Ten Things I’m Looking Forward to in 2026
Bring it on, 2026 💫
Everyone talks about the start of their new year. You know the type: New Year, new me, this is going to be MY year, manifesting abundance, blah blah blah.
I used to be that person. (Okay, I’m totally still that person, but please keep reading.)
The difference is: this time I actually have a plan.
2025 was bananas. It was the year I started to build the roadmap instead of driving blind. The year I stopped winging it and started actually knowing where we’re going. The year I hired people who got it. The year I wrote it all down.
So 2026 isn’t about wishful thinking—it’s about taking a leap, but this time with a net beneath us. It’s blind faith, sure. But informed blind faith. Built on actual infrastructure, actual team members, and actual systems.
(Also? That’s kind of wild when you say it out loud.)
A lifelong friend recently shared that they always considered me an artist first, not a businesswoman first. An artist. And suddenly all those “strange turns”—leaving NYC, coming home, the pause, the restart, two businesses, interior design, fashion, magazine launches—they weren’t chaos. They were pieces of the same vision finally finding their full expression across multiple canvases.
Turns out my career hasn’t been a winding mess! 😂 It was a masterpiece in progress.
So, here are ten reasons I know 2026 is going to be something else entirely.
1. Weekend snuggles and weeknight dinners.
This one comes first because it’s the foundation for everything else.
There’s a ritual that happens most Saturday mornings in my house. The boys—Charlie and Rhodes—flank me on the sofa. One large blanket covers all of us. I’m holding my latte. My iPad is in my lap. I’m sifting through my magazines on Apple News. The cartoons (specifically, Grizzy and the Lemmings) are humming in the background. It’s chaos and quiet all at once.
I almost lost this in 2025. Not because I stopped doing it, but because I stopped being present during it. Half my brain was on inventory or deadlines or the next thing.
2026 is about protecting that; it’s about being fully there for weekend snuggles. About weeknight dinners where we’re not eating in shifts between meetings. About remembering that building an empire means nothing if I miss the small moments that actually matter.
I’m not doing another year where I choose the business over the breakfast table.
2. Womenswear collection launches (& knitwear returns).
The samples came in. They’re incredible.
Since the beginning, Retta Jane has been a children’s clothing brand. And we built something beautiful there. But womenswear has always been a part of the dream. Clothes for women who want to feel like themselves—timeless, intentional, unapologetic. Clothes that remind me of what was passed down from my mother and grandmother.
These aren’t precious pieces that live in your closet untouched. These are wearable. Office wearable. Playground wearable. Dinner party wearable. They’re designed for real women doing real things, not for Instagram. And the price-point? It’s going to surprise you—in the best way.
We’ve tested the factories. We’ve refined the designs. We’ve got the team in place. And we’re moving forward with a patent on one of our designs—which wasn’t on our Bingo card. That’s what confidence looks like. That’s what innovation looks like.
The womenswear collection launching in 2026 feels like finally stepping into the version of this brand I always imagined.
And knitwear is coming back! After the Evolution nightmare (if you’ve read my earlier Substacks, you know…), I couldn’t imagine being able to take on knitwear again. Too complicated. Too risky. Too many things that could go wrong.
But I found a new partner. And the ideas we’re developing? They’re different. Better. Smarter. We’re not repeating the same mistakes.
This isn’t a hope. This is happening.
3. Getting back to Parsons.
I started working on my Fashion Business Certificate and Fashion Buying and Merchandising Certificate at Parsons (the New School). Then a combination of chaos and life happened, and I had to pause.
But I’m determined to go back and finish what I started. Spring or summer of 2026, I’m back in class.
This might sound counterintuitive when I’m opening a store and scaling two businesses. But this is how I stay sharp. This is how I stay hungry. Going back to school, sitting in a classroom (albeit virtual!) with people, many who are just starting their journeys, being reminded of the fundamentals—it feeds the artist part of me that makes everything else possible.
