After a decade of helping women find confidence through fashion, Smithery Style is entering an exciting new chapter. In January, Shannon Gallagher took the reins as the new Owner & Chief, bringing her passion for body-positive styling and her personal connection to the brand’s mission. As she steps into this role, Shannon is dedicated to preserving Smithery’s signature ‘magic’ while introducing fresh ideas to make shopping by body shape even more effortless. We sat down with Shannon to discuss her journey, vision, and what’s next for Smithery Style.
Tell us a bit about yourself and the brand
I’m Shannon Gallagher, and I’m the New Owner & Chief Style Smith of Smithery Style. While I’ve just purchased the business in January 2025 from the original founder Mavis Huntley, the company has been around since 2014.
You might say it is one of the e-retail pioneers! It seemed fitting for her to pass the Stylesmith torch in its 10th year so that the ‘magic’ (as Mavis likes to call it) can live on into its new chapter.
I might be the “new face” around here but our DNA remains the same. We are a Canadian based, e-boutique, that helps women shop for their shape. At Smithery we have 5 main body types? A,V,X,H,O… no more fruit!
Our clients use our shape finder quiz to help discover their body shape and then they can shop our website by body shape collection and read the description to find out if an item will be “WOW” on their body shape or if it’s one to take a pass on we won’t recommend it. This makes shopping online a whole lot easier and more successful.
We also bring Smithery to you by offering a variety of stylist services from Colour Analysis, to 1:1 in-home style sessions, and my personal favourite the Style Party!
What inspires you in this new position?
I’m a mom with two young girls who are now 9 and 6. As a mom I know how hard it can be to find time to take care of YOU! The truth for most women is that once you become a mom the only shift they offer is 24/7. Don’t get me wrong, it’s the best job in the world but it’s a total grind and it’s easy to lose your style because now you have to worry about a million new things, like buying your kids matching Christmas outfits (cringe) and you start buying your clothes where you buy your groceries (you know who you are).
Personally, after becoming a mom for the first time my body changed substantially. I went from being a 4-6 to being an 8-10. I went from being an X shape to being an O shape. I hated having to get dressed in the morning. I walked into my closet full of clothes and saw nothing to wear. Not only had my body changed but what I wanted to wear also changed.
Truthfully, people don’t really talk much about this part of early motherhood. They talk about the best strollers, nap schedules, starting solids, teething… but knowone says “you are going to hate getting dressed everyday because things just don’t go back to the same places as before.” It can be a really hard part of the post-partum journey, especially if you feel alone in it.
I was lucky to find Smithery Style a year after my first was born and I started to shop using my body shape. Slowly but surely with each new Smithery haul my morning loathing of getting dressed turned into the most joyful part of my day. Listen, I’d put 2% spandex in my coffee if I could!
You might say, finding Smithery Style was really life changing for me as a new mom. Other moms, friends at work, my own mother and even strangers on the subway would compliment me and ask me where I got my outfit. I’d always gladly tell them about Smithery and how it would be delivered to their doorstep. My husband laughs because this literally happens to me everytime we go anywhere. He’s gotten used to me having long conversations with people I barely know about how Kut denim is the only jeans you should put on your body! Or Why, Stockports are amazing.
More recently, as my girls have started to have opinions about their own fashion, and questions about their own body image. Growing up I was a dancer and a figure skater like so many young girls. As a result my own body image was really warped. I had this idea of perfection that was not healthy or attainable. As a result I am also inspired to be a role model to them. Yes, they dance, they skate, but I want to show them what body positivity looks like at any age. I tell them I am not defined by the size I wear, rather I wear clothes that make me feel confident regardless of their size.
My girls notice when mommy feels good too! Since I decided to buy the business the cutest thing they say is: “mom is that something from Smithery Style?” I am glad they see what self-love and self-care looks like.
To circle back to the idea that mom’s don’t have much time for themselves, at Smithery Style I like to think we help boil the ocean for busy women. We are like a mom-hack that helps you feel put-together and on trend (but not too trendy!). It’s like you had a personal stylist go shop just for you at 10 different stores. But really, you just ordered it in less than 10 clicks, at 6 a.m. drinking your morning cup of coffee in those few quiet minutes you have alone.
