Lee Evans Lee of Mrs. Momma Bear – Revolutionizing Everyday Apparel With Luxury and Style
I had the pleasure of interviewing Lee Evans Lee of Mrs. Mamma Bear.
As a fifth-generation rancher from West Texas, Lee Evans Lee embodies the “work hard, play hard” mentality. Currently based in San Antonio and Aspen, Lee’s daily style finds her switching between comfort for ranch life and upscale elegance for both work and play. She grew tired of dealing with multiple daily wardrobe changes and sacrificing style for function and decided to create something new.
With a passion for textiles and design, Lee created Mrs Momma Bear Workwear, revolutionizing everyday apparel with a unique blend of designer style, activewear comfort, and machine-washable convenience. Her vision is empowering others to take on whatever life brings with confidence and comfort, without compromising style or elegance.
Lee is deeply committed to giving back, integrating charitable initiatives into her work, and ensuring that Mrs Momma Bear Workwear is a force for positive change in the community.
Garments are available for purchase online at mrsmommabear.com or at Flying Solo and The Canvas in New York City.
Can you share with us your background, how you started your career, and your mission behind starting Mrs Momma Bear?
I was raised for half my life on a ranch. I am in San Antonio, Texas today, and the ranch is about two and a half hours from here. My parents are from two very small rural towns in Texas. One being for the ranches, Rocksprings, Texas, and then my dad’s from Uvalde.
They left those small towns to raise their children in the big city, San Antonio. We were educated here, but my whole background that I always say ended up bringing me here was in textiles. We still run the ranch. I am fifth generation, my son’s six, and we were known for our Angora goats, which are just amazing, and that is what you make cashmere out of.
My brother and I are the only two grandchildren, and part of our lifestyle as if we were not in a sports tournament, we were there working on the ranch. Spring breaks were spent on the ranch. The babies were being born, they had to get their medicine, and then the mamas were being sheared. My grandmother taught me how to sew and also make patterns. I have always been so into fashion. I remember the first time I got a leather belt with my name on it to wear with my Wranglers, I said, I have arrived. That is the background that brought me here.
I had a double degree in college, and went into television mainly Spanish language television, for a long time. After I had my son, I went back to night school and got several degrees in counseling and psychology as well as in healthcare. Then during COVID, I started drawing again and came up with this idea. I have one of the pieces on now. It is part of the fall collection, which I am proud about. But what hit me during COVID was from my years in television and even working in a hospital. You either could wear luxury or just your workout clothes or sweats, but there was no in-between. I took a blend of Lycra, Spandex and nylon and made it into a fancy jumpsuit. I have a new piece coming out at the beginning of February, it is called Ruth.
Can you talk about what it means to have a work hard, play hard mentality, and why that is so important to you?
Being raised on the ranch with both my parents, my mom was a school teacher and then she ended up being a stay at home mom and then going back and working. I am so lucky today, but everyone that surrounded me, especially on the ranch, nobody talked about working hard and then playing hard. It was just a way of life.
And today it makes me emotional, how important what was happening to me because I feel so many times we talk about what we want to do or we see what we may want to be like, but I was surrounded by people from very humble beginnings that had an idea. And they did not even talk about the idea, they just did it.
That is what I am doing today. Especially as a parent and raising a child, I have always said, and I have always lived this way, we can’t talk about it, we just have to do it. In everything that we do. So that’s in my blood as well, and where it all comes from.
It’s funny when I was working at the hospital, I went back to riding horses in the evenings. I grew up riding them and I always joke that the minute I could walk, they put me on a horse. There are pictures of me in those little bloomers up on a gigantic Palomino.
It’s one of my son’s favorite stories, but I don’t think I was older than six, one of my horses growing up was a Palomino that was named Sunday. A big, big Palomino. And during the springtime, there are these gigantic purple flowers that the bees love. As I was sitting down, he came walking over and just put his little nose down by me like he was saying, I’m so sorry, but I just had to get that bee out of my ear.
What does it mean to empower others to take on whatever life brings with confidence and comfort without compromising on style or elegance?
I just came off the Coterie. It was our first Coterie show in New York.
When I first started wearing the samples, what came to me was I put this armor on, like a Superhero. I looked dressed up, but I was so comfortable. It’s like putting on your Joan of Arc armor or your Superhero Wonder Woman Cape. And so that you can have that everyday elegance, but you’re in the comfort of this amazing workout material that I designed.
You have a deep commitment to giving back. And with Mrs Momma Bear, can you talk about the different initiatives that you support and why it’s so important to you?
One of them that’s huge is the fight to cure cancer. I am a breast cancer survivor and it has run on both sides of my family. I still get emotional about it, but I am six years cancer-free.
July was when we celebrated our first anniversary. We are all touched in some way by this disease. We live in a day and age that we are so lucky because there are ways to fight it if we get early prevention.
On the first of October, right after I had launched the brand, for Breast Cancer Awareness Month, I did a special campaign with MD Anderson in Houston where I gave 50% of all the proceeds and sales that month to individuals who bought garments.
I hope one day that I can do the whole month and give you 100% because that’s what we should be doing. That’s really what it’s about.
