The Empty District

Since releasing her SS21 fashion film “Black is Beautiful,” Tia has been nominated in five different categories at the International Fashion Film Festival, but the designer continues to push herself and break boundaries. Her capsule collection includes her signature ruffle can be seen adorning the bikinis, along with intrequirely tailored custom gowns with methodically chosen garments sourced globally. 

“The capsule was made with the Tia Adeola girl in mind, and how she re-enters the world after being locked up for so long and feeling like her better self. For me, it’s always been the feeling of walking into the room and being your best self, and that room could be the pool or a dinner,” explains Adeola. 

The possibilities are limitless for this New York-based designer as her garments can be spotted on people such as Dua Lipa, SZA, Kali Uchis, Gigi Hadid and more. In an exclusive interview with office, Tia Adeola opens up about her collection, her upbringing, and how being in quarantine has shifted her design process. 

Read the exclusive interview below. 

So you just recently launched your summer capsule collection featuring Paloma Ford. How was it like working with her and what was your inspo behind this collection?

I met Paloma at my New York Fashion debut for my Autumn/Winter 21 collection. She walked in that show and she was just all for the brand. Sometimes people who have followings or people who are doing things can be quite tough to work with. But right from the second I met her, she was like, "I love your brand, so much I believe in your art, and I’ll do anything you need me to. I’ll wear anything you need me to." And that's always really reassuring. So since then I always tell her whenever I'm dropping something new and she's always really excited. She's also an artist herself, so it's really cool being two female artists who are doing it. 

The collection for me was a very small collection. I kind of wanted to make a few looks that go even beyond myself and what my target market would want to wear post-pandemic. I got stuck in Nigeria during the majority of the pandemic and I spent a lot of time just imagining, and dreaming what I’m gonna do when I can finally get back to New York. What am I going to wear when I go out and I just started visualizing all that. I knew I wanted to spend a lot of time on the beach for sure, so swimwear just felt right to me and the time to expand my brand beyond apparel. I want to do everything. I want to do footwear, I want to do fragrance, I want to do jewelry. So I just felt like Tia Adeola Swim felt like it was the right time.

I feel like you can see that with the new stuff that you've come out with. But you're releasing for the first time made-to-order pieces as well, what's this process going to be like?

That whole collection, made-to-order was from the last collection I did which I released as a fashion film. And again, it was a post-pandemic collection. The second I got back to New York I started working with different artists and seamstresses that I've built really strong relationships with and we hand-tailored everything. Getting to work with people who've been doing this for years has been an amazing learning experience. And I mentioned, we sort of built relationships. So now, when someone orders something, I work with the small community that I've recently built and create these amazing pieces for people.

So, I saw that you were a Culture and Media major. When did you decide designing was what you wanted to do and did your major tie into your designs?

I always wanted to go to The New School to study fashion design, but I come from a family where fashion design is not a quote-unquote worthy degree. And to my parents, me going to an art school was already bad enough because I was supposed to be in the UK studying law. I secretly applied to The New School and ended up getting the scholarship. And I told my dad who's more chill. And he was like, “Okay, just keep going. See if you end up getting scholarships, don't tell your mom yet.” And I ended up getting a partial scholarship. So, that was the only reason why I didn't end up in the UK studying law. And so culture and media was the closest thing to anything that I was interested in that my parents thought was a decent degree.

Yeah, I definitely understand. My parents are Haitian so just being a journalist is like, what are you doing, just become a doctor. I noticed a lot of the time that you talked about the Renaissance being an inspiration to your designs, what is it about the Renaissance era that inspired you to put that aesthetic at the core of your design process?

So, I was a bit of an art history nerd in high school. I wrote my graduation dissertation on 16th-century Spanish dress in painting. In order to write a 30-page book on such a precise topic, I have to sit through archives and archives of paintings. I felt like sometimes I could almost feel the fur, feel the velvet, and ruffles were so intricate. But there were never any black people wearing those extravagant garments. They often took on the roles of a jester and were wearing cotton. So for me, I wanted to take trends then and rewrite history through fashion.

One of the biggest trends then was the ruff, which we now call ruffles. They sort of were a representation of your status as societies and the Queen would have a huge ruff that almost covered her face, whereas the court lady would have a small one on the wrists of her shirt. In my film I released, I sort of played on a few things. So I had an all-black female cast, and I had white men serving them food wearing my black Jesus T-shirts, which I sell as basic. So yeah, just writing history through fashion.

