How Luna Selene Was Born
Shoes. Human kind has been wearing them for nearly 40,000 years and yet only in recent generations have they evolved in to an outlet for self-expression.
As someone who grew-up during the hay-day of Sex and the City, my love for high heels knew no bounds. Like every other college girl in 2007, I believed the “higher the heels, the closer to God.” However, after a decade in the workforce, with my mid-thirties in frighteningly close sight, I noticed that every time I bought a new pair of shoes, the height of the heel was getting lower and lower.
“How do you even WALK in those shoes?!” middle-aged women would exclaim when I entered meetings. If they only knew that my closet was still filled with 5 inch stilettos.
The truth was, they had a point, though I still refused to throw in the towel on high heels. They made me feel powerful and sexy, making me feel like I was able to match men by being “up there” with the boys.
“Wouldn’t it be incredible to have a pair of heels that I can feel powerful in, while still looking sexy and sophisticated?” I thought to myself.
Then it came. The addiction. On a cold fall afternoon, the day before Thanksgiving 2018, I was hands-deep in stuffing when I decided to pop in one of my old Mad Men DVDs.
The show had been off the air for a few years and I had watched it here and there but had never gotten fully into it. Having received the first season as a gift eight years before, I had not even opened it.
I tore off the packaging and popped it in the player. The opening song started… that seductive tune of violins accompanied with a shadow of Don Draper falling from his Madison Avenue office, through a montage of All-American, classic advertisements.
My curiosity was peaked.
By the time the song came on for the second episode, I was hooked. The style of the early 60s captivated me. It was so glamorous, so chic and sophisticated. People knew how to DRESS. January Jones, Elizabeth Moss, Christina Hendricks; they all looked like they had just fallen out of a Lana Del Ray song, and I could not get enough.
THAT was the moment Luna Selene was born.
Flash forward to June 2020- the middle of the COVID-19 Pandemic. Like the rest of the world, I was struggling emotionally. Beyond blessed to still have my 9-5, I was writing resumes on the side and blogging about career, yet still something was missing.
I had started my career consulting side hustle to help other women advance professionally, as I had, but it was not enough. I wanted more.
I had listened to a career podcast a year before in which the host mentioned she wanted to eventually start her own career fashion line. Applying my makeup in the mirror, I mulled over how cool that would be and how some day I would like to do the same.
That day in June, I was searching for inspirational quotes to post on my Instagram page, when I stumbled upon a quote from Phil Knight, the founder of Nike.
“Play by the rules but be ferocious.”
I read this quote over and over again before going down the rabbit hole of Google, finding everything I could about the man who brought the world, “Just Do It.”
Suddenly, it hit me like a lightening bolt.
“I am going to start a shoe company for professional women!”
It didn’t matter that ¾ of the workforce was currently virtual. One day people were going to start trickling back to work and I was going to be there to help them.
I went back to my old episodes of Mad Men and began to work. These shoes were going to be sexy and retro. They were going to take women back in time, while moving them forward.
The name came as quickly as the idea itself. Luna Selene stemmed from my moonlighting side hustle. Selene, the goddess of the moon (Luna) was the perfect fit.
And the rest is history… or maybe just the beginning.
I believe a woman can do unstoppable things if she looks and feels her best, which is what inspired me to start Luna Selene. I want to create a true community where women can come together, while honing their feminine energy, bringing out all that is still beautiful in life.
Come with me on this journey and let's see what crazy, amazing things we can achieve.
Always With Love,
Shannon