Getting to Know the Creator of Sunday Outfitters: Juliet Prine
By Madison Huizinga
Madison Huizinga has been dancing for 13 years, and her favorite styles are ballet and contemporary. Currently, she attends the University of Washington and is studying Communications. Madison is presently a company member with Seattle-based dance company Intrepidus Dance.
PICTURED: Juliet Prine, Founder of Sunday Outfitters
By Madison Huizinga
When the COVID-19 pandemic intensified in the United States during March 2020, the majority of dancers across the country were ordered to stay home, as schools, workplaces, stores, and dance studios shut down to prevent the spread of the virus. While quarantining, many people adopted hobbies to help pass the time. On social media, people shared pictures of the banana bread they were baking, the TV shows they were binge-watching, and the countless DIY home projects they decided to begin. For professional ballet dancer Juliet Prine, creating stylish and comfortable loungewear was a way to use up her increased spare time. But what started as a simple way to take up free time transformed into Sunday Outfitters, a popular online business that sells cute and cozy clothes while supporting important social causes. How exactly did this transition happen?
The creator of Sunday Outfitters is Juliet Prine, a professional ballet dancer at Pacific Northwest Ballet in Seattle, WA. Juliet grew up in Minneapolis, Minnesota as an all-around competitive dancer. While Juliet danced in a variety of genres, she seemed to have a particular knack for ballet, as teachers repeatedly reached out to her mother and encouraged her to send Juliet to a ballet school. Juliet decided to narrow her focus on ballet and began dancing at a strictly ballet-focused school. She trained rigorously throughout her adolescent years, even traveling to Los Angeles to study at Colburn Dance Academy. Juliet participated in a variety of summer intensives at the School of American Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, Chautauqua Institution, and Pacific Northwest Ballet School. Eventually, Juliet joined PNB as an apprentice in 2019 and was promoted to the corps de ballet that same year.
However, when COVID-19 hit the United States and intensified in Seattle, PNB shut down quickly the day before an opening night. Juliet was disappointed, as she was planning on performing “one of the biggest roles in her career and couldn’t do it.” Like the rest of the dance community, Juliet sat at home for months on end, eagerly anticipating the dance world to re-open.
A few months into this isolation period, Juliet was doing some online shopping, searching for a cute loungewear set to wear in the fall. She looked all over the Internet and couldn’t come across anything that she liked that was under $150. So, in her spare time, she decided she would try to make her own!
The first loungewear set that Juliet created was the “star set,” a sweatshirt and matching bottoms covered in big white stars. She sent the set to her sister in college, and she was obsessed. Her friends in her sorority begged Juliet to send over more and build a website. Juliet began making sets for her friends and family and before she knew it, she was building a website, something she hadn’t ever done before.
Initially, Juliet figured that she would make her loungewear sets through the end of the year and then call it quits after the holidays. She assumed she would return to dancing at PNB soon and wouldn’t have as much time to create her sets. But it quickly became clear that she wouldn’t be dancing at PNB as frequently, as the pandemic stretched into the new year. And to her surprise, her brand began taking off! Juliet was excited to see how many people wanted her products.
One of the most unique features of Sunday Outfitters is its incorporation of philanthropy. A variety of Sunday Outfitter’s loungewear sets connect to specific causes, with a portion of proceeds going to organizations that are helping advance different causes and alleviate social problems. For example, Sunday Outfitter’s “support the arts” crewneck is an adorable, minimalistic piece that features the Yoko Ono quote “art is a way of survival.” 50% of the profits made from the “support the arts” crewneck go to Pacific Northwest Ballet’s Future Fund. The “suicide awareness” line features sweatshirts that say the phrase “take it one day at a time” in a wavy font, an expression that’s especially comforting amid of a global pandemic. 50% of the proceeds from the “suicide awareness” hoodies go towards raising suicide awareness and preventing teen suicide.
Moving forward, Juliet hopes to continue bringing awareness to important causes and stories through her work at Sunday Outfitters. She is excited to continue creating new products and connecting with new causes. Her advice for aspiring entrepreneurs is simple: “just start, don’t put it off, just start it.” Juliet shares that “if you want to be an entrepreneur, you need to have that drive, and be inspired and committed.” One of the most important parts of starting your own business or creative endeavor is to make sure you love what you’re doing.
“Whatever you are going to do, don’t do it because other people are going to love it,” Juliet says. “Make sure you’re in love with it”
Sunday Outfitter’s products will be available through Dancewear Center on Sunday, March 7, so don’t forget to purchase your own cozy loungewear set then!