Today we’d like to introduce you to Dasonj Smith.
Dasonj, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
Hello everyone! My name is Dasonj Alexia Smith, and I was born in Montego-Bay, Jamaica, to a Chinese/Jamaican mother, and an Indian/Jamaican father. Even though I only spent the first ten years of my life in Jamaica before relocating to South Florida — it’s where I call home and where my love and true appreciation for the Fine Arts started. Growing up there, I remember going to the craft markets with my maternal grandmother and seeing nothing but vibrant colors, an array of patterns/designs, and beautiful smiling faces all around me. There were endless selections of hand-made clothing, footwear, accessories, jewelries, paintings, and lots more! That is when I decided what I wanted to do with the rest of my life, bringing smiles to the people around me by creating something just as beautiful.
Being from a Caribbean background, children are taught to aim for the stars, in anything they do, especially in choosing a “successful” career path. To anyone else, that might’ve meant choosing a career in law or the medical field. However, at an early age, I came to terms with the fact that success to me meant complete and utter happiness and satisfaction in whichever career path I chose for myself which I later deemed a Fashion Designer.
Ever since I was a child, I preferred coloring books over dolls for presents, playing “dress-up” more than playing outside with my friends, and sewing my own clothes, instead of shopping for new ones. Anything that had to do with creating a new product, sign me up! My decision to pursue a career in the Fashion industry started when I took all three fashion courses my high school had to offer my freshman, sophomore, and junior year. Upon completion, I received a scholarship to put towards my college education. I graduated from Charles W Flanagan (Pembroke Pines, FL) in 2014 and was accepted into Savannah College of Art and Design (Savannah, Georgia) shortly after. However, due to circumstances that were out of my control, I later decided to further my education at the International Academy of Design and Technology in Tampa, FL.
At 19 years old, at the ending of 2014, I moved to Tampa, FL, leaving everything I’ve known to start a new life. Attending college meant my own place, my first job, and lots of opportunities to come. Living on my own has granted me independence, taught me the importance of budgeting, and gave me the chance to grow as an individual. Working as many as three jobs at a time, while being a full-time student was overwhelming and definitely straining. However, I gained lots of experience and learned valuable lessons that a classroom itself couldn’t have taught me.
Along with the many hats I’ve worn during my college career (Tutor, Librarian, Sale Associate, Visual Merchandiser, and Customer Service Rep) I also attended and volunteered at fashion shows to later creating a garment for one! A college pal and fellow designer, Tiffany Christine, referred me to Gamalier Calderon, the Creative Director of “House of Gam” to collaborate. For his Fashion Show, “Flora” hosted by Miguel and Holly from Hot 101.5, I created a vinyl raincoat, modeled by Paola Cristal Perez. Accompanied by my friend Tiffany, we witnessed my creation being walked down a runway and being publicly acknowledged by Gam during his closing speech, a feeling I will never forget.
Upon the last few months of my college career, I interned as a production assistant for one of Miami’s well-renowned couturiers, Ema Savahl, where I assisted with client fittings, photoshoots, and content creation for the brand’s website. I also had the once in a lifetime opportunity to be taught by Ema Savahl herself on how she manually grades her patterns. This is a method used to turn a base size into additional sizes for a spec sheet, in other words, how small, medium, large, etc. are made possible in a design, a method I learned how to do digitally as well in class.
I graduated College in the fall of 2017 at the top of my class, where I received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Fashion Design, completing four years of college in three. Upon completion of my degree, I temporarily moved back home to Pembroke Pines, FL, where my family and childhood friends were. However, after Tampa, FL, being my home for the past three years (six years, currently), I found it harder to say goodbye to my life there. After a few months back in Pembroke Pines, I gave my final farewells and I relocated back to Tampa. I took a well-needed hiatus before receiving my first industry job as a Visual Merchandiser for the Forever 21 brand.
I oversaw the styling, processing, and placement of merchandise, to ensure it is aesthetically pleasing to standard. Also, ensured Maximum productivity, profitability, operational excellence, and compliance with company procedures. A little over a year later, I was promoted to Lead of Merchandising, where I trained and directed associates on merchandise presentation, shipment processing, and visual techniques. Partnered with fellow managers to ensure the product is adjusted based on selling, inventory, and merchandising reports, and Lead overall store earnings by driving top-line sales and act as Leader-on-Duty and opening/closing Manager as needed.
Even though I loved everything about my career, my coworkers, connections I’ve made, the environment, the overall learning experience, I eventually came to terms that I wanted more for my myself. I wanted to allocate my time between something I’m equally as passionate and happy about doing for the rest of my life. For me, that meant bringing life to my company, alex and Dáj. (@alexdaj.co on Instagram) The name is derived from my first name “Dasonj” given by my father and middle name “Alexia” given by my mother.
