Generally, I don’t expect to discover talented fashion designers while visiting the blogs of my favorite comic book writers. Yet, when I read Paul Cornell’s account of CONvergence 2010, several photos he’d posted of girls in Doctor Who-inspired dresses caught my eye. A 1960s-style TARDIS dress?! I wanted one immediately.
In this way, I discovered the work of Tara Reich.
Reich’s family is in the antiques business, and early exposure to items ranging from space toys to Roseville pottery sparked a fascination with Old World and contemporary design aesthetics. However, it wasn’t until Reich, an avid fangirl, got involved in cosplay that she saw fashion design as a career option. She graduated from the fashion design program at Columbia College, Chicago in 2009, and won the Chicago Fashion Foundation Scholarship that year.
Reich’s designs blend the sharp angles and lines of sci-fi with a flirty, feminine roundness. Where you might expect metallic material you’ll find wools, silks, and fleece instead; soft grays are accented by white and pink.
Lately Reich has been focused on her Doctor Who collection, which manages to balance the geeky with the fashionable. This is an important mission to Reich, who says: “I want to bring high fashion to nerds and at the same time show people that there is high fashion in sci-fi. There are so many people in sci-fi fandom, and they should be able to have high fashion clothes that show off that fandom in a subtle way that isn’t wearing a costume or a tee shirt. I love creating garments inspired by shows such as Doctor Who or [movies like] Star Wars where people don’t see the inspiration at first, and then it hits them and they love it even more. The blue box dress is very much like that. To someone not familiar with Doctor Who it’s just a sixties style blue mini dress, but to a fan it’s the TARDIS!”
It’s appropriate that Tara Reich has such a sci-fi sensibility, because this young designer has a very bright future.
Words by Teresa Jusino. Photos courtesy of Tara Reich.
Okay, so seriously… Where do I find the clothes? I’ve been hankering for new skirts and the like and this is TOTALLY what I’ve been waiting for.
Thanks!
Click on her name above in the article! Her contact info is on her website. She does custom work!
Great article! I want all those outfits, seriously. That designer is a genius.
Want the Tardis dress so hard!
[...] Go check out my piece, GEEK FASHION: Tara Reich Brings Sci-Fi Sensibility to Couture. [...]
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by mollycrabapple, mollycrabapple, fancyfembot, Kwanza, Kwanza and others. Kwanza said: RT @mollycrabapple: So @teresajusino wrote a steller article for @chinashopmag today! http://tinyurl.com/38q2ce5 You dorklings should al … [...]
Totally amazing article. Sometimes people are just so incredibly talented it kills me.
If Lindsay gets the Tardis dress, I definitely get the shrug-jacket dress pictured in the subway.
[...] [via] [...]
[...] ChinaShop Magazine has decided that they want me to be a regular columnist! Not just decided, but decided enthusiastically! Check out what my new editor had to say about my post on Tara Reich: [...]
[...] I am seriously thinking of getting a Tardis dress – so cute! Tara Reich’s Doctor Who couture. [...]
[...] think so. Her “feminist brown person” take on pop culture has been featured on websites like ChinaShopMag.com, Tor.com, Newsarama, and PopMatters.com,. She is currently working on several fiction projects, [...]
[...] think so. Her “feminist brown person” take on pop culture has been featured on websites like ChinaShopMag.com, Tor.com, Newsarama, and PopMatters.com,. She is currently working on several fiction projects, [...]
[...] think so. Her “feminist brown person” take on pop culture has been featured on websites like ChinaShopMag.com, Tor.com, Newsarama, and PopMatters.com,. She is currently working on several fiction projects, [...]
[...] think so. Her “feminist brown person” take on pop culture has been featured on websites like ChinaShopMag.com, Tor.com, Newsarama, and PopMatters.com,. She is currently working on several fiction projects, [...]
[...] Got to interview some pretty cool people for Tor, Pink Raygun, ChinaShop, and PopMatters this year: Tara Reich (awesome designer who not only ended up making me a dress for my Caprica photo shoot, but is also [...]