How Kathryn Boyd Brolin Found The Guts To Live Her Best Life—Including A Hot New Denim Line + Marriage To Josh...

Photo Credit: Valerie Fox

After struggling to find jeans with a long enough inseam to suit her leggy, 5’10” frame, Kathryn Boyd Brolin took action…  and Midheaven Denim was born. Lovingly cut and sewn in Los Angeles using high-end Italian denim and produced in the world’s greenest and most sustainable denim mill using further environmentally-friendly production tactics, Midheaven is a brand for women of all heights, designed as such to make the wearer feel confident and cast aside any insecurities.

It was Brolin’s intentionIn to make the wearer—including she herself—feel strong. Fashion and self are inextricably linked: How you feel often depends on how you look. With this in mind, the entrepreneur crafted the slogan and intention “Take Back Your Height,” focusing on the importance of feeling your best and truest, most confident self.

It’s inspiring to find those who make change. We sat down with Boyd Brolin to discuss confidence (she didn’t always have it) and how she came to find it, juggling being a new mom while staring a business and the best business advice supportive husband Josh Brolin could possibly have given her. Photo Credit: Valerie Fox

What inspired you to create Midheaven Denim?

I spent much of my early life struggling with my height. I became very tall early on and began to have a hard time finding clothes that were made to fit taller than average women. As I became more active in the modeling industry, I started to notice a trend of other tall women like myself having difficulty finding clothes to fit their longer legs. As someone who lives their life in jeans, the basic idea was to create a beautiful custom product for others like me who just wanted a few extra inches of length. The idea grew from there.

How do you feel Midheaven Denim fits into the current state of size inclusivity among fashion brands?

Midheaven was started for the tall girl. We wanted to be the company tall women could come to find beautiful garments made with their taller frames in mind. As time went on, we started to see other underrepresented demographics reaching out to us: shorter than “average,” the plus size communities, etc. Our sizing ranges from 24 to 33 and our inseams range from 28 to 38 inches, and we have plans to continue to grow and expand based on what we feel there is a need for. Our goal is to continue to serve our tall girl well while continuing to find those who too are underserved in the fashion space. We always welcome communication by potential customers and grow our product offering largely based on requests.

Photo Credit: Valerie Fox

Have you always embraced your height? If not, when did you start to love it?

When I was growing up, I absolutely hated being tall. There are obviously a lot of things you try and figure out about life when you’re young, but how to stand out (gracefully) was something I wasn’t sure how to do. Physically I felt very different from my peers, as I was at least a head and shoulders taller than everyone else. And worse of all, clothes just didn’t fit right so not only was I taller than everyone else but my pants were too short!

It took me a long time to stop expecting my external appearance to give me confidence, and I started to have to cultivate that within. It was growing pains; maybe the most important foundational time in my life. And I realized that if I’m not getting what I want, it’s up to me to go out and create it. Midheaven was my solution to a problem. I giant middle finger to the issue that caused me insecurity. I really built confidence from that, and somewhere along the way, I started to adore what made me different, including my height.

Did your husband give you any advice when you were starting up your company? Has he been supportive? If so, how so?

Josh is a big picture thinker; maybe one of the most creative and productive in business I have ever known. He has the ability to think about the long term while inspecting each individual detail and its impact on the short-term. When I started conceptualizing Midheaven and sharing my vision for what would become this business, he heard me out and proceeded to ask me questions from each angle, knowing that in crafting my experience, I was going to have to speak for it, describe it, make people understand it. He was playing the “they.” It was through these early conversations that I really honed in on what it was that I cared about enough to start the grueling process of building a business. Josh is a major proponent of people he cares about doing what inspires them. He will do what he can to help those around him get to the place they want to be. He has spent hours and hours talking me through tough decisions, encouraging me to face obstacles head-on, get up and dust myself off after those pesky and inevitable mistakes, and just being a giant rock of support overall. Building a business is rough, sticking to your original concept over time is rougher. If I ever find myself spinning, he’s always been my place of solace, my home.

Photo Credit: Valerie Fox

You are running a successful company, a new mom and wife to Josh. How do you maintain your personal identity while juggling it all?

All of those things are a part of my personal identity. I am so grateful for where I am in my life and to no longer be so focused on what or who I am. I honestly think entering my 30s helped me turn that corner and start to “do” versus just “think (about doing).” I do think balance is important, and distilling out each part of my life every so often is necessary; like taking a bike ride with my husband and having a friend watch the baby for an hour; Being able to set work down and spend the afternoon with my family; Knowing when to get up and go to work and have uninterrupted time at the studio to propel the company forward. On top of it all, having the energy to take some time to focus on me and making sure that connectedness is happening and that I’m feeling balanced, be it by working out, reading, or walking down to the beach. It is different energies working together to create our resting emotional state and I feel in my core that I’m happy, so I always come back to that hard-earned place.

Photo Credit: DFee/Shutterstock.com

I love your message, “Take back your height.” Can you touch upon how that represents the brand and resonates with other tall women?

When you’re as tall or taller than I am, you get confronted often with other people’s reaction to your height. “Wow, you’re so tall!” I found myself feeling insecure about it. I didn’t like how I felt the need to crouch down in conversation to meet other people’s eye level. I felt myself wilting in the desire to get rid of this feature that people found so “unique.” I started to practice “taking back my height.” It’s not yours, its mine. And your reaction to it is yours and that’s okay, but the way I experience it, my body, my height, is mine. I started to take ownership of my body and build confidence in what makes me. The “Midheaven” is the highest point the sun reaches in its daily traverse of the visible sky. I like what that represented as I was building a whole brand around that very premise: to look up, to rise to our own personal “midheaven” and feel confident in our physical body.

What is the number one piece of advice you can give to women about loving themselves and embracing what they were born with?

That in today’s chaotic social media-driven world, knowledge of your “self” is crucial. Every woman is different. Every body is different. Focus on what sets you apart, instead of what makes you part of the pack. We are all born unique for a reason. Find your own personal midheaven, however, that may look to you, and go for that, every day.