FAYETTEVILLE -- Lauren Stokes can now fondly look back at the 10 weeks she once spent on bed rest.
Ordered to limit physical activity before the birth of her first child in March 2013, Stokes passed the time thumbing through stacks of fashion and Southern lifestyle magazines. Once finished with a magazine, Stokes would sketch out improvements to dresses she saw featured in it.
Those sketches, then just a way to alleviate boredom, are now the cornerstone of the Lauren James brand, a fast-growing women's apparel line founded in Fayetteville and now sold in nearly 600 retail outlets across the country. Lauren James, which describes its products as being "inspired by the classics and driven by modern styling," celebrated its first $1 million sales month in March and continues to grow, Stokes said.
If Stokes hadn't been on bed rest before the birth of son Lofton James, she's not sure any of this would have happened. Stokes, who gave birth to a second son, Linden, seven weeks ago, formerly worked as a registered nurse.
"I'm really not a designer," said Stokes, a 26-year-old Fayetteville native. "I was designing dresses that I'd like to wear just to pass the time. I had no idea how it would be received."
By just about any measure the company has been well-received.
Social media is an area where the company's success can be easily quantified. Lauren James has more than 148,000 followers on Instagram. Its following on Twitter is closing in on 14,000 people, and the brand has garnered more than 22,000 likes on Facebook.
Lauren James hired its first full-time employee in May 2014, and the payroll is now at 24 and growing. Employees are split between three locations in Fayetteville -- a 4,000-square-foot office and video studio, a 40,000-square-foot warehouse and printing facility, and 1,000-square-foot retail store -- with additional contract workers in Alabama and Texas, among other places.
Sales grew 1,782 percent in the first year. Revenue is on track this year for a more modest, but still robust, 325 percent jump. Online sales are on track for a similar 300 percent increase.
Eventually it's hoped the company will be a $100 million business like similar prep/country club brands Lilly Pulitzer or Vineyard Vines.
Lauren James offers a variety of dress styles, but its most popular offerings are a twist on classic seersucker fabrics. T-shirts with hand-drawn art that feature slogans like "I'm A Seer-Sucker For A Boy In A Bow Tie" and "Preppin' Ain't Easy" are also Lauren James staples. A swimwear line was recently introduced by the company, which has grown increasingly popular among customers between ages 18-24.
The brand has particularly resonated with sororities. So it comes as no surprise that the first Lauren James branded store opened on Dickson Street in Fayetteville, less than a mile from sorority row on the University of Arkansas campus.
Though headquartered in Fayetteville, the clothing line is most popular outside the state. Georgia and Alabama have emerged as the brand's top two states for sales, Stokes said. College and resort towns -- think Tuscaloosa, Ala., or Charleston, S.C. -- tend to be sweet spots.
Southern Charm Clothing, a boutique chain that operates stores in Georgia and Tennessee, began carrying the Lauren James brand shortly after it launched. Owner Zack Cross said the line quickly became a best-seller.
"They got in at the right time and found the right niche," Cross said. "They've done a fantastic job of scaling their business. The variations of the seersucker has been very well-received."
Lauren James' success isn't limited to the South. Retail outlets in Michigan, Illinois, New York and Rhode Island have signed on to carry the brand. Forthcoming marketing trips over the next six weeks will cover 6,000 miles with stops in Charlotte, N.C.; Panama City, Fla.; and in New York's posh Hamptons.
Rebecca Gordon, a Birmingham, Ala.,-based talk-show host, cookbook author and a former editor at Southern Living, sees the current growth of Southern lifestyle brands nationally as a natural follow-up to the region's cuisine gaining popularity outside of the South.
"Southerners, we have a heritage we're so proud of and a style that I think the rest of the country wants a piece of," said Gordon, who operates the popular Buttermilk Lipstick blog. "I'm not surprised that it's really catching on, just like grits have caught on. They realized there's something beyond polenta."
Capitalizing on that sense of Southern culture was the aim of the company, which began as a T-shirt line sold online. Lauren James launched with an initial order of 36 T-shirts printed by another local apparel company. Those quickly sold out, and the profits were reinvested in an order for 50 shirts.
Orders were initially shipped from Stokes' living room. When they outgrew the house, the operation was moved to Stokes' parents' basement and then to an office with space for six employees, but only four chairs.
Employees outnumber places to work even today. Desks were bought and assembled for two full-time employees last week. Workers in the company's 40,000-square-foot warehouse and printing facility in Fayetteville are using canvas folding chairs.
"We still bootstrap. We've never taken an investment," Stokes said. "We've done it with the help of a local bank, through lines of credit. They took a chance on us with a $30,000 line of credit, and we'd use it, pay it back. We started small and grew steadily, just dong it the old-fashioned way."
Much of the success thus far is attributed to Stokes and her husband, Lance, who essentially serves as the company's chief operations officer. Lance Stokes doesn't officially have a title and takes no salary, but has been a critical part of the operation despite downplaying his role in Lauren James' growth.
"I've always just thrown stuff against the wall, waiting for something to stick," said Lance Stokes, a Texarkana native and University of Central Arkansas graduate. "It turns out that her idea, her vision is what stuck. We work really well together."
As de facto COO, Lance Stokes, 27, has shown a knack for networking and leveraging relationships to help the company grow. He said he's spent time picking the brains of others in the industry, including fellow UCA graduate and Tommy Bahama CEO Terry Pillow; and Scott Mahoney, CEO of North Carolina-based Peter Millar clothing.
A more local source of advice has been Jeff Amerine, head of Startup Junkie Consulting.
Amerine sees a bright future for the Stokeses. Entrepreneurs tend to reach what he calls a "level of competency," the spot where their natural skills plateau and outside help is needed for things like marketing, funding or day-to-day operations.
"They're as good a team at this stage as anybody you'll find," Amerine said. "They'll face a new set of challenges once they get to be a $50 million or $100 million company. ... I wouldn't be surprised if this was built into a half-billion-dollar brand. Lance has all the attributes you like to see in an entrepreneur. Lauren has such a good understanding of the segment they're serving. It's pretty incredible. There's nothing within that Southern lifestyle space that these guys aren't researching and trying."
Up next is a line of outerwear for the Lauren James brand. Women's clothing is just the beginning, Lauren Stokes said. Lance Stokes has launched a men's line Cotton 101, and they'll offer collegiate merchandise for at least 13 universities beginning in the fall. They've joined a bartender in co-authoring Sweet Tea Mixology, a cocktail recipe book that will be available around Christmas.
It's admittedly a lot to take on, but the Stokeses have big plans.
"We're brand new," Lauren Stokes said. "We just try to act like we're not brand new."
SundayMonday Business on 06/14/2015