Stacy Igel

When Stacy Igel first visited her then-boyfriend's family home, she noticed something unusual on the walls – silhouettes of him and his siblings that reminded her of similar silhouettes she had of herself and her sister back in Chicago. That moment of connection sparked an idea that would define her career: BOY MEETS GIRL®, her fashion brand that has now been running for over 20+ years. "Boy meets girl, girl meets girl, boy meets boy," Stacy explains. "At that moment I was like, 'Oh my God, I have to get my silhouettes from back home in Chicago and merge our silhouettes together.'" The next day, she trademarked the name, creating a brand inspired by the universal experience of connection – whether it's a first date, first concert, or first friendship.

Early Life

Growing up in Chicago, Stacy was drawn to fashion "from the womb," as she puts it. By sixth grade, she was already making her own clothes, proudly wearing a skirt she designed to a new school. While many kids had lemonade stands (which she had too), young Stacy was running a more sophisticated operation. "My mom would go to Taiwan and bring back trinkets like charm necklaces, erasers, and canteens," Stacy recalls. "I would take those trinkets and make little Polaroid catalogs – because we didn't have social media – and I would bring those to school and sell to my friends.

This entrepreneurial spirit wasn't random. It was nurtured by watching her mother, Robin, build a business of her own. While Stacy was growing up, Robin worked as a physician assistant who ran the Back School at Cook County Hospital in Chicago. Through this work, she developed a lumbar support called the Back Machine."Unlike me in fashion, she had one style number, one color way, and one product," Stacy says with a smile. 

The business initially operated out of their home, where Stacy would watch her mother packing boxes late into the night, working with UPS bags and tape machines as shipments went out from their house."A lot of her building and entrepreneurship, I saw," Stacy explains. "I would go to trade shows with her. I learned how to sell a product and show a product and how to work with buyers."

Threads of Wisdom

From these early experiences with her mother's business, Stacy gained crucial insights that would later help her build her own brand. When she moved to New York in 1999 to work in fashion, she already had a solid foundation in the business side of the industry.

Her mother had emphasized that success in fashion required more than just design talent."What was really essential, and that came from my mother, was that she always believed you have to learn all facets of the business if you really want to be in it," Stacy explains. "You can watch Project Runway and you see that you only really know a few designers that come from it. One of them is Christian Siriano. And why is that? Because in fashion, you need to know business. You need to know retail, you need to know marketing."

This wisdom led Stacy to pursue a comprehensive education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, focusing not just on design but also on retail, merchandising, and business. This broad foundation proved essential when she launched Boy Meets Girl in 2001 – just one week after 9/11. "It was very hard for me to decide if I should be in fashion when we had this terrorist attack," Stacy remembers. In that moment of national trauma, she made a crucial decision: her brand would lead with impact. Her first product line donated proceeds to the American Red Cross for victims of 9/11 and their families. This approach of blending business with purpose – another value she learned from her mother – has defined Boy Meets Girl ever since. "I decided that I would lead with a brand and always be a brand of impact," she says.

Stacy also credits her mother with instilling values of kindness, strong work ethic, and the belief that you can be both an entrepreneur and a mother. "It's the essence of family and friendships and just 'do unto others as you want to be treated,'" she explains.

These values extend to her connection to Judaism as well. Growing up in a family with a line of Orthodox rabbis (her father's father was an Orthodox rabbi), Stacy approaches religion more as community than dogma. For her, it's about gathering together, particularly for Shabbat dinners every Friday night. "We invited all our non-Jewish friends and people from all walks of life to the house. So it was constantly sort of like a Thanksgiving every Friday," she recalls. These gatherings made such an impression that some of her non-Jewish friends from her volleyball team now want to create similar traditions with their own families.

Reflections

When asked about her most precious memories growing up, Stacy immediately thinks of those Shabbat dinners. "We just recently sold our home from growing up, which was a really sad moment last week for me," she shares. "It was a special home where people gathered."

Now, as a mother herself, Stacy finds new precious moments watching her son Dylan develop his own entrepreneurial spirit. During the COVID-19 pandemic, when he was around five years old, Dylan had the opportunity to see his mother maintaining her business remotely – something he wouldn't normally witness. He helped her with masks they were making, testing them and developing versions for kids.

Now, Dylan has created his own product – a pin that says "Number One Mom" that he sells and donates part of the proceeds to a nonprofit researching dementia and Alzheimer's. This cause has personal significance for their family, as Stacy's mother Robin was diagnosed with dementia in recent years. Despite this diagnosis, Robin's fighting spirit remains intact. "That warrior, feisty, outgoing person is still there," Stacy says. Her mother continues to walk, play tennis, and even remembers all the words to songs she loves – a fascinating aspect of dementia that allows musical memory to remain strong even as other cognitive abilities fade.

Watching her mother battle this disease has reinforced for Stacy the importance of cherishing every moment. "Life is really precious," she reflects. "Seeing Dylan every day and watching him grow and holding onto those moments because you just never know what's going to happen."As for dreams she's had to adjust, Stacy has come to terms with the fact that her brand may never be the next Nike or Louis Vuitton – and that's okay. "If I'm not around to be with my child, why did I have a child?" she asks. "I can give back. I can have my business. I can be there for my family. And I'm really pretty complete with that."

In Stacy's story, we see how the entrepreneurial threads from her mother weave through her own life and now into her son's. We see how values of kindness, community, and purpose can build a successful business that stands the test of time. And we see how the connections between people – boy meets girl, parent meets child, entrepreneur meets community – create the most meaningful patterns in the fabric of our lives.