Daughters of the KING

Sunday Newsday chatted with the entrepreneur and mother of seven last week at her Diego Martin home, where her boutique is located.

Rodrigues, a former flight attendant, recalled that when she had her fifth child people would compliment her on how good she looked in her clothes and she decided, “I want to see my sisters looking good too.” “Daughters of the King was basically born out of a desire to see women look and feel their best and feel like royalty, actually, hence the name.” She found that often women did not dress to their truest potential largely because looking good was not affordable and the average person could not afford brands like Calvin Klein, Tahari or Ann Taylor. Rodrigues decided to take on the challenge and make these brands affordable for most women.

She said that her prices are very competitive and she has seen her dresses, by the same designer, in stores at the mall at double the price. She carries a range of sizes, from two to 22, a few zeroes, and outfits for “every occasion under the sun,” including work, church and social events. She occasionally sells accessories and Bath and Body Works products, and includes designer ties, as the husbands accompanying their wives want something for themselves as well. Her focus, though, has remained on women.

She said when people hear she has a boutique they usually think boutique prices, but her tagline is: “Designer brands without the designer price tag.” She buys from retail suppliers on sale and rarely has two of the same dresses.

Daughters of the King was opened in 2012 and her stock was sold out within the first two weeks.

She said for some clients she is also their de-facto personal shopper and would choose outfits depending on particular events.

She began by buying clothes online, but because of the “astronomical” costs she began travelling to buy them instead, and was able to inspect the merchandise and access sales. On the Daughters of the King Facebook page she began a series on “Dressing your Best”, which includes a “wardrobe detox” – removing clothes that are too small, the wrong colours or are damaged. She offers delivery throughout the country: within 24 hours after ordering in Trinidad and 48 hours in Tobago.

Rodrigues said it was fulfilling to see the look of confidence on women in her dresses and from this her Made in His Image Consultancy was born in 2015.

“Every woman that came in here, in some way, shape or form, had some issue with their body image, and I wanted to address that.” It was all about getting women to address the deeper issues with their bodies, and she pointed out that although losing weight was fine, women needed to dress for the bodies they have now and still look their best. She has since hosted three seminars for reputable firms -- one in hotel and tourism, one telecom provider and an insurance company -- to assist their staff with dressing properly.

From her consultations she noticed that some people had deep-seated issues dating back to their childhoods, and in 2015 she hosted her first workshop for teens, “Fearfully and Wonderfully Made”, through which she informed participants they did not have to subscribe to the digitally-enhanced Hollywood images.

Her next two workshops were entitled “Be Bold, be Strong, be You” and “Teen Life Take Two”, with the latter being for boys.

Coming out of her second workshop with the teens she began seminars for the parents, a suggestion from the teens. Rodrigues stressed that she was “no big authority,” but having the parents say they were seeing changes in their children and asking for advice was a catalyst. Her first parenting seminar, “Parenting Today: Are We Prepared?” dealt with issues such as pornography, social media and human trafficking.

Her first seminar for this year, “Ladies FLY: First Love Yourselves”, will be held on March 25. She explained that women do a lot for their families and husbands and put themselves at the bottom of the priority list. The Bible she pointed out, says that we have to love our neighbour as ourselves, but in her view women are most times bickering and are sometimes unable to pay each other compliments. The seminar will focus on body image and dressing, health, nutrition and wellness and also emotional and spiritual issues.

On May 30 she will host a parenting seminar, “Parents, Let’s Talk About Sex” to help parents assess whether or not their children are engaging in sexual activity, looking at pornography or being molested and to offer them guidance. In June, her seminar, “What’s the Big Idea” will be for both parents and children and will focus on how to raise young entrepreneurs. Actual business owners will be on hand to offer advice.

A teen workshop,“What’s Bugging You?” will be held in August to deal with issues affecting teenagers.

She said in this age when people are so connected by technology they are more disconnected than even before. She added that many parents have passed on some of their parenting their responsibilities to devices like tablets and phones.