Why I Started Everybody Loves Everybody

A reflection about curiosity, creativity, and building a community.

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There’s a very specific kind of thought that shows up when an idea refuses to leave you alone.

It usually arrives at inconvenient times: On long flights, while staring at a notebook that’s already full of other ideas, while walking through a city you’ve never been to before.

The kind of idea that quietly sits in the back of your mind and waits.

This one has been waiting for years.

To be honest, this idea has been burning a hole in the back of my brain for such a long time.

So long that I’ve had entire conversations with myself about exactly how it would rise and fall. Long enough that I’ve tried to turn it into about 10 different business plans in the past 10 years before realizing something crucial.

Maybe the problem wasn’t the idea

Maybe it was the fact that I kept trying to make something so perfect before it even existed.

I have so many things I loved that I couldn’t figure out how they were supposed to fit together.

Travel. Fashion. Cooking. Sewing. Storytelling. Creating things just for the joy of making them.

For a while I kept asking myself the same question over and over again:

"How do you take everything you love and turn it into one thing that other people might love too?"

This is the question that would send me into a spiral more than once.

I would sit with notebooks full of ideas, trying to organize them into something that made sense. A brand. A concept. A plan.

And somewhere in the middle of all that thinking, I was missing the most important step.

Simply Starting.

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The truth is, the heart of this whole idea really comes down to two things that have shaped my life more than anything else: my love of travel and my love of fashion.

I believe travel has a way of changing you. It quietly rearranges how you see the world. You start noticing things you didn’t before like; the colors in buildings, Smells of different food, and how what people wear tells a story about where they come from. (This is how most of the time, I'm instantly labeled as American)

Fashion, for me, has always been another language for that same curiosity

But if I’m being honest, I’ve never loved just one creative thing.

I love cooking. I love learning new skills. I love making things with my hands. I love listening to people’s stories. I love the moment when someone discovers something new and their whole perspective shifts a little.

So eventually the real question became:

"How do all of those things exist in the same space?"

And then the answer, slowly, became clear.

Community.

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More than anything, I want to build a place where people who share that same curiosity could gather. A place where people could learn from each other, share ideas, and explore creativity together.

Somewhere kind.

Somewhere warm.

Somewhere welcoming.

Somewhere that reminds people that curiosity about the world is something we can all share.

Because in a world often full of so much hate we all deserve to spread a little more love.

And through all these ideas and a minor spiral; Everybody Loves Everybody was born.

I want to create a space where someone can arrive feeling inspired, curious, or even a little lost and get immersed in something that sparks a new idea or way of thinking.

A place where different cultures, different ways of living, and different creative passions can meet.

Because the more I travel, the more I realize ....

The world becomes a much more interesting place when we stay curious about each other.

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Growing up, I was involved in so many things, but the path I eventually followed opened my eyes to a much bigger world than I ever expected.

I grew up in a small town, where life felt familiar and contained. Then I started studying fashion design, eventually worked in costume departments, and suddenly I found myself traveling and experiencing places and communities I had never imagined being part of.

Those experiences are what changed me.

They showed me cultures, creativity, and perspectives that expanded my understanding of the world and I never took this for granted.

I've always thought about the fact that many people don’t get the chance to experience these things.

But that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t.

One of my favorite memories from those years was teaching dancers how to sew. It might seem like a small thing, but watching someone learn a new skill, seeing that moment when something finally clicks is incredibly special.

I loved watching people discover something they had never thought about before.

I loved seeing their excitement grow.

That’s when I realized something about myself.

I love teaching.

I love sharing the things I’ve learned. I love watching curiosity take root in someone’s mind and grow into something bigger.

And somewhere along the way, I realized

I also love storytelling.

The stories of places.

The stories of people.

The stories hidden inside the clothes we wear and the traditions that shape them.

So the question slowly shifted from "what should this brand be?" to:

How do I build a community around curiosity?

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Everybody Loves Everybody is my attempt at answering that question.

It’s a place where creativity, travel, craft, and storytelling can exist together. A place where learning new skills; like sewing, becomes a way to connect with people and ideas from all over the world.

More than anything, it’s an invitation.

Come as you are. Explore as we go.

From my corner of the world,

Erika