How We Started Our Fashion Design Businesses | Introduction

Zahiyya

Welcome to the Designers, Plans and Coffee Podcast, where we discuss how to succeed as a designer while staying true to yourself, finding peace in the process, and making money doing what we love. Subscribe on YouTube and wherever you get your podcast. Let’s get into it. So what’s up, ladies?  

Naima

What’s up?  

Zahiyya

All right, Tish, you can start. How did you get into fashion?  

LaTisha

Okay, so we all remember the movie. Oh, jeez, Dianah.  

Naima

Mahagony.  

LaTisha

That was my movie. When I saw her on the city bus, literally sketchy, I’m like, That’s what I want to do. I’m going to do that and fashion shows. I’m like, Wait.  

Zahiyya

Girl, you can’t sketch.  

LaTisha

Let’s see. I’d be really small because my grandmother taught me to sew between eight and nine years old. And then I saw the movie and I was like, Oh, there’s a black fashion designer. I literally thought that’s what it was going to be like.  

Zahiyya

Was it? Yeah.  

Naima

But I’m still in it because I love it. I got to love it.  

Zahiyya

Naima, how you got started?  

Naima

I think my very first entry into fashion and dresses and design was a black Paper Dolls book that we got on a museum trip. I’m telling our age a little bit here. Yeah, you are. I probably must have been seven, eight, and I was like, Oh, my God, I want to make clothes. I would take those paper dolls and I would take my construction paper and I would make them new clothes. The clothes in the book were fine. When I got to middle school, I took Home Ec because that’s what you did back then. I hated sewing. Are you serious? I still love fashion. When I was 14, I got my very first subscription of Vogue, but I think I hated it because I hated the teacher. And hate is really strong, so I’ll say I didn’t like it. But when I got to high school, I found a nurturer, Ms. Hunter. I don’t know if she’s still alive, but it became my escape. So that became my after-school thing. And then growing up in DC, they had a city-wide fashion competition every year. So that’s what you work towards each semester. You work towards that city-wide fashion show.  

Naima

You both know I am a collector of fashion magazines. If you ever travel and want to bring me back a souvenir, get me a fashion magazine from whatever country you’re in.  

LaTisha

All right, Zahiyya?  

Naima

It’s on you, Zahiyya.  

Zahiyya

Well, I got into fashion because growing up Muslim, I didn’t like what I had to wear. Once you became of age, you had to, of course, wear long dresses, long sleeves and kimars and everything long and baggy. Everything that they made us wear was just whack. My mother sewed, my father sewed, and all the sisters in the community sewed. That’s how I learned how to sew. But then I was like, well, I need to start making stuff that I like. They used to have this sewing place on 116th on the east side. I used to go there, get patterns. They didn’t have digital patterns back then, but I started sewing it had to be in elementary school, but I got good in junior high, high school. I was the kid that was making stuff the day before, so I can wear it the next day. Actually, then I started to get into art, and then I went to school for art, and that’s how I learned how to sketch and do a lot of other stuff.  

Naima

Growing up as a Muslim child, I can relate. Mine wasn’t every day, but on Fridays and Sundays.  

Zahiyya

And the thing is, because my parents sewed, they made us clothes. You get fabric in 50 yard rolls. I’m the oldest of seven and everybody has the same outfit. I was like, come on, we can’t do that.  

Naima

Back then, all the fabric was hard and scratchy. Let’s be real, that’s what we could afford. But when I was growing up, every year I got to go to one of the expensive fabric stores for one project. It was this store downtown DC called Exquisite Fabrics, and it was next to my mother’s job. We were taking a bus trip to New York, and I just had to make my outfit. I must have been about eighth, ninth grade. That was the first time I made a jumpsuit. I put a zipper in that thing. That was before zipper feet. That thing was fierce, and it was silk, and you couldn’t tell me I was not the bleep in that outfit. On a bus to New York in a jumpsuit. I will let you all fill in the rest.  

Zahiyya

Like getting in and out and all that.  

Naima

Other stuff. Oh, my goodness. Getting naked in the bus bathroom to pee is just not ideal.  

LaTisha

I’m trying to remember what my first outfit was. I remember making it in high school a purple… Now when I say it, I’m like, did I really make that? And just thought it was absolutely wonderful. It was a purple suit with lime green lapels that was really wide.  

Naima

Way to go, joker.  

LaTisha

And the pants were wide leg. I don’t know if I had pictures or some of the stuff I made, but the jumpsuit wasn’t my very first outfit.  

Zahiyya

Yeah… listen, I think I was maybe in high school or junior high school. You know how you set up photoshoots and stuff? I know I still have these pictures. I mean, they look janky. I was like, maybe I’ll show one of them, but I don’t know. But I mean, I had the backdrop and the poses and all that. I had my sisters posing for me and friends posing.  

