Atlanta entrepreneur Lady Danzy is taking fashion to a new level with her elegant prom, formal, pageant, and bridal store, Fit for a Queen in Midtown Atlanta. The company started in a smaller storefront but is now located in Midtown only a couple of doors down from the Fox Theatre.
Successful business owner, Danzy, was able to share more about her past career in insurance and how she overcame obstacles navigating the fashion industry as a Black woman entrepreneur.
How did you transition from being in the insurance industry to starting a successful business in the fashion industry?
For almost 20 years I was in the financial industry as an insurance agency owner, so I’m used to being an owner of several different types of businesses. Then I just decided almost after 20 years of being in the industry that I wanted to just try something different. Try something that I felt was a natural kind of talent and a gift from God.
When it comes to fashion, if it’s in you it comes naturally to you. After taking my daughter prom shopping and spending time helping other clients and other prom stores, I said, “you know I want to see if this is something I can do or get into.” So again, just took a leap of faith, did my research, looked at the best designers, narrowed it down to what designers I wanted to work with, and over time just developed a concept that would be different from any other store or any other retailer in Atlanta. It’s a little bit of a natural gift and talent but like any industry, you have to study the market and you have to study your industry so you can be most successful in it.
How important is minority representation and how have you incorporated that into your brand?
Well the good thing about it, is I’m in Atlanta and there is no other place like Atlanta. It’s kind of like “go big or go home” in Atlanta and so when I have an opportunity to meet other store owners or look at other stores, I can see that there is an area that is always missing. We are not always considered when a designer is making a gown when it comes to the fabric or even how sometimes their nude is not a brown nude. It’s just different things that I see that are not necessarily thought of even though we are a huge percentage of their consumers every year. It has been really important to make sure that my market matches my demographics and we are a very diverse store just being in the heart of Atlanta. We want to make sure that our clients, Black women, Latino women, it doesn’t matter, can find something that looks like them, represents them, and is something they are going to feel comfortable in.