You can’t build something beautiful if you stop studying. Plus, I love school.
4. New leadership role on the Girls in the Know Board of Directors.
I first learned about Girls in the Know when my stepdaughter was in fifth grade. We did a four-weekend program together through the organization and her school, and I was immediately struck by their mission: building confidence, resilience, and authentic leadership in girls.
There’s so much symbiosis between what we’re building as a brand and what they’re building as an organization. Both are about creating space for girls to become the ambitious women we need them to be. Both are about saying: you belong here. Your voice matters.
I was lucky to be connected with the founder in 2025, and after our first conversation, it felt obvious. Girls in the Know is where I should land. This is a place where I can do some good.
I’m taking on a new leadership role on their Board of Directors starting this month. I’m thrilled and honored. This matters to me in a way that goes beyond business.
If you have an adolescent girl in your life—daughter, niece, neighbor—you cannot gloss over this one. Look up the organization. They provide open dialogue in safe spaces along with fact-based information on the tough issues: body image, puberty, peer pressure, cyberbullying. The real conversations girls need to have with someone who actually listens.
Even if your girls are still young, look into this. Save it. Know it’s there for when they need it.
You can learn more at girlsintheknow.org. If you believe in this work, support it.
5. Protecting rituals with Tom.
After the boys go down, Tom and I have our show. We sit on the sofa. There is likely a cocktail involved. Together we watch whatever has captured us that season. It’s thirty to sixty minutes where we’re just...together. Not talking about the business. Not running through tomorrow’s to-do list. Just present.
And then we go upstairs and read in bed before sleeping.
Somewhere in the chaos of 2025, we stopped going on actual date nights. Real dates. The kind where we leave the house and remember why we like each other. That’s ending in 2026. We already have one in the books since January 1st, and the goal is to continue them—often!
(Something or someone was on our side for that first date night of 2026, as we were even able to book a last-minute table at Wright’s Tavern…IYKYK…good omen?)
Tom has shown up for every wild idea I’ve ever had. The least I can do is show up for him. Consistently. Intentionally.
2026 is the year I protect our little rituals like my life depends on it. Because honestly? It does.
6. Building our Retta Jane family.
I’m genuinely nervous about this one…and equally excited!
Right now, I have a team on the clothing side of Retta Jane and a team building out the interior design practice. Both are sensational. Both get the vision. Both are teams I would choose to spend time with even if they didn’t work for me.
But 2026 means we’re scaling. We are going to need specific people in specific places to make this work.
With that in mind, I can share that we will be hiring for two major roles:
Finance & Operations Manager - Someone to build our financial infrastructure from the ground up. P&L management, cash flow tracking, vendor coordination, strategic financial thinking. Here’s the thing: this doesn’t require a typical 40-hour work week. It’s flexible. It’s designed for someone who doesn’t want a 9-5 schedule. Perhaps it’s someone who stepped back from work to raise a family. Maybe it’s someone who’s simply done with the corporate grind. This role is perfect for someone who wants to structure their time in a way that actually works for their life.
Store & Hospitality Manager - Someone to run our retail space AND manage The Reading Room—our cafe concept that comes to life when we open. (More on that soon!) Daily operations, customer experience, team building. This person doesn’t just manage a store. They build out our brand and visual message in new ways every single day.
Both roles are critical. Both roles should be fun. Both require people who understand what we’re actually building.
If you’re interested, know someone who is, or want to learn more: reach out! I’m looking for people who understand the vision and want to be part of making it real.
Plus…I’m totally biased, but we have a fabulous Retta Jane family so far!! Come join our mighty team!
7. Pilates with BOOM.
I was on a solid three-times-a-week pilates streak most of 2025. Then autumn hit and I fell off.
But I’m getting back to Boom Pilates. Because Danyl Timmerman and her brilliant team have genuinely changed how I think about strength training. From someone who never liked working out, they’ve made it feel like something I want to do. (What a concept!)