Naima

I love it.  

Zahiyya

I’m trying to find some of those pictures.  

Naima

I love it. I still have my prom pictures. It’s like humble beginnings. Look at us now.  

Zahiyya

I know that’s what I’m saying. I mean, you look at the stuff you made back then, you’re like, Oh, man.  

LaTisha

I know. I’m like, Look at the stitching on that.  

Naima

My very first outfit I made for the very first fashion competition I ever been in was the color of Tish’s mic, and it was the 80s, 90s version of a pencil skirt and a tank top. But it was out of that stiff canvas that we were.  

Zahiyya

Just on. I was shaping on that thing. It might have seemed crazy.  

Naima

It was a rectangle. It was no shade. Fortunately for me at that time, I was still a rectangle. So it worked out.  

Zahiyya

The hips didn’t come in yet?  

Naima

The hips hadn’t come in yet. No, the boobs ain’t coming until I was a full-fledged adult. I was still straight and still small and small enough to wiggle into that. And you couldn’t tell me nothing walking down that runway, though. You couldn’t tell me my outfit wasn’t the best thing since sliced bread.  

LaTisha

I remember somebody from high school saying you used to always… They told me that I would literally say, You all are going to see me in New York. I’m going to move to New York and become a designer. I was like, I must have been annoying. I did, but I’m sorry.  

Zahiyya

But that’s good because you always wanted to and now you’re here.  

Naima

After that bus trip, I was like, I’m going to live here one day. I don’t know how it’s going to happen, but I’m going to live here. My parents wouldn’t let me go to school in New York, which is how… How did we all meet?  

Zahiyya

I know, right? The thing is, I was born and bred in New York, and I was just like, I got accepted to all the schools in New York, like the Pratt, Parsons, FIT, and I think Savannah. I was like, okay, I need something close enough to New York so I can get home, but I need to get out of New York. Like I said, I’m the oldest of seven kids. I have to get out of New York. That’s how we met in Philly.  

Naima

You all can thank my dad because I had my heart set on going to Virginia Commonwealth because all of my friends were going to Virginia Union and I wanted to be in Richmond. Then that beautiful, faithfulful, amazing day we all met, he was sold on that, on going to Philadelphia because there was another Muslim girl that was convening with me. We were complete in polar opposites.  

Zahiyya

But we were one of the few brown faces there.  

Naima

We just naturally gravitated toward each other. We kept the bond from that day. We could not talk for months. When we get together, it’s this. We giggle for hours. It’s so rare and it’s so beautiful, and we’re back.  

Zahiyya

I don’t want to age us. I don’t know why you put age on, but how many years have we known each other?  

Naima

Is it 31? Thirty-one years. We met in 1992 and we have not aged an hour.  

Zahiyya

No, not even.  

LaTisha

Not even.  

Naima

But it’s amazing to look back and say that I have had this same group of friends for 31 years.  

Zahiyya

It’s crazy.  

LaTisha

Yeah.  

Zahiyya

That’s crazy. Marriages don’t last that long. All right, so we talked about how we met, what we started with, so what are you doing now? After college? What was your journey?  

LaTisha

We did meet freshman year. I got kicked out because I could not get up for school.  

Zahiyya

You couldn’t get up.  

Naima

I was her alarm clock.  

LaTisha

8:00 AM math class.  

Naima

And once I left, she could never go to class.  

LaTisha

All the time. Then I had to go home for community college. Then I reapplied and they let me back in and I finally finished.  

Zahiyya

What did you major in?  

LaTisha

I only went to textile because I did not have to submit a portfolio to get accepted into the fashion design program because, once again, I couldn’t draw.  

Naima

I did that.  

Zahiyya

See what I talked about? That’s a misconception, though. A lot of people think they have to know how to draw to be into fashion, and that’s not true.  

Naima

A lot of designers think they have to know how to sew.  

LaTisha

It’s funny because since I am a college professor and also teaching fashion design, merchandising, I look at the students and I’m like, Oh, yeah, they’re not going to make it. I can see it.  

Naima

Oh, wow.  

Zahiyya

Why do you say that?  

LaTisha

I say that because I see myself in them. When I got kicked out, literally the last week of class, they would show up. I’m like, Where have you been? You have not been here for a month and a half, and they’re rushing to get everything done. It’s like, But you haven’t been here. You need to go ahead and accept that you have failed this class. I understand I’ve been there. I am now also a college professor.  

Zahiyya

In?  

LaTisha

The very field that I’m working in for fashion design and merchandising students. But yeah, having to go back to school, get my bachelor’s, and then my masters that was fully online, I don’t know how anyone could ever sign up for a master fashion design program, and you’ve never seen before. It was mind boggling. I thought I was going crazy. The amount of work that I had to submit, and then I had to take pictures of everything inside and outside, send the garment in within a week.  

