EMOTIONAL RESILIENCE IN THE FASHION INDUSTRY WITH MARY KETHYA KHUON
Written by Adele Hoinacki
On October 17th, 2023, The Vault had the pleasure of welcoming Somatic Coach and International Speaker Mary Kethya Khuon to present her personal experience regarding fostering emotional resilience in her personal and professional life. Khuon is a proud alumni of UW-Madison and founder and CEO of the Somatic coaching company, Sincerely Miss Mary. Prior to founding Sincerely Miss Mary, Khuon worked for nine years as a luxury fashion designer in New York City for brands such as Tory Burch, Marc Jacobs, Coach and Tommy Hilfiger. She attributed this shift in career paths to her “calling to empower the next generation of leaders,” fueled by her own process of navigating shortcomings and successes in her personal and professional life.
Khuon began the presentation by sharing her “origin story”. At the time, she was working for Tory Burch and had designed “the bag of the year”, which was popularized both domestically and internationally. Khuon reflected on this significant success in her career, sharing, “I had reached the moon; I was there.” Prompted by her achievement, Khuon planned to ask for both a promotion and raise at her end of the year meeting. However, upon arriving she was informed that she was being let go due to budget cuts despite her impressive contributions to the brand. Khuon stated that she felt incredibly betrayed, angry and discouraged, saying , “I attached my entire self worth to this bag and things outside of me; my dream broke my heart.”
However, nine months later, she secured her dream job working for Tommy Hilfiger with both a promotion and a raise. Khuon recalls walking through an airport terminal in Hong Kong on a business trip for Hilfiger and stumbling upon her “it” bag on display. Instead of being upset, she shares that it made her realize, “I had to be all my past versions of myself to be able to stand here today”. This realization prompted her to not only channel her emotions through the process of writing and releasing, but to also found her company, Sincerely Miss Mary, in order to help others channel their emotions in a safe way while finding self love and appreciation for past events in their lives.
Throughout the remainder of her presentation, Khuon prompted the audience to participate in multiple grounding “write and release” exercises to illustrate their ability to build emotional resilience. Before engaging with each prompt, the audience closed their eyes and grounded themselves in the present moment. The first scenario prompted the audience to consider how you would feel if someone had said something tone deaf or offensive to you. Khuon then asked the audience, “If your emotion in this moment could speak, what would it say?” The goal of this write and release was to compare emotion accepting the effect of the emotions, but allowing it to release, which is how Khuon defined emotional resilience. Translating this to the workplace, Khuon shared that this exercise allows her to “enter the workforce with rationality.”
The following exercises were based upon imagining and creating a “future self”. Whether this was in the form of a dream career, new environment or personal boundaries, Khuon told the audience that, “You want to start building a relationship with your future self to feel comfortable in your body now.” She also argues that through the process of envisioning personal success, as well as setting boundaries, both become seemingly more attainable, allowing for greater understanding of both in the context of the workplace. Along with strong boundaries, a driven attitude and self advocacy comes emotional resiliency. Khuon summarized this by stating that, “When you are saying no to things outside of yourself, you are saying yes to yourself.”
To conclude her presentation, Khuon touched on how the fashion industry’s “cutthroat” and competitive nature has brought her challenges throughout her career. However, with the techniques she taught The Vault members at her speaker event, she has fostered emotional resiliency, allowing her to persevere in the workplace and drive forward in the industry.
Edited by: Lauren Veum, Nicole Borras, Brett Byers, Alex Speier, Caitlin Robaczewski, Helen Song
DEI Reviewed by: Katherine Rubinstein