Chebra Dorsey’s fashion career began at the lowest point of her life. She was homeless when she opened Ochea Fashion Boutique, the business that would eventually take her name onto runways and into award rooms.
Before fashion, there was hair. Dorsey ran a thriving salon serving women living with alopecia, work that put her close to women dealing with something deeply personal about how they look and how they want to be seen. Then 2010 arrived. When the market crashed, her business went with it, and by her own account she hit rock bottom.
What came next surprised even her. She says she never knew she could design until those losses forced her to start over. Out of that rebuilding came Ochea, a name she explains means “original fashion”, and a body of one-of-a-kind work, including her Ocheasachi collections, that has since earned her a reputation as a celebrity designer.
Through all of it, she points to her faith in God as her refuge. She is honest about the moments she wanted to give up, and about the times support was hard to find. What kept her going, she says, was the conviction that she wasn’t here by accident. She had a purpose, and part of it was to be a blessing to others.
Fashion with a mission
That sense of purpose runs through the boutique. Dorsey designs for women who want to feel confident in themselves and to see themselves as leaders rather than followers. She describes her style as bold yet classy, clothes meant to carry a feeling of freedom and power.
She ties the business to a wider mission she calls helping women in leadership through fashion, with a particular focus on women in South Sudan and on homeless women. Given where her own story started, that second group is not an abstract cause.
She has also kept her work within reach. Most pieces sit in the $30 to $45 range and up, and the boutique runs live videos on what she calls $10 Tuesday.
Beyond the boutique
Dorsey’s voice has travelled further than her clothes. She is the author of the book What Are You Wearing: The Inspirational Spiritual Side of Fashion, which is a #1 international bestseller. It is also at the Rockefeller Center, New York.
She reports a string of recognition along the way, beginning with an award from the Jarvee Hutchinson Motion Pictures Association in Beverly Hills while she was still building the boutique, and humanitarian honours she attributes to Presidents Obama, Biden and Trump and to members of the Senate. In London, she was recognised as Ambassador Dr Chebra Dorsey.
She credits the Global Society for Female Entrepreneurs and its CEO, Robbie Motter, with helping her grow in many ways. Motter’s reminder that showing up is the key to success has stayed with her, along with a rule of her own: stay humble as you grow.
Ask her about luck and she keeps it practical. The bad luck, as she sees it, came from wrong decisions. The good luck is refusing to dwell on them, and using them instead to learn, rebuild and improve. And never giving up.
Next stop: December
Dorsey’s next red carpet fashion show takes place in December, the latest chapter for a designer who found her talent only after losing almost everything else. The December fashion show will be her 4th award-winning fashion show, with one of them coming from the county and city of Lemon Grove, Stay Tunne.
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