We were lucky to catch up with Tracy Bunkoczy recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Tracy , thanks for joining us today. Can you tell us about a time where you or your team really helped a customer get an amazing result?
I had a client whose parents had recently both died. They had lived in her childhood home in Beverly Hills, it was original to the era, I’d say 50’s or 60’s without any renovation. I love the character and charm of an old home, but in the fast world we live in today, the siblings were worried that the house would not sell or they might not get what they were asking for price wise. By staging the home in modern, yet mid century inspired furniture and decor it gave this house the imagination and new life that it needed. Of course the home sold for over asking with multiple offers!
Tracy , 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?
While I was in high school and college I immersed myself in the anything fashion related, working in retail and being a dresser for fashion shows, dressing the models. Reading magazines and collecting books on street style and fashion design. I love vintage too, so I really studied eras and style in history.
I started off by going to Otis College of Art and Design for Fashion, where I earned my B.F.A. I worked for a designer on my days off from class so I was hired right after college. It was a small company manufacturing denim in DTLA.
From there I went to a larger company which was a licensor for a major swim brand. Then I went to work for Mossimo which was a Target in house brand and we also did business in Canada.
After that I went to work for Paul Frank, which I spent most of my years with that company. I designed the first kids line for the brand called Small Paul. Eventually PF converted to a licensing model and we expanded the brand to a global audience, beyond Europe and Japan.
With this creative background of building collections of either apparel or style guides it was a natural transition to interiors. At first I just styled my own apartments, and I got featured in Apartment Therapy twice and had a little blurb in Los Angeles magazine. I have applied those skills to what I do now. I feel like it is about understanding of space and how to style that space tastefully. I think what I do is most like set design, because we go into an empty house and stage it from top to bottom. I love the instant gratification of it.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
I love the expression I am able to convey through being creative.
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
I went from a very corporate “9-5” job to a phase where I was consulting for brands. I was trying to figure out how to get into interiors and what side of that business I wanted to go into. Since I already had the fashion background and leading creatives, I was pretty senior and had a lot of experience. I found most large companies wanted me to start at the bottom, learn CAD and that is not where my creative talent is.
I think this is where building your own personal “brand” comes in, if I branded myself as a multi disciplinary creative then I would not be pigeonholed in “fashion”. or licensing. I think this is the new way, but I was a little early, social media was not what it is today.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://www.tracybunkoczy.com/
- Instagram: @tracybunkoczy
Image Credits
Dave Laurdisen is the Photographer.