BYU student AnnaBelle Gilmore started her own swimsuit company inspired by women in her family and her own drive to pursue her passions.
The official name and style of her company LADEAN SWIM was heavily influenced by Gilmore’s grandma and great aunt, she explained.
“There’s been a familiar, generational trickle of passing down the name ‘Dean’ through the women on my mom’s side of the family,” Gilmore said. “My middle name is Dean, my mom’s middle name is Dean, my grandma’s name is LaDean, and my great aunt is named Dean.”
Her great aunt inspired the feminine style of the swimsuits, and the name LaDean perfectly portrayed what Gilmore imagined for her brand, she said.
“My great aunt was the most well dressed, classy and dolled up woman and I was trying to figure out a way to present that because I loved and admired the person that she was,” she said. “The pairing of LaDean felt perfect because it had a little extra feminine flare.”
The initial idea to start a swimsuit company started because of a lighthearted joke, Gilmore's husband Zerin Gilmore said.
“Annie had a swimsuit that she really liked but kept commenting on how a swimsuit could be better suited for her,” he said. “I lightheartedly said, ‘Well why don’t you just make your own business?’ and Annie was like, ‘You know what, that’s a great idea.’ And she ran with it.”
At the time, AnnaBelle Gilmore had just wrapped up her tattoo business and was on the search for something entrepreneurial, she said.
“I was ready to jump into something,” she said. “LADEAN started as a silly way of being like, ‘I’m going to see how far I can take it. How hard could it be?’”
LADEAN SWIM quickly evolved into a creative outlet, AnnaBelle Gilmore said. Not only was she excited about it, but she knew she could give swimsuit solutions to women who felt the same about their purchases as she did, she added.
“AnnaBelle is precise, has grit and is a visionary,” her mother Alyson Smith said. “These are not attributes she has developed overtime; rather, things she was born with and that I’ve observed from a very young age.”
These attributes have been vital to the design and quality of the swimsuits AnnaBelle Gilmore has created for LADEAN SWIM, Smith said. It’s very rare that someone follows through with their dreams start to finish, and AnnaBelle Gilmore’s ability to push forward has been reflected in her many entrepreneurial pursuits over the years, she added.
“Her dad has a saying that’s kind of iconic,” Zerin Gilmore said.
He said anytime there’s an opportunity presented her father always says, "You only have a problem if they say 'yes.'"
"That is something so fundamental to Annie’s perspective as an entrepreneur,” Zerin Gilmore said.
The idea behind the saying is that people often talk themselves out of big ideas by getting caught up in intimidation, fears and risks, but they’ve already lost by giving up, Smith explained.
“That was kind of how I learned my lessons growing up,” AnnaBelle Gilmore said. “If they say 'yes,' then you got to figure out how to make it happen. So, for me with the business, I really only had a problem if people wanted to buy this.”
It’s a very positive use of the word “problem,” AnnaBelle Gilmore clarified. No one is ever going to know what’s coming their way if they don’t shoot their shot, she added.
To learn more about AnnaBelle Gilmore and her business, visit her Instagram or website.