It’s not punishment. It’s not obligation. It’s just... strength and stress release wrapped into one. It’s heavenly!!
There’s something about being in that studio with other women who are also building their own things, pushing their bodies, taking care of themselves while the world is falling apart. It grounds me.
2026 is the year I make that a priority again.
8. Feeding the artist in me—museums, exhibits, and cultural moments.
A little fun fact: my college minor is in art and architecture history. I spent years studying impressionists, as it was one of the first bits of art history I chewed on in high school. I even went to France with my high school art teacher to study the masters. I’ve always loved Berthe Morisot.
In 2026, the Saint Louis Art Museum is hosting an exhibit titled Women Impressionists and the Land. SLAM is one of the best things about St. Louis—it’s FREE, which is unprecedented and should be celebrated. So I’ll be there.
I’m also heading to the Missouri History Museum for “Made in St. Louis”—an exhibit on the incredible innovations and creations born right here.
On that note, I don’t think that most understand just how much was started in this city. The answering machine. Build-A-Bear. The ice cream cone. X-ray machines. 7UP. Gooey butter cake. The Eads Bridge using structural steel for the first time. St. Louis style pizza (don’t knock it). Ragtime and Blues music. The Lewis and Clark Expedition. The first US Olympics.
We’re not a flyover state—we’re a place with legacy. Maybe Retta Jane will be on that list one day?
Finally, I am determined to get to Crystal Bridges in Bentonville to see the Keith Haring exhibit dedicated to his lesser-known 3D work.
Side note: my son Charlie painted a portrait of himself at school last spring that looks uncannily like Keith Haring. I’m not the only one seeing it, right???
Feeding the artist means showing up for museums. For history. For inspiration that has nothing to do with business plans. It means remembering that all the building I’m doing flows from somewhere creative and real.
9. House of Dragons (and all the shows coming back).
Look, I absolutely recognize how silly this may read next to everything else.
But…House of Dragons Season 3 is coming!
And The Night Agent Season 2 is back—after a ten-year hiatus!
And Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is starting.
And The Night Manager Season 3.
Shrinking Season 3.
The Lincoln Lawyer Season 4.
Industry Season 4.
And probably a dozen other shows that will capture my brain and make me feel like a human who does things that aren’t on a business plan.
Sometimes the most important part of scaling is remembering to live. To have hobbies (yes, I believe that great television watching can be a hobby!) that do not feed the empire. Sometimes you just need to watch dragons blow fire at castles...and enjoy it. 🐉 🔥
2026 is the year I protect that too.
10. Opening the concept store.
This. Is. It. THIS is the thing.
We are opening a concept store for Retta Jane.
The store will be located in Clayton (St. Louis suburb), and will include the Retta Jane brand (childrenswear, womenswear, and some surprise additions), curated goods and housewares from around the world, and some vintage pieces. It will also house our Retta Jane offices, both the brand and the interiors.
The store will also include a ‘third space’ named The Reading Room. I am not going to give too much away, yet, but I will share that this space will allow us to really build and grow our community. It was inspired by my annual Chicago weekends with my mother and grandmother, and it’s different from anything else here in town.
This store is a culmination of everything I’ve been building toward for years. All the pieces are finally finding their place. All of the canvases are coming together.
It’s not just a board on my Pinterest. It’s real. It’s happening in 2026.
Opening this store isn’t just about opening a store. It’s about proving that you can build luxury from the Midwest. That you don’t need permission from New York or LA to create something beautiful. That an artist with a vision and a team that believes in it can literally build a gathering space that changes how women show up in their own lives.
In 2026, we’re not just scaling a business. We’re building culture.
So yes, this year feels different!
My father once said that you make your own luck. 🍀 It’s something that sits with me.
I do believe that there are greater powers than ourselves. I do believe in manifesting and that the universe will provide. BUT, I also believe that you cannot just sit back and wait for things to happen.
I spent 2025 building the blueprint.
2026 is the year we execute it.