HER Stories: MODE owner Danielle Rings elevates women’s fashion, fellow female entrepreneurs

This story first appeared in HER Stories 2025, an annual special section that features Eastern Iowa women who have experienced powerful paths of achievement for themselves, their families and their communities.

The Cedar Rapids women’s boutique MODE, with stores in Marion and NewBo, celebrated its 10th anniversary this year — and that’s a big milestone for any small business.

According to the US Bureau of Labor statistics, less than half of retail businesses make it to their tenth year. However, Danielle Rings, entrepreneur and owner of MODE, has been willing to put in hard work and financial investments to make sure MODE succeeds — and is making sure other local women succeed with her.

Operating MODE hasn’t been easy. Besides a global pandemic that physically kept shoppers out of stores, the 2020 derecho devastated the community and left the store without power for more than a week.

By that time, though, Rings had already weathered business challenges. When Rings opened MODE, it was a franchise. Two years after she opened the store, the franchisor went bankrupt.

Rings was able to take her store over as her own small business. But MODE had to go on without the franchisor’s support for training and marketing.

Rings wasn’t always in the retail business. In fact, just before opening MODE, she worked in fundraising and development at Mt. Mercy University. Rings sees her career path as having a trajectory through sales, though.

“It’s all sales,” she said, referring to her work in development. “You’re selling people on your organization.”

So the shift to retail seemed within the realm of possibility when, like many people with an entrepreneurial spirit, Rings began feeling restless in her job.

“I just didn’t want to work for anyone anymore,” she said. “And I had the luxury of being able to make that decision.” That decision? To go into business for herself.

Besides, she loved to shop, especially for clothes and accessories. A wide-ranging shopper, Rings frequents many kinds of stores, from high-end to online boutiques to thrift shops.

Still, she is savvy enough to know that liking shopping or fashion doesn’t necessarily mean that someone will be a successful fashion retailer.

MODE, at 1394 Twixt Town Rd. in Marion, is a franchise specializing in designer fashion at close out prices. (Gazette file)

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A mannequin displays clothing available at MODE, owned by Danielle Rings. (Submitted photo)

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Danielle Rings, owner of MODE, right, talks with models in a fashion show she presented for a fundraiser. Rings looks for ways to support local organizations and local women with her business. (Photo courtesy of Tamera Preston)

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“You have to know who your customer is going to be — it can’t just be your good friends,” Rings said. “You have to reach out to a wide variety of people.”

As she’s grown her business, Rings has cultivated connections with other women. She even turned down offers from her husband to connect her with businessmen who could help her get started.

“When I put together a team of people, I wanted women,” she said. “Women who are building their career and need our business.” She’s worked with women bankers and loan officers and hired women to work in her store.

Many of the women who work at MODE have experience in different aspects of retail. Several of them had professional positions at Seifert’s, a local women’s clothing store that closed in the late 1990s. Other employees had been customers of MODE first.

Other female friends and acquaintances look to Rings for community support, and Rings gives it when she can.

“It’s sometimes hard for organizations to get silent auction items for fundraisers,” she said. “But I’ve done lots of board work and volunteer work, and I know how it is.” She considers the items she donates as part of her advertising budget. Besides, she’s glad that they’ll help improve her community. “A rising tide lifts all boats,” she remarked.

A frequent shopper at MODE and friend of Rings, Tamera Preston, of Cedar Rapids, recently requested some help for a fundraiser. Preston’s organization, United Women of Faith, was holding a fundraising luncheon, and she wondered: could MODE provide a fashion show?

The answer was an enthusiastic “yes.”

“We provided the models,” Preston said. “They went into one of the MODE stores and got to choose outfits with her (Rings’) help.”

Rings emceed the fashion show, explaining each outfit and surprising the more than 150 attendees with how reasonably priced each one was. She also handed out door prizes — items and gift cards from the store — to a few lucky attendees.

“She also gave a gift to everyone, not just the models,” Preston said. “All the volunteers, the attendees, everyone got a 40 percent off item from her store. She wanted people to be able to come into her store and have a personal experience.”

That personal experience in MODE stores is one thing that has helped the store buck the rising trend of online clothing shopping.

“We help people present themselves and think about how they look,” Rings said. “Shopping for clothing can be a very vulnerable situation. I'm amazed at how many women say they don’t like to shop.”

Rings and her staff help women become more confident in how they look, even when doing the often-dreaded jeans-shopping.

“I always say if you have an open mind and you’re willing to take a little direction, we can find you a pair of jeans that you’re going to like,” she said.

Preston has seen the personal attention at MODE in action, not just for herself, but for other women, too.

“She just adds her natural, friendly, easy-going personality. It’s genuine,” said Preston of Rings. “I see her interact with people she knows and doesn’t know. She wants women to find things at good prices and feel good — and comfortable.”