Call to Action Clothing

The Hingham-based apparel company Call to Action Clothing (C2A) is poised to make a big splash in the fashion world this summer when it showcases its 2022 swimwear collection at Miami Swim Week. The brand, which announced its official launch at a pop-up event on Nantucket this past May, is the brainchild of designer and founder Jill Palese, who spent several years perfecting gorgeous designs that are figure-flattering and made as sustainably as possible. Ironically, Jill Palese isn’t an avid swimmer. “I’m actually not much of a beach person,” Palese says with a laugh. “I’ve got really fair skin.” When it comes to textiles, however, there’s a close connection between swimwear and figure skating attire, and Palese grew up as an avid skater. In high school, she created ice-dancing dresses for herself and her teammates.

“I was sewing by the time I was 5 years old,” says Palese, who was born in Wisconsin and raised in New York. “The whole idea of spandex fiber rocked my world.”

Palese earned a degree in design from the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City before pursuing a career as an activewear designer. A self-professed “textile nerd,” she worked for a swimwear manufacturer early in her career that supplied suits for multiple brands. She recalls being 24 years old and designing a plus-size women’s swimsuit.

“I just thought about what I would want to wear myself,” she says. “Looking good in a swimsuit isn’t about size, it’s about being confident.”

She put her career on hold while she was raising her family—her daughter is now a sophomore in college and her son is a junior at Hingham High School. But she kept her fashion-industry contacts and nurtured her dream of eventually starting her own swimwear company.

Palese was determined that her company would embrace “slow fashion” and the principles of sustainability. Throughout her career Palese had seen the growing trend toward “fast fashion,” which refers to inexpensive and cheaply-produced clothing that has a notoriously short lifespan, and will quickly be replaced when it wears out or its owner tires of it.

“I really believe in designing clothes that people will wear for a very long time,” says Palese.

She set out to produce a line of swimwear that made women feel comfortable and look beautiful, and that was also built to last. Her company name was inspired by Palese’s hopes for the future of the planet. Her products are designed and manufactured with sustainability practices in place, including reducing the use of water, energy, chemicals and waste, and working with suppliers who share the same environmental practices. Palese has also earmarked a portion of C2A profits to be donated to environmental nonprofit organizations.

Palese hired fellow Hinghamite and technology and apparel executive Dan Rakauskas as her company CEO. Rakauskas has built a niche working with companies that care about sustainability, so Call to Action was right up his alley.

Together, they were just about ready to launch the business when the pandemic hit, and everything turned upside down. A company like C2A, based in the travel and leisure sector, seemed unlikely to survive. Moreover, their factory in the Dominican Republic was deemed non-essential, and forced to shut down. Faced with these barriers, some entrepreneurs would have thrown in the towel, but Palese and her team decided to pivot.

“We looked at each other and said, ‘we’re going into the worst global crisis of our lifetime, and starting this company right now just doesn’t seem like the right thing to do,’” says Palese.

They’d already raised $50,000 in startup capital. They put their product line on hold and decided to use their funds, not to make bathing suits, but to help people on the front lines of the pandemic. They appealed to fashion partners and added to their seed amount, and they called in a few favors from friends. In short order they raised an additional $25,000 and were shipping bolts of fabric to the Dominican Republic.

Ultimately, Call to Action Clothing was able to singlehandedly keep the factory open during the early weeks of COVID. It achieved essential status since Palese arranged for the factory to make 8,500 woven and reusable hospital gowns. Those gowns, crafted from 17,000 yards of nondisposable fabric, were supplied for free to healthcare workers by C2A.

“This was a literal call to action,” says Palese of the steps she had to take for her company’s pandemic pivot. “I knew the factory employees; they’re wonderful people. For them to go for weeks without income, we just had to do something to help.”

Last summer she and her team pivoted again, from hospital gowns back to swimwear.

“I love creating solutions and solving problems,” says Palese of Call to Action’s stalled start, then soft launch, and its current potential. “Now we’re all ready to forge ahead.”

Follow Call to Action Clothing on Instagram @c2aclothing and shop the collection at Bloom Lingerie Boutique in Cohasset, or online at c2aclothing.com.