything. Then I realized that the only way for me to grow and have a company was to trust the girls I put in there and to trust that I trained them well.
I’m also terrible with finances! I’m really good with knowing how much I should charge, but that’s it. I don’t know how to do a budget or anything. My husband taught me how to be organized, and made me think about how many hours I spent on a job and how much money that job paid to determine if it was really worth it. My husband knows I’m very determined, and he was always my best supporter. He and I would stay up late at night invoicing and going through my expenses. When he decided to leave his job to help me and be with the kids more, my company immediately started growing. For 15 years, we worked together and built our company in a very professional way. He took this creative bomb and made this really structured company. I owe it all to him. He really was my best partner.
Please tell us about Trendy Group.
Trendy Group. is a Miami-based 360 fashion and production services company focused in the fashion, entertainment and lifestyle industries Our services include image styling and wardrobe support, production & event support services as well as a fashion showroom to promote emerging talent.
We recently released a styling guide called El Manual Del Estilista and opened a styling school called Trendy Academy, with the aim to train the future generation of stylists with our “Trendy system.”
Since 2007, we set a goal to position Irma as the top fashion stylist and style expert in the Latino market and start developing her brand. Because of her track record and hands-on work with the top celebrities and brands in the Hispanic market, Irma has developed unmatched credibility and status as the go-to style expert. Apart from her Stylist activities, Irma has worked as Style Expert with brands such as Target, Tide, Degree and today is the brand ambassador for the US Hispanic market for the “Try It, Love It” campaign by P&G and spokesperson for the Anglo and Hispanic markets for the luxury jewelry brand Birks & Mayors, and recently was named a part of Activia’s “It Starts Inside” campaign celebrating female trailblazers making a mark in their fields.
Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
When I was a child in Cartagena, Colombia, my mom would always take me with her to the fabric store to buy materials for dresses she would make for her 5 daughters. I remember feeling in heaven in that store, seeing and touching all the patterns and textures. She had a sewing machine in her bedroom and while she worked on our dresses, I would sit on the floor using fabric cuts to make my own dresses for my dolls. I would use pins to fit the fabric on the dolls, and make my own creations, without knowing that one day I would dedicate my life to that trade.
Contact Info:
- Address: 260 Crandon Blvd., Suite 32 # 84
Key Biscayne, FL 33149 - Website: www.trendygroup.com
- Phone: 305-438-4244
- Email: fashion@trendygroup.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/irmastyle/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/IrmaStyle/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/irmastyle
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/trendy-inc-miami
- Other: http://www.irmamartinez.com/
Image Credit:
Irma Martinez & William Levy for People en Español (Photo: Omar Cruz)
Pitbull (Photo: Courtesy Univision Network
Thalia for People en Español (Photo: Omar Cruz)
Carlos Vives got milk: (Photo: Omar Cruz)
People en Español Cover “Los Mas Bellos” (Photo: Omar Cruz)
People en Español Cover “Los Tres Amigos” (Photo: Omar Cruz)
Irma Martinez & Thalia (Photo Courtesy Getty Images)
Eva Longoria for People en Español (Photo: Omar Cruz)
Irma Martinez with Mannequins (Photo: Andres Henao)
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