Zahiyya

I know colleges have a requirement to know how to sew, to sketch, do all that stuff. But when you get in the industry, depending on where you go, you don’t have to have this. My thing is like, why are colleges still requiring this thing if you don’t necessarily need it to get a job?  

Naima

That’s a good question. I mean, it’s the same reason why we have to take things like geometry. It’s good for us as fashion people.  

Zahiyya

If you went into fashion and you know anything about clothes, you have to know math.  

Naima

I don’t need calculus.  

Zahiyya

No, you don’t need calculus.  

Naima

I don’t need all of these things that they make us take. But yeah, I have had different lives. I left. I did not graduate with a degree in fashion, anything, but it never left me. I have worked in museum, retail and visual display, human resources, and I ended my career two years ago in science. I worked in clinical trial regulatory management for 15 years, but I’ve always done fashion. I started a business. I did it on the side. I kept them very separate. And two years ago, I got fired. And that was the best thing to happen to me. That and COVID really, really let me know that life is too short. And I was scared, you all. I got fired on Valentine’s Day. What?  

LaTisha

That ain’t right.  

Naima

It was the end of the pay period. And on February 15th, I got up and I didn’t know what to do because I’ve been working consistently for 20 years. I’ve never been without a job. I’ve never been without the steady income. I’m going to have to cash in my 401(k) and I’m on retired payback. I’m going to have to work at Walmart when.  

LaTisha

I’m 60. Okay, come back. Come back. You don’t.  

Naima

Want to go. What’s up? Ptsd. I did about a week. And then I was like, What are you going to do? Because you’re going to devote all of that energy. You’re going to put all of that into your brand. And that was the first year I had made over $10,000. I have fired in February. At the end of the year, I had made a little bit over $10,000. And I was like, Oh, my God, I can really do this. I’m not turning a profit and I can’t live off of it, but I can see it. So here I am, full-time creative. I do work part-time at a creative place where I sew all day. I teach kids how to sew. I see something in those kids that my teacher probably saw on me because I have some kids. I got some kids. But then I have some kids, and those kids make it worthwhile. They make.  

Zahiyya

It worthwhile. I think it makes a difference when the kids want to be there or the parents are making it.  

Naima

Because one thing I’m not doing is arguing with your 10-year-old.  

Zahiyya

For me, when I left school, I did graduate. I was a little bit like, off, depressed because I couldn’t get a job right after school. I was just like, I don’t understand. I went to school for four years. I couldn’t get a job. I graduated what, in May? Then by, I would say, December, I finally got something. In New York, it was nothing. The pay was ridiculous, but it was an assistant designer. If you remember bugle boy. Yes, I do. That was the first job. They’ve been going for a long time. But in that job, I got to travel to China every quarter. We went to Taiwan, we went to Hong Kong, we went to Shenzhen, and I learned all about the factories over there and product development and all that stuff. And then I worked my way up. Then I went to another company, worked at an assistant and associate. I was in that company for a while, and then I left, and then I got a fellowship to basically teach kids textile design. I was in a fellowship for two years. I mean, because when I was in high school, I was doing textile design and product development and stuff like that.  

Zahiyya

I was teaching textile design for high school kids because I don’t know if I have the patience for the 10-year-old that you’re doing.  

Naima

I started in-.  

LaTisha

From.  

Zahiyya

College. I mean, in high school, depending on the student, it’s still not as mature as you would like. Then I went back into the industry and associate, then I was a designer, senior designer, and now I’m a design director. Just work your way up. Through that journey, I’ve had my own company, and now I’m working on actually blowing my company up, cover me, shake, same as blood. But also, Region Design Agency, what I do is basically develop collections and support businesses that are already doing stuff. But I’m the support to help you develop your stuff.  

LaTisha

I am a tech designer, which is really the one who concerned about fit. When you go into a store, you try something on, you try that garment on. If it twists when you walk, if something is wrong with it, it’s the tech designer’s fault.  

Naima

Or the factory’s fault. That means you did not do your job.  

Zahiyya

Or the.  

LaTisha

Factory’s fault. Actually, when I was in school, I switched from fashion design to fashion and parole management with a minor in tech design. Because I did go back to, as I said, Philly, I actually got hired by Tommy Hillfigure, and I was commuting my senior year. I was commuting from Philly back to New York twice a week working. Then once I graduated, I thought, here, let me move in with the Lord.  

Zahiyya

Of the Rings. That’s what friends do.  

Naima

That’s what.  

