The second installment of TOTC Tunes is right on time for the weekend! Featuring a selection of sensual guitar rock, cosmic synths and earnest songwriting that whirls around Director of Fragrance and Accessories, Jordan Robin, as she works.
Click here to listen to the playlist on our Spotify Channel.
]]>Words by Jordan Robin
Photo by Christian Brylle
When I moved to New York in 2006, I dove headfirst into the burgeoning fashion, music and art scenes of the time. Coming from Los Angeles, I had experience with how creative people can live, work and share ideas. But it was in the streets, galleries, shops and night clubs of New York City that I truly felt the magnetic pull of creative energy. Artists were designers were DJs were writers were photographers were painters were in bands. In New York I have been able to take ownership over being an artist making everything.
I met Aleksandra at a dinner party in 2009 and we became fast friends, paling around to art openings, fashion shows, concerts, parties and growing into our own artists in between. Aleksandra started working with me at the old Acne store on Greene Street where we became part of the Opening Ceremony family of familiar downtown kids. At that time, boutiques were venues for experiencing the intersection between fashion, art, music and beyond. They had parties, blogs, art shows, concerts. They collaborated with their customers and with each other. There was a collective creative spirit behind retail, and by supporting the designers you became a part of a community.
Aleksandra and I have continued to be family, and in 2017 Gemma came into our fold. Countless brands have emerged since, and simultaneously countless brick and mortar stores have closed. Fashion has been in limbo. And while I’ve continued to express myself through fashion and support the brands I love, that spark of real, live connection has lost its charge to ecommerce.
We are in a pivotal moment, where the world is changing dramatically before our eyes and culture is revolving through countless challenges. We are creating TOTC to tap into that spirit of collaboration, and forge a new community through a product that acknowledges the past to look to the future and transcend this moment.
I love fashion and fragrance both for their power to transform the way you feel. To offer the world around you the full sensory experience of who you are. It is my hope that TOTC will become a tool for our community to show up authentically, with minimal effort and maximum impact. With everything around us in flux, living for the moment has never been more important. vWe aren’t going to miss it because we were getting dressed.
If the future is now, my future is TOTC.
]]>In the spirit of shared experience and community, we've created TOTC Tunes - a Spotify Channel we intend to populate with playlists created by our community as our brand grows. Our designers have been DJs, performers in bands, and writers of music themselves. Suffice it to say that music is deeply embedded in our creative process. We hope you will enjoy the first of many TOTC Tunes playlists, compiled by our Design Director, Aleksandra McCormack.
"As we start to wrap up the adventure of the year 2020, I look back and see so much creativity. We’ve been self-starters: finding new ways to work, create, and communicate in unpredictable times. The soundtrack to my life this year has been 50% seeking comfort in old favorites and 50% finding joy in new musical discoveries," she says. Click here to listen to the music that surrounded Aleksandra as she designed our first knitwear collection, or here to navigate to our campaign page where you can support us in producing it.
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The $50K we are aiming to raise through this campaign will be used to kick start our business through initial branding and product launches:
$30K - Development & Production of our first Knitwear collection, Initial Fragrance stock and packaging production, Production of our first Accessories collection
$15K - Brand Identity design, Packaging design and production, Creation of e-commerce platform, development of social media and digital marketing platforms
$5K - LLC, Operating expenses and Supplies
]]>It’s been an action-packed week launching our iFundWomen campaign and we are so excited to share our TOTC universe with you.
Throughout the process of establishing our brand, the first question we are always asked is ‘what is the problem you are trying to solve?’ We hadn’t seen a brand that offered a clever, sustainable solution to making fashion and style easy for all, and we felt that if we want this - then other people must want it too. We sought out to create a contemporary take on the heritage style uniform. To offer a system that is both stylish and versatile, that anyone can adapt to their personal style with ease, and that takes the effort out of getting dressed.
Enter: our first collection. We created a system to cover the full spectrum of what you need to get dressed - nothing more, nothing less. The whole thing fits neatly into five easy pieces and today we are giving you a sneak peak at what that looks like! Each collection we create will play on these five designs, committing to the minimalist shopping philosophy we hold dear as a brand.
We hope you will enjoy this collection preview, illustrated by our Design Director, Aleksandra McCormack. To be a part of bringing it to life, visit the campaign to get involved!
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With that in mind, we have created a streamlined, versatile system of reimagined essentials to suit you in this new world. As individual pieces or as a full system, each product is designed help you harness authentic, enduring style with minimum effort. Our product assortment, design strategy, merchandising plan and production approach all support our mission.
Yesterday we launched a campagin via iFundWomen where you can learn more and get involved. This will be part of our seed to produce our first collection of Knitwear and Accessories and bring TOTC to life in fall 2021. I hope you will take a moment to check it out here if you have not already.
We welcome every single fan, follower, friend, donor, family member and early perfume adopter to be a part of our community. It's been so magical in just the first day of the campaign, to hear from each of you and feel your belief in what we are doing. Thank you for a great first day. I can't wait to continue sharing the magic with some of the experiences we are planning around TOTC.
With Love,
Jordan Robin, Founder & CCO