amyisdressed:

Miss Tenetia Rachel is a 20-year-old designer from Chicago who not only wants to share her work, but give back as well. Her line, Tenetia Rachel, is a mixture of colorful vintage and thrift finds.

Rachel said that she first got into fashion in the 8^th grade. “Everybody would tell me, ‘Oh you should be a model’ just because I’m tall, but I really wasn’t into it like that.” Despite her apathy towards modeling, Rachel started watching shows like America’s Next Top Model and became more interested in the process behind the scenes.

In her junior year of high school, she took what she thought was a fashion course, but turned out to be a sewing course. “I took it and I actually liked it and I was really good at it,” said Rachel. “So I continued to do it and started making purses and little scarves and things like that. Then alterations and a lot more random stuff and it kind of flourished into a line.”

When sifting through thrift, like many, Rachel goes for whatever catches her eye. “I don’t wanna say what’s different because there are a lot of things on there [the website] that people would wear, but it just depends on how you wear it,” she said. “I’ve seen different things from the thrift store that could be really simple, but it could be worn differently and make you stand out.”

Rachel wants to have her own boutiques—the first in Chicagoand another in New York. The boutiques will include her designs, a thrift section and she’d also like to have a place for up and coming designers. “They can start off there and then flourish into their own things,” she said. “I don’t wanna be a big fashion designer. I just wanna have boutiques and help other people do what I’m doing.”

Check out some of my favorite Tenetia Rachel pieces below.

P.S. She does custom orders too! 

Jun 18th 2012 · 23 notes · Tags: #interview #tenetiarachel #blog