Designer Tia Adeola does high-low best. New York.

When clothing brand Slashed by Tia blew up, founder and designer Tia Adeola was juggling an internship at Vfiles, as well as a full program at Parsons. “I would wake up [and] go to my 10 am class, go to Vfiles for noon, leave Vfiles at 5, and then go to my evening class,” the designer tells us. Her inbox was simultaneously blowing up with requests from stylists, and she could hardly keep up with all of the celebs who were wearing her sheer and ruffled designs—everyone from SZA to Gigi Hadid and H.E.R.. Born in Nigeria, Adeola grew up in London, and with the help of her English professor, she secretly applied to Parsons (her parents wanted her to study law). It was a natural progression once she made the move to New York, with friends requesting to purchase backless shirts she had been creating for herself in her dorm.



Adeola’s style has always been on point, which is why we invited ourselves over to her two-floor apartment slash studio to check out the goods IRL. On the bottom floor were three to four racks of Slashed by Tia and Tia Adeola (she recently rebranded the line to be her namesake) and her sewing equipment. On the top floor, racks on racks of vintage designer pieces and basics, shelves of designer bags (many vintage ones passed down from her mom), and an entire area more substantial than some of our apartments dedicated to an array of heels, sneakers, and boots. Brands such as Jean Paul Gaultier, Off-White, Dior, and Nike were a dime a dozen, and her accessory rack glinted with pieces from Shami, M Jewelers, and Planet I. And yet it’s the way that the designer pairs it all together that is the real inspiration. Click through the below to see what we mean.