CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A Dilworth woman is putting Charlotte on the map with a children’s clothing line she founded and designed during the pandemic.
Mint Magnolia is a line of traditional children’s clothing for girls and boys from babies to size eight.
Talah Goodwin, Mint Magnolia’s owner and designer, said she developed a love for children’s clothing after her first daughter was born.
“I found that I was spending much more time shopping for her than I was for myself anymore,” Goodwin said. “I even signed up for sewing lessons and learned how to sew and thought that I would maybe make her own clothes.”
Her passion and ideas for a children’s clothing line took a backseat for a few years as she worked a nine-to-five job in corporate marketing sponsorship with Coca-Cola.
But as the COVID-19 pandemic spread across the world and to the Charlotte area in 2020, Goodwin’s job was affected.
“Out of nowhere, this coronavirus hit, and my whole department was furloughed,” Goodwin said. “So I went from crazy busy at work to all of a sudden for the first time ever, I was at home not working, and I actually had child care.”
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She used that time to explore what it would take to make her children’s clothing designs come to life, going all in when her corporate position was ultimately eliminated in the summer of 2020.
“I had that moment of like, what am I going to do, I had worked there for almost 10 years, like that’s all I really knew,” Goodwin said. “And my husband was like, ‘Um, hello, like you’ve been talking about this children’s line forever, like do that. Follow your passion, and just go for it.'”
Goodwin did just that.
She launched Mint Magnolia’s website for online sales in 2021.
The fabrics pay tribute to the Queen City with the different names of Charlotte neighborhoods and locations, such as “Barclay Blooms,” “Chantilly Check,” “Cotswold Cherry,” and more.
The line is inspired by Goodwin’s love of classic children’s clothing from the '50s and '60s and dressing children like children.
“Childhood is magic, so being able to capture like a little bit of that, it’s just been so fun,” Goodwin said.
Sales for Mint Magnolia slowly started taking off last year. Goodwin said her first orders came from her own mother and friends, gradually spreading to friends of friends and beyond.
“The first time I saw somebody ‘in the wild’ wearing Mint Magnolia that I didn’t know, I think I cried actually,” Goodwin said.
Her next goal is for the line to be in boutiques by the end of the year and ultimately to take the brand nationwide to become a household name.
Goodwin said she hasn’t looked back since moving on from corporate America. Her work life is now propelled forward with patterns of gingham, florals, and seersucker after making the best of her pandemic career pivot.
“What a blessing in disguise 'cause I honestly never would have done this had that not happened,” Goodwin said.
This mom of three girls is now proud to be a role model for her daughters as an entrepreneur, taking her dream for Mint Magnolia from sketches to reality.
Contact Kendall Morris at kmorris2@wcnc.com and follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
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