Tina Knowles has become a fashion force in the world of music, home shopping and retail. The mother and grandmother has always been interested in style and expressing herself. From her successful hair styling business in Texas to creating the memorable costumes for the pop group Destiny’s Child, Knowles is a true fashionista. Following the popularity of her House of Dereon collaboration with Beyonce and the success of her Miss Tina line for Home Shopping Network, Knowles is bringing her clothing to the masses at Walmart this weekend. While she was putting the finishing touches on the debut of her Miss Tina Collection, Knowles sat down with ESSENCE.com to talk about her mission to dress “every woman” of all shapes and sizes in style.
ESSENCE.com: How do you take a dress and make it fit five different body types? TINA KNOWLES: Well, one thing is the fabric. It has to be a fabric that gives and that can stretch, and they have such great fabrics now. I don’t think that there is one item in the line that doesn’t have stretch. I was also thinking about what’s going to be able to fit the waist, and give you a little room there if you eat too much or if you have a little pouch. The other thing is making it really slim at the bottom. No matter what size you are, a dress should not be A line. We just made it skinny at the bottom. So it looks expensive, it looks more fashionable.
ESSENCE.com: What is the secret sauce in your clothing? KNOWLES: The stretch fabric and the draping. Everything either has a ruching or a little drape at the neckline for a bustier woman. I would never just do a plain top, because I’m thinking about women with an extra large bust or no bust at all, and you want to create the allusion that there is a bust.
ESSENCE.com: You worked with a lot of different sized women for your jeans. What did you learn? KNOWLES: Every girl that came in, I asked ‘What’s the issue that you’ve been having?’ Almost every one of them said, ‘gaping at the waist,’ ‘too small in the thighs,’ ‘I never thought I could wear a skinny jean.’ So it’s all the things that you want in a jean. You know you don’t want your underwear showing, so they’re cut higher in the back and lower in the front. Our jeans have darts in them. All these things that I heard, I incorporated into the clothes.
ESSENCE.com: Talk about curvy women and how it’s hard for them to find things that fit. KNOWLES: It’s very hard! It’s easy to design for the woman who is a size four. It’s going to fall and drape well on her. My fit model for Miss Tina is a size 12 and the collection goes up to a size 20. I’m such a fanatic about having the women in the dresses and asking them how they feel. The best feeling for me is to be walking down the street and seeing somebody feeling good and feeling confident because they have on clothes that fit them well.
Check out the Miss Tina collection at select Walmart stores on October 2, 2010.
