Meet Kiara Harris: Tailor & Creative Entrepreneur

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

Hi Kiara, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
I was working full time for a company that specialized in helping small business owners and entrepreneurs build their brands and establish an online presence when it occurred to me one day that I was helping others realize their dreams but hadn’t stopped to think about what I wanted for my future. I knew I didn’t see myself in the role I was in long-term and even the industry seemed like a mismatch. I began to think about how I’ve always been someone who captured the attention of others with my style. I reflected on my roots and slowly but surely learned more about my grandmother’s career in the beauty industry and how my interest wasn’t a coincidence but my destiny. I started to chart a path toward owning my own fashion related business. My intuition told me that learning to sew would be a good place to start, so I quit my job and registered for my first sewing class while using the knowledge and skills I gained from my previous employer to establish a brand identity and online presence for myself. 

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
My brand is the perfect union of everything that matters to me. I use my art to advocate, to protest, to inform and entertain. SwankKi Tailor & Threads is a Design House focused on hand-crafted, sustainable and conscious design. As the slow fashion brand of the future, SwankKi provides historically excluded groups a lifestyle brand and service that encapsulates the extraordinary ways we adorn our bodies to express ourselves. By prioritizing inclusivity, sustainability, activism and innovation, we will revolutionize the fashion industry one. thread. at. a. time. I wouldn’t be here today if I hadn’t listened to that still small voice. I’ve always let my gut guide me even when it wasn’t so clear where I was headed. It was not easy, and I never expected it to be. I just always trusted that I was capable of making a way. I expected it would be one of the hardest things I’d ever do, but I knew I could endure the trials and tribulations because my goals meant so much to me. I knew that if I fully committed, nothing could stand between me and my most genuine hopes and dreams for myself. In recent news, I signed a lease for my first creative space at Thornton Road Studios in ATX earlier this month, and I am just elated at how perfectly things have aligned for me since I decided to bet on myself.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Local Shopping: 

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
A good place to start is with my family for always reminding me who I am and why I’m here. To Natalie for your endless encouragement and to my network of supporters from the Austin Valkyries Women’s Rugby Club, Texas 4000 (2014) and back home in Houston. Y’all continue to show up for me time and time again, and I’m forever grateful!

Website: linktr.ee/SwankKi
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/swank.ki
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kiara-harris-swankki
Twitter: https://twitter.com/swank_ki
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/swankki
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCk-FSzhR9tLOtuu4_x5cpRg
Other: https://www.patreon.com/SwankKi?fan_landing=true https://www.instagram.com/swank_ki