Why I Built Yonni with Claws

I didn’t grow up in a world that handed me softness.

I was eleven when I entered foster care. By fourteen, I was a ward of the state—one of the so-called “system kids,” passed between homes and treatment centers like baggage no one wanted to claim. Eighteen different placements, each one a new face, a new fight, a new layer of armor I had to grow.

But here’s the thing: I never stopped dreaming. I never stopped creating. Even when everything felt temporary, I clung to my identity like a lifeline—my culture, my voice, my style, my me.

That’s why I created Yonni.
Not just as a fashion brand, but as a declaration: I am still here. Still fierce. Still artful. Still worthy.
It’s for the girls who got kicked out, the femmes who got written off, the soft boys who were told to “man up,” and the ones who had to raise themselves in a world that didn’t make room for their shine.

Yonni was born from the scraps—stitched with rebellion, colored in survival, and trimmed in audacity.

When people say “luxury,” they think of status, money, exclusivity.
To me? Luxury is freedom.
It’s walking into the room as your full self and not flinching.
It’s the power to be both loud and soft, bold and broken, healing and hot as hell.

Every collection, every scrunchie, every stitched detail on a tote bag is layered with the parts of me that once felt invisible. Now? We wear them on our sleeves. We call it sacred. We call it sexy. We call it Yonni.

So, to anyone who’s been through the system, or any system that tried to break your shine:
You’re not too much. You’re not too broken.
You’re just getting started.
And baby—you were never meant to blend in.

With claws and couture,
Yvonne “Yonni” Harris
Founder, Fighter, Fashion Witch
🖤💅🏾🐾