These Three Sisters Started Their Own Tie-Dye Clothing Brand and Donate Their Proceeds To Non-Profits
The epitome of sisterhood is starting a new business together in the middle of a global pandemic by accident. And who doesn’t want a trendy tie-dye sweatshirt to lounge in during self-isolation?
Based in Los Angeles, California, Romi, Emmy and Lianne Tendler founded their own tie-dye clothing brand back in April 2020.
A Sister Brand was born out of a casual desire to make a few tie-dye sweatshirts one afternoon amidst time in quarantine at home, but to their surprise, once the girls posted their new designs to Instagram, they were flooded with direct messages asking them to tie-dye other people’s apparel.
“We did this to channel our creativity in a time of so much unknown and uncertainty,” Romi said. “The minute that we started posting that we are actually selling and that we are donating a portion of our profits to help COVID-19, it really just took off pretty fast.”
Romi, a 29-year-old graduate from Pepperdine was working for High Tech at the beginning of the pandemic, when she was furloughed. Creating A Sister Brand helped her fuel her creativity and love for giving back.
“In the beginning of the pandemic… we were really freaked out,” Romi said. “And now it's just part of our life…We were just really wanting to do anything we could to help COVID-19.”
A Sister Brand donates a portion of their profits to multiple organizations such as Pizza vs. Pandemic, a campaign that arranges for hundreds of pizzas from independent pizzerias to be sent to workers at care centers, hospitals, clinics and shelters.
“We have some close friends that were affected and a friend that had no pre-existing conditions at 28 and was really, really sick for two weeks,” Romi explained. “So, we knew we wanted to do something for COVID-19.”
They’ve also donated to RIP Medical Debt, which helps to pay medical bills for low-income Americans. For the entire month of June, A Sister Brand donated their proceeds to the official George Floyd Memorial Fund.
“I feel like we've always been super passionate about involving something to give back in what we do,” Emmy expressed.
Emmy, a 23-year-old graduate of the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising in L.A., has always been passionate about fashion, social media and branding. She liked the idea of the tie-dye trend, but wanted to keep their colorway more muted like her personal style.
“We all just typically wear white, black or denim and so because tie-dye is such a trend right now, we wanted to create [in that colorway],” she said. “Our first colors were definitely brighter and we still offer those, but then we were like let’s just do more neutrals and stick to these colors that we love so much and that we would wear.”
So far, the inspiring new tie-dye muted tones have worked and became their best sellers, and A Sister Brand expanded from sweatshirts into t-shirts, one-shoulder crop tops and socks. They have thousands of followers, and have gifted big names like social media influencers Sivan Ayla and Michaela Podolsky.
The job is never-ending –Emmy and Romi work around the clock hours. Creating their designs is a personal process for the sisters and their third sister Lianne –a full-time marriage family therapist –plays a big part in the brainstorming process, helping to create designs and pick colors.
“We would never want to promote something or sell something that we're not in love with ourselves,” Emmy emphasizes. “So, I think that each and every color that we sell, is just so us and we've always wanted to stay true to that.”
The Tendler’s get their dye from a specific vendor in downtown L.A. and carefully sourced their garments in order to find the highest-quality fabric made of a soft, buttery material.
As A Sister Brand has grown, so have the sisters’ ambitions for the future of the brand.
“We ultimately want to stand out from the rest,” Romi said. “This is our full time job right now and we are treating it that way. We hope to offer more products and just continue expanding.”
In addition to their apparel, A Sister Brand recently launched a blog page, a community-oriented space which shares stories from strangers, customers and friends about personal life experiences ranging from mental health to race issues.
“So many people just want to write to us about self-care,” Emmy said. “Some people want to write about how they've dealt through the pandemic with depression and topics that we really think are important right now.”
“We're just loving how many people want to share their voice and their stories and making it a bigger platform than just clothing,” Romi added.
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