Teni Adeola (AKA Tia) launched her fashion brand from her dorm room during the summer of 2017 and hasn’t stopped since. The 22-year-old Nigeria-born, London-raised, and New York-based designer is a rising star, with Teen Vogue stating that “she’s ready to be one of the greatest female couture designers in the world,” no less.
With art history background and a passion for the Renaissance period, Tia has attracted huge celebrity clients, like Gigi Hadid, Kali Uchis, and Dua Lipa. But what pushes her forward most are her parents.
“Honestly, what inspires me is just impressing my parents, you know, my parents are African, so they’re not really into the whole fashion thing,” she told NBGA. “But obviously, they’ve definitely seen growth and it’s exciting when I can tell them things that have happened that they actually know about, or like working with platforms they’re familiar with, that’s always really exciting and it pushes me to do even better.”
Growing up in Nigeria, she first discovered a passion for fashion while making clothes for her dolls. “Also, when I was 13 I interned with a Nigerian designer named Ituen Basi who is pretty cool, she has dressed Michelle Obama and a few other women,” she recalls. “And yeah, it’s something I’ve always been interested in and kind of done. It’s not something I woke up one day and was like ‘I’m going to make clothes now.’ But I’ve always been really into clothes.”
Follow her journey to stardom on Instagram: