Local Artist, Minority, Mother of 4 Strives to Open Online Business in Spite Of COVID-19

Local Bay Area born and raised minority Delta resident Monica Longmire and mother of 4 children began the process of opening her business in September 2019 after continued unexpected layoffs and most recently working as a contract Web Content Publisher for a corporate financial institution.

Mrs. Longmire has maintained a successful career that began before graduating from The Art Institute of California – San Francisco in September 2007 with a Bachelor of Science in Fashion Marketing & Management. With 14 years experience in the industry, Longmire felt it was time to create a business of her own. Her fashion roots began at Pittsburg High School in 2001 when they introduced a Sewing/Fashion Design elective where she designed her own prom dress (inspired by Jennifer Lopez’s infamous green Versace dress worn to the 42^nd Grammy Awards in 2000, combined with a La Perla ad in a fashion magazine) with hopes her parent’s would be able to pay for it.  Her family didn’t grow up with much money, but her father made a way to provide her the $300 to have her dream dress made. Using her talent she also designed two friend’s prom dresses and she quickly learned she was more interested in the business side of fashion.

Driven for success, it began with an internship in the Marketing Department of a well-known family owned hat company in San Francisco, CA. Within months, Longmire had the opportunity to move from Intern to Manager of E-Commerce when a window of opportunity arose… learn an E-commerce CMS platform quickly to fulfill the need. She maintained success wearing multiple hats for the business from CMS content management, graphic design for promotional pieces, booking and managing models for the brands photoshoots and driving sales for the e-commerce site. Her career continued working for a corporate Health providers Web Department’s re-design project in Walnut Creek, CA, as well as, an SF contemporary fashion boutique that had a need for an E-Commerce platform and as an E-commerce customer service manager for a watch company in Blackhawk, CA.

The impact of COVID-19 was a blow to the hard-working wife and mother of 4 with children ages 2, 11, 12 and 14. With a recent unexpected layoff at the end of 2019 then the pandemic hitting early 2020, looking for a new FT role seemed almost impossible with homeschooling 3 school age children and looking after her 2-year-old.  Her hard work ethic and dreams of becoming an entrepreneur prevailed. Longmire received a call to return to her previous role as a Web Content Publisher. She balanced working 40 hours a week, homeschooling her children and after dinner every night tirelessly headed back to her office to work until 12am-1am and FT on weekends to get her business up and running.

Longmire has successfully launched her online Designer Women’s boutique www.dezignerheaven.com.  “In today’s world with brief and limited contact due to COVID-19, fashion truly has become an instant language. During those quick grocery store runs or small gatherings it is important to make you feel human still. Dezigner Heaven offers on Trend, hand selected, unique brand new contemporary and designer pieces at affordable prices with the ultimate goal of making luxury obtainable to all of my clients, you simply have to adjust to the times”. ~Monica Longmire

The multi-talented mother continues to wears multiple hats, this time for her own business as a buyer, stylist, photographer, graphic designer, product copywriter, inventory controller and content/social media manager.  With kids returning back to school, once proms continue she plans to give back to Pittsburg High School where it all began by sharing her story in hopes to inspire teens and donate dresses to low income young women with outstanding academics. Stay tuned!