Three fall collections, one very well-timed mom introduction, and a lot we’ve learned along the way.
Two years ago, Abigail Collins officially became a company.
The idea started before that, over a drink in North Carolina during the holidays in 2022. My mom had been telling me for a while that I needed to meet her neighbor Katie. She had “a REALLY great idea” and, according to my mom, we just needed to talk.
Sometimes your mom is right.
Katie was a Penn State alumna and former swimmer who had spent years looking for collegiate clothing she actually wanted to wear. She loved the connection that came with wearing Penn State, but the options felt limited to graphic tees, hoodies, and silhouettes that didn’t reflect the way she dressed anymore.
Her question was pretty simple: Why couldn’t collegiate clothing for women feel as considered as the rest of their wardrobe?
I immediately understood what she saw. I had started my career in fashion before spending the next decade working in beauty and consumer brands, and the idea gave me the opportunity to flex that fashion muscle again. More importantly, there was a real problem to solve.
By January 2023, Katie and I were having weekly Zoom calls. In January 2024, we officially incorporated Abigail Collins. And that September, we launched our first fall collection.
Now, somehow, we’re on our third.
The idea hasn't really changed.
In one of our first interviews, we were asked who Abigail Collins was for.
Katie joked, “In a few words, Abigail Collins is for me.”
She wasn’t wrong.
We started this brand for women who wanted more from collegiate clothing. Pieces that could still create that instant connection to a place you love, without feeling like something you only pull out for a football game.
At the time, I described Abigail Collins as being for “women who want more than a graphic tee can offer.” Two years later, I think that still sums it up pretty well.
What has changed is how much we understand what that can look like.
It can be a silk scarf covered in hand-painted references to Happy Valley. A button-up you wear to work. A sweater with Penn State running quietly down the sleeve. A dress with pockets because, obviously. Pieces that say Penn State without having to shout it.
Three fall collections in, we’re still asking ourselves the same question we started with: Would she actually want to wear this?
If the answer isn't yes, it doesn't make the cut.
Turns out, starting a company is one giant trust fall.
That was another thing I said in our first interview, and I stand by it.
Katie and I were basically strangers when we decided to build a company together. We came to the table with very different professional backgrounds, lived on opposite sides of the country, and were both balancing careers alongside building Abigail Collins.
There has been a lot to learn.
Licensing was an education unto itself (with Katie doing, and continuing to do, all the heavy lifting!). Manufacturing brought another set of lessons. We learned how long things actually take, how often timelines change, and how many tiny decisions sit behind something that looks very simple by the time it reaches your closet.
We also learned how to be honest about where we need help, when one of us has more bandwidth than the other, and when the plan needs to change.
Our early motto, GO TEAM, started partly because I thought the sports reference was cheeky. But it became something more accurate than we probably realized at the time. This business has always been about Katie and me supporting each other, but also about the much larger community of women we’ve met while building it.
Three falls later.
Our first fall looked very different from this one.
Since then, we’ve watched our Penn State Silk Scarf sell out and come back again (and again, and again...). We’ve expanded our knitwear, created new silk, met customers in real life, worked with incredible American makers, and, this fall, brought Abigail Collins to the Penn State Bookstore. Not to mention, we were VIP's in the President's Suite last weekend! But that's for another post...
There are now pieces hanging in closets we will never see, being worn to offices, dinners, flights, tailgates, school drop-offs, football games, and probably a few places we never imagined when we started.
That part still feels pretty surreal.
And yet, for everything that has changed, I keep coming back to what Katie and I said in that first interview.
We wanted to make something women were excited to wear.
We wanted to build something that created connection.
And we wanted to go for it.
Leap before you look.
When we were first asked what advice we'd give other women thinking about starting something of their own, I talked about a poster I have from Black Mountain College that says LEAP BEFORE YOU LOOK.
I was quick to add that it shouldn't be taken too literally.
Be smart. Trust your gut. Ask for help. Never stop learning. But at some point, you have to go for it.
Two years later, I'd still give the same advice.
I'd probably just add that the leap doesn't happen once. You keep doing it. With every collection, every new idea, every problem you don't quite know how to solve yet.
Katie's answer at the time was similar: take the first step, surround yourself with people who believe in what you're building, and find people whose strengths complement your own.
It turns out we were giving ourselves pretty good advice.
We certainly don't have everything figured out two years in. I hope we never pretend that we do. But we have three fall collections behind us, a growing community around us, and a lot of ideas about what comes next.
Not bad for a drink with the neighbor my mom insisted I meet.
Here’s to year three!
Abby
