Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Latoya Janae. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Latoya , appreciate you joining us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

I started my brand to bring more options and creative flair to the tall fashion industry. Tall fashion is often overlooked in the fashion industry and has been for decades. There are a few brands that are starting to have a “Tall” section but what people fail to realize is “Tall” is not just one size and thats the problem. I also feel like the tall fashion brands that did exist was only representing a specific style of what they felt a tall women should look like or be like and i didn’t feel connected to any of them. I believe that every tall women is different in their own way and we all have our own style. My goal is to bring those options to the market that they can feel connected to.

Latoya , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I always been into sports and fashion. I ran track, and played D1 college basketball. I always loved fashion and how people feel connected to their clothes, its a language to me. I create dope clothing for tall women and starting to add a few unisex pieces as well. I believe what sets me apart from other tall brands is the designs i bring are more trendy and exclusive. I like to take a bit of a risk and give them pieces that are up to date (with the times) if that makes sense. I love seeing how happy my customers are when they receive their clothes from my brand, thats the best part to me.

Okay – so how did you figure out the manufacturing part? Did you have prior experience?

Yes i manufacture my clothing and it has been a challenging journey. I found my vendor by doing research, and testing out the ones i found. It took a few bad apples to find that right one by trial and error. I didn’t go to school for fashion and i don’t know how to sew. I just knew i wanted to create and wasn’t going to let the lack of knowledge stop me from doing what i felt i was set out to do. I kind of was like i’ll just learn as i go and thats what i’m doing. I learned a lot, but the main thing i learned is to be very specific of what you want from these manufacturers and plan ahead.

Any fun sales or marketing stories?

I love telling this story. When i started my brand november 9, 2019 i didn’t have not one sale, matter fact the first 6 months in business i had a total of 10 sales. speed things up early 2020 the covid lock down happened and this media outlet that announced that female rapper meagan thee stallion was doing a collab with popular fashion nova and will have items for tall girls. Tall girls were in their comment section going crazy from excitement and here i am thinking damn its over for my brand. How can i compete with Fashion nova and meagan thee stallion. Then i thought, im just going run a AD with this same media outlet and see if i can get some of these same tall girls attention to let them know that a brand for them already exist and that was Nineth Closet! So once i did my AD, lets just say orders went from 10 within 6 months to 100s a month.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.ninethcloset.com
• Instagram: @ninethcloset
• Other: tiktok @ninethcloset

Image Credits
Photo in Tan is shot by Daryl poole Second images shot by Prime @theartofprime (instagram)