I have a lot of passion and fire within me, and I believe that when we do something, we have to do it whole out. The fight for curing cancer, especially breast cancer, is something I’m very passionate about. I’ve been involved in a lot of other organizations, but that’s at the forefront. That’s the one that I’ve been most public about.
As a fifth-generation rancher, both comfort and fashion are so important. And I know we’ve probably touched on this more, but can you elaborate more on why it’s so important to have both comfort and also be fashionable?
It started on those days at the ranch. We’re goat ranchers. But when we got up in the morning, you put your best Wranglers on and your button-down shirt.
Back then it was a lot about some protection as well too, because you were outside. The cowboy hat was to make sure you were protected too. How you dressed was a reflection of how you felt about yourself and what you were going to do that day.
That’s also what I’ve been so passionate about. It took a woman to create something for women who understood what we do on a day-to-day basis. And it is not single-sided. It is a multitude of moving hats.
I felt our wardrobes had been confined to just workout clothes. That was why, and what I wanted to do to disrupt the market was to say, hey, you know what? I know that women want to be elevated. There’s not a choice out there right now. This was a new choice. At Cotiere because we’re brand new, people were mind-blown at what was happening.
With your background in textiles too, when you look at the garments up close, if you know pattern making and sewing, it is really hard to get this structure that I’ve been able to achieve with workout material. But that goes back to my fabric and the blend. And I’m proud about that because I want that in women’s closets. I want them to have that option.
And the last thing I’ll say about that is throughout my career as well, I found myself changing at least twice, three times a day, which is ridiculous.
Then if I wanted to go to dinner. This is day to night. You can even throw on one of your luxury jackets in your closet if you want to take it up a notch. But simplifying our wardrobes, yet elevating it with, again, the blend of luxe and comfort was so, so important to me. You can go to your closet, the outfit for day to night is done and you feel good and you look luxurious.
For me, clothing is my canvas of who I am my canvas of what I’m painting that day, and my sparkle of my soul and my inner being. And to have as many options daily, no matter what I’m doing, is the definition of the brand.
If you could go back and talk to your younger self, what would you tell her and why?
I would say that what you’re thinking and what you believe about your purpose is true. Just continue to know it. Don’t doubt as much.
Are you working on any exciting new projects right now?
I’m finishing up, which I’m hoping will be out for a little special holiday, stocking stuffers. I’ve got some bodysuits and basic tees that are coming out that will launch for the holiday. I have probably one accessory that’s coming out of the material.
I became so obsessed with the denim piece I did for the fall, that in early 2025, I’ve got an entire mini capsule collection that’s all denim, Denim jackets, denim dresses, and more denim jumpsuits. I cannot wait for people to see them, and it’s got this punk 80s kind of edge to it.
Definitely, in 2025, there will probably be a men’s version of my suits coming out.
I had a little winter pop-up in Aspen, Colorado, and husbands and boyfriends and men they’re like, where is this in my wardrobe? When are you going to do this?
In the next couple of months, I’m starting to design that. So my goal is summer or the end of next year, we’ll have a Mr. Momma Bear.
Where do you see yourself and your career going into the new year and the future?
The word that comes to me is lightning speed and as far as the line growing. But what goes in tandem with that, is the deeper mission of inspiring others. I am so deeply passionate about empowering people to follow their dreams. Part of my everyday journey as the entrepreneur and CEO of Mrs. Momma Bear is to constantly make sure daily, at least once, if not multiple times a day, to inspire others to follow your heart.
This was a nighttime job for me and it was that way for a year and a half, and then I took the leap. As we move forward in my career, bringing more people up and inspiring others to do it, take the risk. And also creating this community where we authentically help each other.
One of the things that I did during Fashion Week in one of the stores that we’re in New York is The Canvas at the Oculus, was we did a panel in the store. It was Sarah Halleck who started The Well. Sheryl Burke, who so many people know from Dancing with the Stars. She’s in the very early stages of launching a mental health dance concept. There were about 40 women and we talked about the roads of being women, the roads of following our dreams, but very transparently. I think there’s a new Nike commercial that says winning isn’t for everyone. It can be lonely.
Yet we’re not alone and we just have to find each other. That was the first of many events. In 2025, I’m hoping to do more of them and connect women build that community, and have that spiral. It’s that community and being a leader when you’re a company and a brand joining up with a nonprofit, who’s at the forefront, who’s making a change there.
How can I get this into more women’s closets? There may be private labels that come up. I’ve got two companies that are visiting with me about uniforms. These are the other ways that I want to continue to touch women in America and women worldwide, and then start a little bit with men.
How can people support you by Mrs Momma Bear and support you with all that you’re doing? Where can people follow you online or how can they get in touch with you?
The easiest, it’s on Instagram. My handle is Mrs Momma Bear WorkWear, and then that also connects to my page as well.
I do answer all of my DMs.That’s something I’ll probably always do. I’m just that person. I still write letters to people.
One of the easiest ways to support me and other entrepreneurial women and men is to go online. You may not be able to purchase one of the dresses, but put your email in, follow us, and see what we’re doing. That’s also getting the word out.
