Halfstack Highlights: Ep. 64: Meet Designer Phoebe Chen of NOCORI

Hello everyone! 

Welcome to the latest episode of Halfstack Highlights!! This is Jen Lezan, and I am the Editor in Chief of the Chicago based digital magazine Halfstackmag.com and I am also one of the hosts of our podcast: Halfstack Highlights. I am excited to share this week’s episode as it features another local Chicago entrepreneur and designer: Phoebe Chen. She spends her time between Chicago and New York working for a local Non-profit here in the Windy City, while also designing and manufacturing for her startup in NYC. 

Images Courtesy of Phoebe Chen/NOCORI

Phoebe is the founder of NOCORI. An accessories brand that celebrates the bold, the ambitious and the unabashedly authentic. I learned about NOCORI through the Project Entrepreneur Alumni network and I just had to learn more about the woman behind the gorgeous gym bags that second as your chic handbag.

Phoebe created NOCORI in the hopes of solving a problem that many of us have encountered in today's world.  Whether you consider yourself a fitness guru, a meeting maven, or a warrior parent – Phoebe explains that people often rush from meetings to errands followed by dinner(s) and/or gathering(s) with friends while trying to squeeze in a workout somewhere in-between. We seem to find ourselves faced with the constant struggle of having to choose convenience over style, inevitably weighed down by the amount of "stuff" we carry to accommodate this fast-paced lifestyle.  NOCORI seeks to solve this problem. Each bag Phoebe creates is thoughtfully designed to bring convenience to your lifestyle while looking gorgeously minimalist.

In this episode I talk with Phoebe about her journey launching the Nocori collection as well as how she works to find some sort of balance as busy woman who is still working an industry job while building her startup and living between multiple cities. We discuss what the process was like launching her collection and how timing can change without a moments notice in fashion production. We talk about yoga, finding ways to distress as an entrepreneur, the realities behind the glamour of fashion start up life and we get a little philosophical talking about the ideas that women get caught up in when it comes to personal power and belief in our abilities to truly create our future and support one another. Phoebe is such an inspiring woman with a heart of gold and I hope you find motivation in her story. Click below to listen to the full interview.

Just hit the play button for the full interview 
PODCAST: Play in new window | Download
Listen and subscribe via iTunes

We hope you enjoyed this latest episode of Halfstack Highlights.  Thanks Phoebe for sharing your journey with us!  If you are interested in learning more about Phoebe connect with her social media channels, or make a purchase – visit her site: www.nocori.com.

While you are online make sure you stop by issuu.com/halfstackmag to read our latest issue and keep up with us on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.  If you want to grab a print copy of the latest issue you can do so here: http://bit.ly/HSMBlurbPrint

If you like what we are doing with Halfstack Highlights, please take a moment to leave a review for our podcast on iTunes. This will help our episodes to get noticed and allow us to continue to create the content you enjoy listening to and that we are passionate about.

Thanks for your support!
- Jen