LaTisha

We did. We started working full-time for Tommy Hill Figure, and last maybe a month or two, and they let me go, which it happens. But somebody hurt me crying in the bathroom, and I was able to get another job literally that same week. I went to Jones, New York, which was Jones Apparel Group then. I love that place because they had licenses for Polo, and that’s where I learned the tech design and spec techs. That’s where I actually started that. Moving from company to company, just like Zahid, it’s really, really important you go to visit a.  

Zahiyya

Factory and see how they work because there’s nothing like home sewing.  

Naima

And it takes a lot of discipline to be able to work from home, period. But I have been doing it for so long. I had a routine already. So it wasn’t this thing where I was like, Oh, my God, I have to get the setup. I don’t have a designated space. I had a designated space. I had a very plain background because my coworkers are nosy, so I would turn my desk to face just a plain wall, no artwork, no nothing. Because if you look around this room, it’s art on all sides of this room, because that’s my personality. But again, I’m one of those people that you don’t need to know what happens after 4:00 PM. We’re not friends. I have said that we’re not friends, we’re colleagues. Anyway, we digress.  

Zahiyya

As usual. Basically, we said, What are we doing now? But you didn’t say what business you have now. Tish, you can go ahead.  

LaTisha

My business is actually keeping you in stitches. Shameless plug. I actually do consulting for tech design and 3D design. I do all of that. Actually, right now, if anyone, those of you who are listening, I’ve consulted on a Macy’s brand. It’s in stores right now. It’s called On 34th with a bunch of… Yes, a shamedness plug. Macy and plus sizes with a bunch of ladies from brand Love Lab. We’re all consultants signing over with them and helping other brands.  

Zahiyya

I.  

Naima

Am the owner, creative director, designer, everything involved in running a business of this fabulous accessories brand called Feelless Threads. Go bold, have fun, be fearless. We make all types of accessories that feature African wax prints. Fameless plug. Everything, earrings, bags. Once a season, we do a special thing. Last year, we did farmer jacket. We do this design your own piece. I do a lot of pop-ups in the local DC Metro area. I’ve traveled to Philly. I have not hit New York yet, but it’s coming. I go to logistically with New York. I do a lot of pop-ups locally. I am in one and a half stores. I say one and a half because the second store that I’m going into does not actually have any merchandise yet, but we’re working on that. In the spring and the fall, I just have this pop-up schedule. Follow me on social media, shameless plug @fearlessthreads, and you will see all of my pop-ups in my fall season will start on the 23rd. I’ll give you more details about that as we go along. If I have something coming up, we’ll talk about it. But we talked about the eight-year-olds.  

Naima

I also teach sewing to children. It’s a love to nurture the creativity in the little people. I know you guys don’t like the little people, but I love the little people.  

Zahiyya

You can say I don’t like them.  

Naima

You don’t like teaching them. I do private lessons, but I also work at a black-owned, women-owned company called So Creative Lounge. It’s a shameless club, Follow So Creative Lounge, where I teach. I run the kids’ program, but I also do pattern development there.  

LaTisha

I forgot to mention, I do have Keeping it Stitches Academy, where I’m teaching fashion design, pattern making, also timber beading, because I love it and it’s a dying art. Embroidery and all things related to fashion and product development. So shameless plug.  

Naima

We’re not even going to call it shameless. We have to be all- We are going all-.  

LaTisha

I’m not the shambles. We are.  

Naima

Going all.  

Zahiyya

Our- Currently, I’m a design director for a private label company, but I am going to be going out on my own doing the same thing. I’ll be consulting for basically active wear companies. I do men’s and boys active, so I do design and product development. For those types of companies that want design, product development things, everything that relates to textiles, graphics, tech packs, all that stuff. That I’ll be doing on a corporate level. But for the home sewer, I basically hone my skill from wee little to an adult, but it’s modest fashion. That’s what cover me sheet comes in. I’ll be doing patterns and sew along and stuff like that to help you hone your modest fashion. Everything that relates to that and everything to support you for that. There will be a lot of courses and patterns and stuff like that for that. Also textile design, which I love to do. Basically, region design agency for corporate clients and Cover Me chic for.  

Naima

The home seller. I look out for Cover Me Cheek, Feelers Threads collaboration.  

Zahiyya

And then Tish is going to be doing that.  

LaTisha

Yes.  

Zahiyya

And of course, it has to fit the curvy women, okay? Because we have hips.  

Naima

Yes. My kids is so funny. My kids always ask me why the back of their pants is so much bigger. I always have to tell them because it has to accommodate your bottom, sweetie. You’re a little girl, but you’re a little black girl, and you have a bottom.  

Zahiyya

That’s all about us. We’re going to wrap it up, and then we’re going to get into more about what we do and how we can help you guys that are listening. Until next time, peace.  

LaTisha

Peace. See you.