Featured Artist of the Month ~ taissalada
After falling behind on my regular blog articles last month, I am very excited to get back on track and introduce you to this month’s Featured Artist: Taissa Lada of Taissa Lada Designs. Old Hollywood glamour comes to mind as I browse through her shop and her work is unique, vintage inspired and beautifully crafted. Let’s learn a little about Taissa and the inspiration behind her designs.
Q. Tell us a little about yourself.
A. My name is Taissa Lada but most people refer to me as “Tai’ like you tie your shoes. I’m in my late 30’s and I live in Minneapolis with my two cats “Pee Wee” and “Simba”. I do this full time, so this is actually my job, the hat making that is. I started out with high end evening wear and sort of morphed into hat making by accident. I had always dabbled in accessories, especially hat and head wear in my early years in design school and over the years more and more people began asking for just the hats so I went with the flow and kept going with the supply and they got more and more in demand. I love making the pieces, to me it’s like soft sculptures. I love when the feathers move in mid air, sometimes the shape will change over time. it’s like they have a mind of their own.
As far as hobbies go I love to travel and try and make time for it when I can. A few of my favorite places are New York, London and Paris. I lived in Chicago for 13 years from 1992 -2005 but moved back to MN where I was born and raised in the spring of 2005. I needed a change so I up and left.
Q. When did you start and how did you get into your art/craft?
My hats sort of started with a “bad hair day” My hair dresser cancelled on me last minute due to “being sick” and I was in dire need to cover up my nappy roots. I started picking up flowers and feathers that were on my studio floor and pinning them in my hair. I had always dabbled in hair accessories at the time I mainly did high end evening wear but this make shift hair cover up was a major marking in my designing. I went out that night to an opening I was showing in and all my girlfriends wanted something similar and I came home with orders on the back of bar napkins. I started making more and more of them due to word of mouth, self promoting and some shops carrying my accessories and eventually my accessories stated to float the line and I began to build the hat moulds as well.
I’ve been a thrift store junkie since I can remember. I think it all started with a leopard fake fur coat I bought at Ragstock for 5.00 when I was 14. I was never able to shake my adoration for that particular print. I absolutely love it, especially shoes and lingerie. Most of my hats are lined with it. Sometimes I’ll use old garments as well for the linings if I like them, I think that garments and accessories should be just as beautiful on the inside as the outside. It’s like when you see a house from the outside and you walk inside and you’re like WOW!!! I was not expecting this at all! To me that’s what I want my items to be like.
Q. Where do you get the ideas and inspiration for your art/craft?
As far as the process goes, I guess I really don’t have a method behind my madness. I just start working and I see where my hands and mind take me. I’m really inspired by the deep blue sea, tropical flowers,and vintage fashion. As you can see, I’m a big fan of color and I never met a feather I didn’t like. I have a back ground in fashion and a BFA . I graduated from the School Of The Art Institute Of Chicago were I graduated from in 1996.
Q. What is your favorite thing about making your art/craft?
I love that fashion is always changing, I always have a million ideas that branch off into different things. I really love working one on one with my clients and I love doing really over the top stuff for them. I like when someone buys something from me and totally make it their own and works in their own style. I love taking something old and giving new life to it, changing it around a bit and adding new materials. As I said before I don’t really have a method, I generally have an idea of the shape and colors used but a lot of times my ideas come to me as I start working. One of the best things is seeing my creations on other people and how diverse the crowd with me is. It ranges from burlesque performers, to drag queens, ascot and horse race fans to lady’s who lunch and wear my items to church. I’m still pretty shocked that this whole thing turned out the ways that it did and has evolved over the years to where it is today. All I wanted to do was cover up my roots and look presentable. Guess that bad hair day years ago was a sigh and turned in to something great!
To see more of Taissa’s work, head over to her Etsy shop.
