D.C. designer Tashia Senn made her mark with remarkable speed.
The designer with one of her conservatively fashion-forward designs.
When she was barely old enough to dress herself, Tashia (pronounced TAY-sha) Senn loved playing dress-up with her mother’s clothes and accessories. When she was old enough to read, she devoured fashion magazines the way her playmates did comic books. No surprise then, that when it came time to go to college, Senn set off for New York’s prestigious Fashion Institute of Technology where she made quick business of creating fashion. With astonishing speed Senn, 33, debuted her first collection less than six months after her 2009 graduation.
“I had designed three seasons before graduation, which made the design process a little easier,” says Senn. Unlike so many of her colleagues who glut the fashion centers of New York and Los Angeles, Senn chose to set up shop on her home turf of Washington, D.C. Her timing was perfect. She settled into her K Street studio soon after Michelle Obama had re-focused political eyes on fashion. “She definitely influences me,” says Senn, “because she is a fashion icon.”
A town where the cocktail party is as important for getting business done as a House subcommittee meeting, D.C. is the perfect landing spot for Senn’s high-end fashions. Playing to its conservative tastes, her pieces have a timeless quality, which hark back to the 1950s and 1960s. “The era is just so vast,” she says. “It was a great era. Back then, women would dress up just to go to the grocery store.” Her wide collars, sweetheart necklines, detailed embellishments and structured silhouettes skim the body rather than squeeze it.
Senn’s designs range in cost from $350 to $1,650. In 2010, she was negotiating to get her designs on the racks in stores. Until then, her studio is the only place to find her fashions.
So what’s to come? Any plans for the presidential closets? “The PR people I was working with sent a package to the White House,” she says. “We’re holding out hope.” TashiaSenn.com