What started out as a classroom project in March of 2017, is now a company where Fashion Design meets philanthropy. My ultimate goal in life is to have the ability to give back to my community and ultimately worldwide to those who aren’t as fortunate or presented with opportunities that others have in order to live a fruitful life. Although designing is my passion, it isn’t my purpose, figuring out a way to merge the two, alex and Dáj was created.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Easy? Not at all. If anything, it has been an adventure filled with ups and downs, and more no’s than yes’, but I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way. My resilience truly comes from my experiences and the lessons I’ve learned thus far. As far as struggles? haha, how much time do we have again?
I would say my top three would have to be leaving school due to a change in living arrangements, with only two weeks remaining in the semester, coming back only to find out I have to restart the entire ten weeks. As well as being a full-time student while working before and after class AND overnights getting as little as 3-5 hours of sleep. Oh and let’s not forget the countless car accidents, totaling a few, one of them being my brand new car catching on fire while leaving work on my way to class (don’t worry, I made it across the street just in time before it went up into flames).
Having to go through all of that, I would have to say my main struggle was staying motivated through it all. Creatives don’t talk enough about the BTS, the wanting to do what we love all the time but not having to energy to. Those who are on the outside majority of the time only see our talents and would question why we’re not always putting it to use and not taking advantage of opportunities. However, what they don’t understand is that yes we have the talent but the most important aspect is our willpower and our vulnerability. We’re our main and biggest critics. We see a lot more than others and being natural perfectionists and valuing quality over quantity. True creatives will go through those phases where it is equally as exhausting as it is empowering to do our type of work.
What got me through literally all of my struggles is my relationship with my mother, Elaine, and my older sister, Melisa. I would always praise them for their ability to get me out of the darkest places and speaking life and love back into me when I feel like it’s too difficult to do it on my own. Most importantly, I owe it all to my faith. I strongly believe in having something to believe in and the power of prayer. From an early age, my Grandmother, Harriett, has instilled in me practicing prayer before everything that I do. Before bed, after waking up, a car ride, a new job, a new home, meeting new people, going new places, and most importantly to always give thanks afterwards even when I’ve received all that I’ve asked for, sometimes more or less, to always show my appreciation in the form of a prayer.
We’d love to hear more about alex and Dáj.
alex and Dáj mission is to empower those who are willing to make a change for the greater good. Built on love, and unity, alex and Dáj vow to give a voice to the voiceless, a platform for all creatives, and a community that promotes overall wellness. Yes, I’m a designer and I’m very passionate about my work, but like I said, it isn’t my only purpose in life. It brings me a much greater joy to help others to live their life with genuine intentions and by paying it forward. For my company, it’s through donating to charities/foundations that share our values and/or curating volunteer opportunities for others to do the same.
Our first venture as a company is our apparel collection set to launch in Autumn/Winter of 2020. We will produce a run of RTW pieces in addition to our main focus of producing made-to-order/fit items. We want to ensure each individual item gets the attention it needs in order to produce high-quality products that are of great satisfaction. A portion of the proceeds from our launch collection and ones to follow will be donated.
In the meantime, I’m known mostly for my work as a Freelance Designer. I create garments for clients for any occasion — photoshoots, birthdays, wedding attire, and staple pieces to wear when they travel. I design and construct anything from swimwear, loungewear, sportswear, and evening-wear. In addition, I also hand-sew cloth masks. What started out as a donation to my aunts hospital in Canada, turned into a business venture. It’s my way of doing my part due to COVID-19. In just four months, I’ve created, donated and sold over 200+ cloth masks.
What I am most proud of about alex and Dáj is our core values. Wanting to create a company built on love, unity, and community means more to me than all the money in the world. The reviews that I receive from clients are priceless, having them return and bringing referrals with them are unmatched, and being able to do what I love, having something to call my own, while helping others in the process? I don’t have the words. Where I am today is the happiest I’ve been in a very long time, and I owe most of that to my company.
What sets me apart of others is wanting more out of life than wanting to be rich and famous. I could care less about being known and having all the money desired. What I truly value are peace of mind, living intentionally, experiencing life instead of just surviving it, and the legacy I will leave behind for my future children me their children to come.
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
I wouldn’t only consider it luck. In a positive light, I would say I’ve been blessed in numerous ways. I get to wake up everyday doing what I love. I have an amazing support system of family, a tight-knit village of friends, and a partner who exemplifies what it means to truly love unconditionally.
In contrast, I’ve had my fair share of “bad luck.” There was a time in my life where I believed nothing was going right or how I hoped. I felt like I was always in haste and never truly working on my own time. I wanted things for myself that wasn’t in the cards for me but I ultimately never let it keep me down or distracted from the bigger picture — if it’s meant for me, it’ll be mine. Business-wise, I would have to say my good luck is having a platform such as social media, to showcase and promote my work even before having an official website for my clients to utilize. In addition to being my own “customer service”, making myself available 24/7 generally by direct message, email and even by text/call.
Contact Info:
- Email: alex.daj@yahoo.com
- Instagram: @alexdaj.co @jahmaicanese_
- Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/alexdaj.co
Image Credit:
“Personal Photo” taken by Brittany Taliaferro @_btaliaferro_
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