That’s what inspires me! The mom who feels that they aren’t seen, and my daughter’s who need to know that women deserve to feel beautiful in their real bodies. No filter, no photoshop, just real clothes, on real women, who are all beautiful and are all different.
What’s one piece of advice you’ve received that has helped you in this transition? Do you have any advice for others in the same situation?
The day after I officially owned the company I did a pop-up at a Mom Halo Biz Networking event. I was lucky to be asked to participate in a speed networking session as a vendor. That day I was running on adrenaline, I had hardly slept for 72 hours. I’d been up all night rebadging all our social media, and troubleshooting why our darn domain wasn’t switching over properly to the new site. I was running on fumes.
I sat with Alana who runs Mom Halo in one of the 5 mins speed networking sessions and she said to me: Shannon you have a newborn. Any new business is a newborn and every 3 months you will have an ah-ha moment and then a great leap. In that moment you will make a great leap forward in your business. Just keep listening to those ah-ha moments. Keep making the changes. Big changes, small changes, and soon it will be full grown. It will dress itself, it will feed itself, it will have a personality. You’re going to be like – I raised that business. That’s amazing.
I think that advice was super crucial for me on that day. I went home and I finally slept soundly. I didn’t worry about my newborn “business” because of exactly what she was trying to say to me, which is that this is going to be an evolution. Naturally, there is alot on my to-do list but with more time in the business I should start to feel lighter. It also made me think of how as a new parent we have to be flexible because we aren’t (always) in charge… Don’t fight it, try and give it what it needs to grow. But you have to give it time. It won’t happen overnight.
How do you plan to connect with the Smithery Style community and continue building strong relationships with your customers?
We have a really strong social media community on Instagram and I am loving that side of the business! We have models for each body shape and when new arrivals come and we drop new capsules we have them try-on in stories. They give their honest reviews, the more unfiltered the better! I think that’s so powerful as we get real time questions about the products and we get a sense of things people are really keen for by the way they engage with us.
I’m also big on being where our clients or future clients are. We are popping-up at ladies days, and mom-fests, we are at mom-group meets. We get how important it is to help share the mission of Smithery and also allow people to sample the brands we carry so they can have that trust before they become an online customer. That’s how I found out about Smithery! If you want us to come give a talk, do a pop-up, reach out: [email protected] and we will be glad to be there.
We are also going to host our own signature VIP event two times a year. The first one will be for Spring/Summer styles and we will do another one for Fall/Winter. Like a “Smithery Roadshow” of sorts. I feel just because we are not bricks and mortar doesn’t mean we don’t want or need facetime with our clients to deepen our connection with them.
Also, I believe that collaboration with other small businesses within our community is key. I’ve had warm reception from other small business owners looking to work together. And, I can say that’s been a welcome surprise. The reality is we are up against these huge companies with massive advertising budgets. Independent bricks and mortar stores are closing up shop in record numbers because it’s become so hard to make the numbers work. E-commerce companies like Smithery carry superior products at competitive prices. I believe we need to work together to make our voices heard so consumers make different choices with their purchasing power. With everything happening in the US buying Canadian is going to become even more important. Supporting Canadian makers, women owned businesses is going to be crucial.
What does 2025 hold for your brand? Can you share any upcoming plans or changes you have for Smithery Style that our audience should look forward to?
Right out of the gate we flipped the switch on a new and improved website and a brand refresh. The biggest addition is the idea of capsule dressing. We have added it as a way to shop our collection.
Each week instead of just dropping whatever new arrivals came in that week we have more curated, planned capsules that might speak to a theme or cater to a specific body type.
They can be anything from a mini or micro capsule which is 2 – 3 items or a full capsule which is 5 items. This literally means you can build full seasonal refreshes and the best part is you get 10% off your order and that can be combined with other promotions like sales we might have on the items in the capsule as well.
Finally, we also are adding some fresh new brands to our line-up. This Spring/Summer we have added: NKN Barcelona, Astrid, Girl Dangerous, Bobbi, ILTM, and Liverpool. These brands have all passed our rigorous checklist and we know the Smithery community is going to give them a warm welcome.
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