Meet TARINA TARANTINO | Founder and Creative Director

We had the good fortune of connecting with TARINA TARANTINO and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi TARINA, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
Freedom. I wanted to work for myself. My Grandparents owned their own company and I grew up seeing the freedom it afforded them and I wanted the same.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
What has always made my collections different from others is that I have never cared to follow trends. Whats always been most important to me is to create what I want to wear or see in the world and if someone else gets it, and loves it. then great! If not, then its not for them and it doesn’t faze me. When I did my first collab with Hello Kitty in 2001 we had to educate the market about what a collab was – they didn’t understand at first. Since then I have worked with many other brands like Sephora, KidRobot, Barbie, and Warner Bros. on collabs and today they are a normal part of the fashion industry. Building a brand and keeping it relevant and popular for almost 28 years is not always easy. Most of the time you are dealing with one challenge or another, but there are also huge successes along the way that make it all worth it. We literally started out of our tiny apartment all those years ago and built it into an international brand with hundreds of employees and many retail stores around the world. It was amazing and we are really proud of what the brand has accomplished over the years. Today we are much smaller by design, we stopped offering wholesale and sell directly to our customers through our website and our retail store in downtown L.A.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Hike to the Hollywood Sign for a view of the entire city. Go to downtown LA for dinner in the Arts District at Bavel. Take a day trip to Santa Barbara for wine tasting. Visit the BROAD Museum downtown then head to Little Tokyo for shopping and dinner.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
My business partner and husband Alfonso Campos. He is a fearless visionary and a force. We have been through so much together with this business and in life and he is always the first one to say “lets make it happen”! And then we make it happen. Even when times are tough he is always encouraging and together we always find a way.

Website: www.tarinatarantino.com

Instagram: @tarinatarantino

Linkedin: TARINA TARANTINO

Twitter: @TARINATARINAT

Facebook: @TARINATARANTINO

Youtube: FUCHSIA REVOLUTION

Image Credits
ADAM WALLACAVAGE TARINA TARANTINO ALBERT SANCHEZ TARINA TARANTINO