I love that. Kind of tying into that, rewriting history and of changing the narrative of how royalty is viewed. How do you want Blackness to be portrayed when it comes to your clothing?

I want people to feel a sense of  loyalty and a sense of luxury. And I'm really a believer in Black luxury being normalized. And even just beyond that, at the sample sale, I let people try clothes on, even if they weren't necessarily buying anything. I sat in the corner and just watched people's reactions and put stuff on, predominantly black women, and be like, "Oh my god, I feel so good. I literally feel so ethereal." And that's how I want women to feel and look when they put these garments on.

That's beautiful. So, from Slashed by Tia to Tia Adeola, what are some of the changes that were evident with the name change?

The name Slashed by Tia came about because when I was in college, I was making these cross back tops because I’m way smaller now, but at the time, I had really big boobs, and I didn't feel confident wearing a backless top because I couldn't wear a bra. So, I started making these types of a slinky frontal area that distracted from your chest with a flash, open back, and I just started selling them on Instagram, and I kind of needed a name. So, I just called it Slashed by Tia, but then after I graduated from college, and I realized that  when you have a brand, it goes beyond just design and beyond creative. You actually have to run it as a business. And this is what I plan to do for the rest of my life. I don't really have a Plan B so I just felt putting my name on it would add that level of seriousness and importance to it to me. Even to me personally beyond people now I'm like okay, this is all you now. So which again, I guess made me move production to LA, made me want to make made-to-order pieces that everyone has access to and made me want to make a new website, just doing things as best as possible.

Yeah, I definitely remember when I followed Slash by Tia and then it turned to Tia Adeola. I feel like I could see a big change in how more serious it was taken. Because I think when I started following you, you were still in college. Seeing the metamorphosis is really, really cool. Who is the designer that you look up to the most?

I always get this question. And I get kind of stuck because I mean, there are people that I'm definitely inspired by. Some of the greats like John Galliano, John Paul Gaultier. But, when it comes to having a favorite designer, or my biggest inspiration, I don't really have one. What inspires me is, people and experiences and going to the fabric store and finding things that resonate with me, I don't really look to anyone. Which also, it sucks because the other day I was talking to a friend, I was like, 'I don't know any Black female luxury designers.' I always wanted a mentor but, I want my mentor to be a woman and to be black. I've done research like, who is a black female luxury designer? Nothing really comes to mind. So, I guess I'm just inspired by people, and life and experiences, the future.

I think it's really admirable that you're taking all of these lessons, not only for yourself but for future people to follow in your footsteps as well. And kind of creating that path for future generations to have somebody to look up to and with you speaking on all of these panels and allowing for customers to try on your clothes in the sample sales and all of that, too. It's paving the way and separating yourself from everybody else as well. You've lived in many different parts of the world. How do you think that the different cultures have sort of tied into your designs? And how has that shaped you as a designer?

I feel like it's helped me. I lived in Nigeria. Nigeria is very conservative, my mom is barely cool with the clothes that I make. And then London was such a cultural melting point with amazing fashion. I think I'm not being biased, but I think Europe has the best fashion in the world. So, being able to travel to all these places helped me understand what people would want to wear. I always talk about how in the UK, you walk down Oxford Street, or Bond Street, Carnaby Street, and we see people in fitted clothes, everything perfectly fits together. And I guess it's just, giving me an eye for what sort of looks good on everyone.

Coming to New York made me so much more confident. Because, like I said, I come from a place that is very traditional where an elder who is literally a stranger on the streets kind of calls you out. So wearing something that's too short, or wearing something that's see-through, and I moved to New York, this crazy city where you could literally be wearing a trash bag and no one would look at you twice. And as I get older, I'm a woman now. I feel like I'm learning to embrace my body and learning to embrace, wanting to look sexy and wanting to look chic and I feel like Nigeria just needs to get with the party. Even the images, this interview I would have never thought to even take pictures like that. But just being in New York and being in the Western world has just showed me that it's okay to be a woman that's sexy and embrace it and still be smart and still be respected.

So what's next? What's next for you and your designs? Where do you see your brand sort of heading? I know you said that you were getting ready for fashion week as you're going to be showing there but what else can we kind of expect to see out of you.

So you can expect to see footwear, you can expect to see jewelry, you can expect to see more stock in, for sure. Just everything, I just want this to be a huge house. My ultimate dream is to have a huge glasshouse somewhere in America with my all-female staff and just making crazy things, everyone trained to the best with good resources and infrastructure and just going crazy creating fire garments and beyond.