This is no fairy tale for Princess Awesome.

The online clothing store, based in Silver Spring, is the lead plaintiff in one of several lawsuits over President Donald Trump’s tariff policies that have been working their way through the courts.

The founders of Princess Awesome say their case, now in federal court, has followed a similar one now before the U.S. Supreme Court. Opening statements in the case between the Trump administration and VOS Selections, a family-owned wine and spirits importer and distributor, are expected in November.

Princess Awesome and its attorneys expect that ruling to affect their own case.

But in the meantime, Princess Awesome, like many small businesses, is struggling to stay afloat with tens of thousands of dollars in added costs from new tariffs.

Just last week, the president threatened to impose 100% tariffs on China, beginning next month. Princess Awesome moved its manufacturing out of China before Trump began implementing his tariff policies this spring, but the latest change was yet another example of the uncertainty that small businesses relying on the international supply chain are facing.

Co-founders Eva St. Clair and Rebecca Melsky are constantly trying to determine where in the world to produce their clothes, how to keep costs down for customers, and even whether to pay themselves a salary.

“The hardest is should I pay myself this month, or should I put that money in the bank so that we can pay crazy tariff bills that are coming?” St. Clair said. “That’s what we’re doing every month.”

Clothing for all interests

St. Clair and Melsky have known each other for 20 years; they were friends well before they were business partners.

They met on the West Coast when their husbands were attending graduate school together, and they remained close when they moved east. St. Clair and her family live in Silver Spring, while Melsky is nearby in D.C. Both of their husbands were in the Biden administration.

They watched as their children, even at an early age, developed a sense of fashion. Melsky’s daughter only ever wanted to wear dresses when she was a toddler, but her wide range of interests wasn’t reflected in the designs for girls her age.

Melsky said the girls’ sections where she shopped generally only offered designs with flowers, butterflies and unicorns. The boys’ section, meanwhile, was stocked with outfits showing rocket ships, trucks, trains and more — all options that Melsky wanted her daughter to know she could take interest in, regardless of her gender.

“I was like, ‘What should I do? Should I try to tell Old Navy to change what they’re doing?’” she said jokingly.

But if you want something done, do it yourself, right? Plus, her good friend is a skilled sewer and spent her nights doing web development projects after putting her children to bed.

So, Melsky said, “I asked Eva: “Do you want to start a company with me?”

She did. And after brainstorming a few different brand names, one of their husbands floated the one that stuck; the glass slipper that fit.

Princess Awesome was meant to reflect that someone’s gender shouldn’t limit their style options.

The duo got their business off the ground and quickly began succeeding. Melsky eventually left her job as a teacher to run the company full-time.

Adapting to tariffs

Princess Awesome now sells colorful dresses, shirts, shorts and more in themes that include dinosaurs and unicorns, science and math, and armor. All bottom-half items have pockets. The business also recently expanded its branding to include Boy Wonder, offering items geared toward boys.

As St. Clair and Melsky outsourced production, they pushed hard to keep all parts of their process domestic.

“We were adamant about being in the United States,” St. Clair said. “We’re both firm patriots, and we wanted to do American manufacturing.”

But they soon learned the limits of the American supply chain, which included mind-bending logistics and exorbitant costs for shuttling products between different locations for fabrics, designing, printing, labeling and more.

To get a children’s T-shirt made in the U.S. for less than $30, they’d have to compromise the high-quality, ethically sourced cotton they wanted for their clothes.

The women began searching for manufacturers overseas. They settled on a factory in Hong Kong, where all steps in the production process were under one roof, and they gradually moved more and more of their process to other countries.

They set up production in multiple countries, too, ensuring that supply chain disruptions in one part of the world wouldn’t completely cut them off from their products.

They even moved production out of China after Trump was elected, understanding that the administration planned to target the county with tariffs.

Then came Trump’s Liberation Day, when he announced an expansive list of increased or new tariffs on U.S. trading partners, including countries with long-standing relationships with the U.S.

“He put tariffs on all of our factories,” St. Clair said, mentioning India, Bangladesh and Peru. She and Melsky questioned whether they’d survive the year.

On top of paying $24,000 more in tariffs so far, the women say, it’s been total chaos keeping up with the administration’s ever-evolving trade policies to decide where to have their clothes made.

Recruited for legal battle

Princess Awesome was struggling to afford the tariff prices, so they certainly didn’t have plans to hire a lawyer.

But a Facebook post explaining the policies’ “massive implications for our little company” caught the eye of attorneys at the Pacific Legal Foundation, a firm providing pro bono representation for libertarian and conservative causes. Attorneys there were pulling together plaintiffs for a lawsuit challenging Trump’s tariff policies.

Most of the other plaintiffs in the case are board game manufacturers. Considering that none has a name more compelling than Princess Awesome, attorneys placed the Silver Spring business at the top of their filing.

St. Clair and Melsky say they’ve done all they can to avoid raising their prices, including withholding their own pay. They recently added a digital tip jar to their online checkout process, giving people the opportunity to pitch in a few dollars to help offset the impact.

They decided to raise prices on newer adult clothing items by a few dollars, but they say they’ve been eating the costs for the most part.

“How much can we raise prices before people stop buying?” Melsky said.

The women don’t yet have a sense of when the tariff pricing would become totally untenable, but, St. Clair said, “It will come to that.”