I met Miriam Alden when I was thirteen. I heard the doorbell ring, I opened the door and here was this towering beauty sheepishly smiling. I was hanging at my place with a bunch of my somewhat unruly friends. She lived down the street and she wanted to borrow something. I can’t remember what, but when she saw I had friends over she traipsed right in and sat down to introduce herself. I thought to myself, “fucking awesome,” (I told you we were unruly so excuse the f bomb) because it wasn’t often at that point in my existence that girls had the balls (literally and figuratively) to just be themselves. I saw something in Miriam that you didn’t get to see very much, and it seemed to me that it was self confidence, though she asserts that “you never really feel comfortable in your skin as a female until you are past your early twenties.” Though I tend to agree with her on this, she coulda fooled me.

If you havn’t guessed yet, this is a story about a very well established young fashionista/entrepreneur named Miriam Alden.

I used to love when Miriam let me rummage through her closet to pick out things to wear, but when I walked into her now three-roomed closet full of some of the funkiest and most exciting fashion pieces from ten or so of some of the hottest labels around, it was a whole new feeling of bliss. One of the walls at Brunette Showroom consists mainly of jewelry and shoes, , and the second room is where Miriam sits at a huge table meant for meetings with anyone from stylists to celebrities, to store owners, depending on her day, and the third room holds rack upon rack of hung clothing items that will be featured in all the coolest Vancouver boutiques in the coming seasons. Just so you get a feel for who buys from her, about ninety percent of the clothing stores in Vancouver know of her showroom and have worked with Miriam. Aritzia, for example, since us Vancouver ladies all know it, is one of her many customers.

Though she has always had a true love of fashion, and she has always liked the business of it, knowing that she would be working along side some of the head people at some of her favorite stores was not something she could foretell, but she, like most successful entrepreneurs always knew that she would need to be her own boss rather than working for someone else her whole life. “I always knew that I wanted to have my own business, that I couldn’t work for somebody else, though the people that I had worked for before were fantastic mentors, I just had to branch out for myself. It wasn’t really a choice for me, it was like a necessity. I always need to be growing. I am the type of person that does things because I like to compete and challenge myself. When I used to ride horses I rode competitively, not just because it was fun. When I feel like I have run out of room for personal growth, it is time to move on to the next challenge.”

Amongst some of the challenges Miriam was presented with was modeling for a holiday campaign for a company called Press. “I had a hunch that there was a lot riding on this campaign but never in my wildest dreams did I imagine what would become of it.” The company was more than impressed with Miriam, and they decided to go to one of the worlds leading fashion magazines, and place the campaign within the pages of Vogue. Her photos were being viewed by millions of fashion devotees from all over the world. “When my boss at the time showed me the campaign I turned red and almost fell out of my chair.” She was somewhat used to having her work be seen by fashion fans, having been a fashion columnist at a local paper, as well as having worked at a sales agency for five years, alongside modeling. Her surprise at being featured is typical of Miriam’s humble persona.

Thanks to her competitive, but friendly nature Miriam is now living out her dream, traveling to glamorous places, staying in castle like accommodations in cities such as Barcelona, and being at all the local, and not so local fashion events around the world, but to get where she is she has to work really hard every hour of each work day, but she is happy to be doing the work.  “I can’t imagine doing anything else.  I absolutely love the work that I do.  I am glad that there is so much of it to do.”  Her cheery and percipient persona has gotten her far with the people that work in her industry. “My work really varies from day to day. This morning I had a singer come in and pull for her photo shoot, and her music video, and I also had stylists come in here and pull, which I love because I am really trying to work with local stlylists from around the city. In Vancouver we don’t get a lot of local press, cause we don’t have a lot of local magazines. To get people aware of the sorts of things that you are doing it is really important to connect with all the people in the industry that you can. On top of that I had a store come in as well to buy some samples off of me, and then I have three appointments with local retailers in order to sell my holiday collections, and this afternoon I am driving over to a store to go check to see if one of my brands would fit with their store.” Soon she will be on a flight to Edmonton, and from there she will be heading to Spain again. The life of a fashionista is a hurricane.

For someone with this amount of experience in fashion you may imagine that she would be a major fan of someone like Alexander McQueen, or that Gucci would most likely be her go to for glamming herself up, but no, Miriam’s favorite designer happens to be her lovely sister Sophie Alden, the owner and operator of Lisbeth Jewelery. “Her designs are classic, simple and beautiful. Not flashy or over the top. And I love the designs. I wear one of her pieces pretty much everywhere I go.” For more on Lispeth go here http://lisbethjewelry.com/

Back in the day there was always a shine about Miriam, she was always making even the most insecure people that came her way feel as though they were special and important to her. She has gained the love and respect of almost everyone that she has crossed paths with, and while she is at the top of her game she is still an easy going and down to earth female with a ton to smile about.

If you are interested in more on doing business with Miriam feel free to take a look at her business website http://www.brunetteshowroom.com/ and contact her at the top of the Brunette Showroom page.