After law school, Adriel Sanders, 41, found work as a corporate securities, mergers and acquisitions attorney. But she didn’t enjoy practicing law. “The whole firm knew it. It was not a well-kept secret. I tried to pretend like I wanted to be a partner, but I couldn’t maintain that image. I didn’t even want to be a lawyer,” Sanders, tells CNBC Make It.
“I didn’t enjoy the work and the expectation to work all the time and I will probably be one of the only attorneys who says it, but I don’t think it’s that intellectually stimulating.”
Sanders, who goes by Adriel Felise online, quit that job and eventually went to work as general counsel for a publicly traded company. At the time, Sanders was living in Washington, D.C. and making $286,656 a year, according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It. She lived in a studio apartment and paid about $3,000 a month in rent.
“What stereotypically happens to most Black women when they work in corporate America is the type of things I experienced my whole career. You’re constantly hitting up against this glass ceiling,” Sanders says. “I was deeply and truly miserable at the very depths of my little heart and little soul. I knew that it was not sustainable.”While working her 9-to-5, Sanders dreamt of starting her own clothing line. She even pursued photography in her free time as a way to escape the endless grind of her career.
“Photography was very much my creative outlet. For me, starting a fashion line is about doing what I should have always been doing and not about leaving a secure career. I feel like I’m stepping into my purpose,” Sanders says.
In 2017, Sanders and her two brothers went to Paris for the first time. That trip changed everything. When they first arrived in the city, Sanders was a bit disgruntled after having an uncomfortable flight. Her younger brother reminded her to look around and take in where they were.
“It instantly clicked. I was like, ’This is your home. This is where you’re supposed to be in the world and this is where you will always be,” she says. “I knew I had to move to Paris.”
Sanders traveled back to Paris several times after that first visit. “The moment I stepped off the plane, I felt like I could just breathe,” she says. In 2019, she decided she would make the move across the Atlantic.
