Bio -
Tabitha Andelin represents and assists the new women uplifting themselves into today.
Between the gap of street wear and high-end fashion, you'll find the designs of Tabitha Andelin. The garments are handmade in an atelier in Los Angeles, CA using sophisticated construction techniques and designed for the every day use. Tabitha Andelin is high-end street wear made for the fashion forward.
Tabitha Andelin clothing designs focus on physical comfort using fabrics that are soft to touch and taking the time to develop silhouettes that are impeccably functional. The design aesthetics push you just on the edge of your emotional and personal comfort zone allowing you to be a bold version of yourself.
Tabitha Andelin clothing is designed and produced in small sets in Los Angeles, CA. Making small sets of product is not only less wasteful, but allows each garment to be more unique. The collections use repurposed fabrics meaning that it was excess and if not used would become waste.
Please share a bit about your journey to embrace fashion design as a career.
I started back in 2017. I had worked for about a year for a small company in downtown LA. I left that job to start the clothing line. It was so early in my career that I didn’t have anything to lose. I also had this internal voice pushing and urging me to develop my artistic expression. It’s funny, now in 2022 I still hear the same internal voice pushing. Mostly likely, because I still have so much artistic expression to develop.
Because everything is small scale, I can preserve the autonomy to basically create and explore whatever inspires or intrigues me in a given time period. To this day, I have only made at most 3 of the same garments. I’m doing this not because I don’t know how to scale the business but (full transparency) I don’t know what I’m scaling.
Which brings us to the present where I am continuing the pursuit of artistic development. Some people might think “Wow Tabitha, that’s a long time. Maybe just stick to an aesthetic or plan?” For me developing a business or brand is not the most important thing. It’s preserving the art of letting a designer grow something so deeply profound and inspiring and that can take a lifetime.
How did you learn your skills?
I learned how to sew when I was 7 in a family friend’s garage and never looked back! After that, I had a babysitter that would bring leftover fabric and help me with projects. In middle school, I was able to take after-school classes that helped me understand patterns and slightly more advanced sewing techniques. In high school, I got a little more experimental making prom dresses and such. I eventually found myself pursuing a bachelor’s of science in apparel design at the University of Minnesota, which led me into internships at Gucci and Under Armour. Here I am now, on a slightly larger stage and still very much a fashion nerd and seamstress.
Who are you as a designer? Aesthetic? Customer? Brand?
I am someone who loves newness when it comes to aesthetic and design! On the flip side, I love traditional sewing techniques and construction found on old historic clothing. So, what that looks like is bold designs with different sewing techniques. The customer that I’m targeting would be someone who isn’t trying to follow a trend but really wants something that has the potential to push fashion forward.
NYFW 2022
What comes easiest for you as a designer? What is hardest?
Surprisingly, I am horrible at fashion illustrations. When I design I tend to draw crude sketches and think more about the pattern shape. I’m also pretty technical, so executing my designs and making them production ready I feel like I’ve got a grasp on. Just don’t ask me to draw it!
For this specific collection I found inspiration in different feelings I’ve kept to myself that I avoided addressing. After I would finish a look, it felt like I was holding a mirror up to myself illustrating a past experience in my life. So, this collection to me was about rewriting things in the past to make them my own.
Color is super important in this collection because I’ve been so adverse to making colorful garments in the past. Each garment is a different bold color from the next: yellow, red, blue, tie-dye, black, pink. This burst of color is akin to a display of authentic vulnerability in a coming of age story.
Do you have a favorite look in this collection?
I do! For the last look I really challenged myself technically. I used the lightest weight silk I have ever worked with and had to be very realistic with what type of design I could achieve. The design and construction both represent letting myself not be perfect and making the most of what we are given as people in this life. Giving us that space allows for so much more beauty than we would’ve expected. This look and this dress is me practicing that. I hope to expand myself as a designer using this concept in the future so I’m very excited for what is to come!
Where can readers purchase your designs?
You can purchase my collection through the online shop on my website - www.tabithaandelin.com.
What's next for you as a designer and your brand?
I’ll be focusing on building consumer momentum. I’ve been doing lots of fashion shows and photoshoots lately and will move into doing pop-up shops so people can really get their hands on some product.
In closing is there anything else you'd like to share with readers?
I have a little quote I made up that I tuck into the corners of my website. It says, “only love is here.” It is kind of my motto and reminder to make sure everything I do is only to make the world a better place and empower the people that I cross paths with.
Links –
Website - www.tabithaandelin.com
Facebook - www.facebook.com/tabithaandelinclothing/
Instagram - @tabithaandelin
Youtube - www.youtube.com/channel/UCj_9Q2C8o4HzzjJ6M2zwiOg
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