Alumni

Kelli Marie Riley Founder and CEO of Fashion Brand The Transition State

Kelli Marie Riley grew up locally in Long Beach, graduated from UCLA in 2009 and then FIDM in 2011 with her Merchandise Product Development Professional Designation Degree. She is the Founder and CEO of Transition State.

Tell us about your line, Transition State: We believe in personal style over trend. Our designs are modern and understated. We curate capsule collections that exude style, ease, and effortlessness. Each piece can be mixed and matched to provide versatility and longevity to your wardrobe. We are committed to environmental consciousness in every phase of our development and production, from carefully selecting our upcycled and sustainable fabrics, to shipping our products in recycled packaging. We utilize local contractors in Downtown Los Angeles for our development and all production.

When did you launch? I decided to step down from my role as acting Vice-President of Haus of Grey LLC at the closing of 2015. I sold my shares in that company by summer of 2016. I utilized the funds from that sale to start Transition State all on my own. Transition State launched at the end of 2016, just in time for the holiday shopping season. It was a hectic schedule, but I knew I was ready.

What is the inspiration behind your brand? I created Transition State with a vision of the woman I wanted to become. I envisioned an organization that promoted development that was both intentional and creative, offered premium quality at accessible prices, was environmentally mindful, and promoted community through collaboration and local production.

A graduate of both the University of California at Los Angeles, and the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising, I cut my teeth as Vice President of Design and Merchandising at international luxury label, Leisure Society, and most recently as Co-founder and Vice President of Haus of Grey, a premiere sportswear brand sold in top tier country clubs and resorts.

Seasoned in the elite market of creating luxury apparel and accessories, I created a line that blended my professional goals with personal style and purposeful development, and crafted a fashion brand that was both aspirational and approachable. I wanted to create a business that combined what I knew as a designer with what I had learned as an entrepreneur, and most importantly how I felt as a consumer.

I took time to analyze the holes in the retail market and the innovations that are starting to change the fashion industry. I decided I wanted to be part of that change: how we think about premiere brands, how we look at materials and costs, and how we take responsibility for the way our dollars shape our future and our world.

Transition State stands for pursuing your potential and creating something new. Not just accepting change, but driving it.

What are some challenges and rewards with running your own company?

Rewards: Waking up and always having a goal, a purpose, a dream to pursue. Knowing that you are challenging yourself to grow beyond your comfort zone every day. Learning new skills and making new contacts every day that you will be able to use for the rest of your career.

Challenges: Figuring out your own path to success. This is my fourth start-up company. Every company’s path to growth is different – different strengths and lucky breaks have paved each unique journey. It is difficult to always have faith in yourself and your work before the actual results reflect your efforts. Most of the work you do is unseen.

The process always starts with ignored emails and no’s way before it gets good. You just need to stick with it and be relentless in your pursuit. You must be able to instill that same unwavering confidence in your team, your network, and your customers - even on days you are doubting yourself.

Also, you will work late nights, early mornings, and most weekends. Learning where to draw the line between work and the rest of your life and how to achieve that balance is a consistent challenge I struggle with every day.

I understand you have an intern from FIDM. How did you two connect? I posted a job opening to the FIDM Career Center portal.

How do you feel FIDM prepared you for what you are doing now? The technical skills to work proficiently in Illustrator and Photoshop allow me to get my vision across accurately to back-end web builders, photographers, and pattern makers alike. These skills also help me save money by doing a lot of laborious work myself.

Looking back, which classes at FIDM were most valuable to you? I think every class was valuable. I appreciated building on my design skills every quarter. I still heavily rely on Illustrator daily – so I would say those classes have served me the greatest.

Any advice for current FIDM Students? Get an internship now and not later. One, it will allow you to practice and apply the skills you are learning in school – which will make the lessons more memorable and meaningful to you. Two, as an employer, I have never hired anyone for a position that they did not have some real-life background experience in.

What is your biggest goal right now? My biggest goal now for the company is to build brand awareness and brand equity into Transition State. I hope to end 2017 with enough sales to secure a foundation for the business and myself.

Anything else you’d like to share? This is the definition of Transition State: "In a chemical reaction, the transition state is defined as the state corresponding to the highest potential energy along a reaction coordinate. this moment, when the reactant molecules collide, is fleeting, unstable, and irreversible; in nature. the result of which creates an ultimately new product."