Shereé Whitfield is standing by the prices of her She by Shereé fashion line.
The Real Housewives of Atlanta star finally launched her long-awaited brand last month, after debuting the collection on the Bravo reality show's season 14 reunion. But not long after the activewear items hit the web, fans began complaining that the mother of three was charging too much for her clothes, citing the site's listings of $142 T-shirts and $262 hoodies.
Asked about the backlash in an interview about the launch with PEOPLE, Whitfield stays firm in her choice.
"I know people had an issue. 'Oh, this is this price?' but when you're comparing my line to some of those other lines out there, you have to remember that they order hundreds of thousands of their products so of course they're going to get a much better price per item and then sell each item for cheaper," Whitfield, 52, explains. "They can afford to do that, I can't. I don't get huge discount when I'm making things. So I have to charge a little more to cover that cost."
"Everything I'm making is quality, too," she adds. "I'm not just buying a cheap T-shirt and printing my design on it. It's a quality T-shirt! My hoodies have embroidery on them. I'm working with organic. I'm making clothes that will last; that won't fall apart in the wash; that you can wear over and over again. It's not cheap. I wish it were, but it's not."
She went on to explain that many of her T-shirts have two price points, a more-affordable version ($82) and the pricier, $142 version that includes her signature.
"People were also saying, 'Can you sign this?' so we came up with this idea to sign the T-shirts beforehand and sell them that way," she says. "Now, that's me. That's taking my time, my energy, my hand to sign each T-shirt that's delivered. It's not a stamp. It's not a print. It's me putting love into these items. So again, that comes at a cost and a signed version is definitely going to be more."
"It's worth every penny," Whitfield insists. "Like, my She's a Star [$252] hoodie is worth every penny, because you are a star as far as I'm concerned."
Whitfield worked 14 years to make her line a reality. She famously first tried to get it off the ground during RHOA's first season in 2008, but wound up showing, as Dwight Eubanks put it, a "fashion show with no fashions." Nothing materialized after that.
When asked about the status of her collection a decade later, at the RHOA season 10 reunion, Whitfield famously said athleisure "joggers" were coming in "September, spring summer." Months later, she launched a collaborated with Nordstrom x Hanes on a limited T-shirt based on her signature "Who Gon Check Me Boo?" catchphrase, but a full line never released.
Now, all that's changed, with She by Shereé finally a reality.
"I'm just so proud of it," Whitfield tells PEOPLE. "I mean, 14 years ago, I had a dream. I had a vision. I had owned and operated one of the hottest boutiques in Atlanta before I was on the show, and I always loved fashion so when Housewives came along I was like, 'Okay, I'm going to do my own line.' But I didn't know what I was doing. I didn't know the business. I didn't know how hard it would be to coordinate with designers and manufacturers and distributors. I didn't know how many people would take advantage of me. And I had to learn all those lessons the hard way."
As frustrating as all that was for Whitfield, she says that she's glad she faced those hardships.
"I learned a lot about myself," she shares. "I'e gone through a lot in my life, way more than I wanted to or feel like I should have. And I feel like I have to be strong. But this experience, it taught me that it's okay to fail sometimes. It's not always going to happen on your time. It's not your time, it's God's time. So you have to be patient and not give up."
"I was doing this all by myself — while still being a mama, still building my house, still pursuing other goals I had in my life. It was hard. And there were times where it felt like I wanted to give up because there was always something in my way before. Like years ago, when I was ready to launch the line and then COVID happened so I had to shut down. You say to yourself, 'Why even try?' But if it's something you're passionate about, you have to keep going no matter what. And I'm so glad that I did."
She's also aware that not having a collection helped make her brand more popular than it would have been had she launched all those years ago.
"Oh, I was the butt of everyone's jokes. I was getting all the negativity and the shade. But at the end of the day, it's a blessing because for 14 years, people still talked about She by Shereé," she says. "It never existed, but it was a household name. They still wanted the brand. They were still looking for the brand. And now to be able to give them product, it's just been incredible."
Whitfield doesn't plan on stopping anytime soon. "I see so many amazing things for She by Shereé," Whitfield says. "I want it to be a lifestyle brand, so I can see a home line, children's — all these areas that I'm passionate about. I'm excited about building the brand into the full vision."
And as for any haters coming her way, Whitfield says she's long learned how to handle them.
"People just really want to tear you down. You've got to ignore it. You've got to tune out the noise," she says. "Misery loves company. Let them be miserable by themselves."
She by Shereé is on sale now.
