Spotlight on our alumni - Talita Natalia Risya from LaSalle College | Indonesia

Published by LCI Education, November 16th, 2017

As a LaSalle College’s Fashion Business program alumni, Talita Natalia is the Creative Director of KLAR accessories. The name KLAR is the German for Clear which refers to her brand main material, acrylic. It was chosen as the main material of the accessories for its entity that could look invisible yet solid concurrently. Get to know this creative and inspiring entrepreneur! 

After graduating from LaSalle College, how far did the education you receive has helped you in your current career?

I personally think all the things I learned at LaSalle are very hands-on and encourage me to start my own business. I am not sure about the courses that contain mostly theories because I jumped straight into launching my own brand so I didn’t have much experience in corporate settings (maybe all the theories like terminologies etc. are more useful if you work in a big company) but courses like merchandising, finance, product development, and enterprise are definitely so helpful when I started my own business, at least to set the ground for everything.

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What is your current career path? Or what type of business do you have right now?

I am currently running my accessory brand called KLAR. We offer mainly jewelry made of acrylic (this is our signature) and a small line of carry-goods. Our brand emphasizes on sustainability, even though it is not the thing that we use as our main image (we don’t do any green marketing), we try to align our business with practices that sustain the earth. 

We launch Recycle Project where we use our production waste and turn it into a new piece of jewelry and we also use packaging that can be reused by our customers. We also practice slow fashion by launching only 1 collection that is divided into several drops per year and we rarely never do sale/markdowns (unless the product defects), this way we encourage our customer to choose well, shop wisely, and to not shop on impulse. We want our product to be something that our customer can always treasure.

Could you share with us about your passion for fashion, please. Where did your passion is fashion come from? Who was your inspiration(s)?

Since I was in elementary school I was already into clothes, I always look forward to Christmas because my parents usually allow me to buy a new head-to-toe look. I realized that I want to have a career in fashion when I was in my last year of Junior High School, therefore, I decided to learn how to sew. In Senior High School I kept pursuing fashion by joining a lot of fashion competitions and doing several internships.

A small number of students in my high school started to have interest in fashion but they didn’t see it as a career, and the rest saw fashion as something to made fun of still. But I guess I had faith? I know that it is a promising industry because come on, who doesn’t wear clothes? 

Another reason why I wanted to have a career in fashion is that I want to be in a working environment that is dynamic and trigger creativity. A lot of people in the industry inspire me, through fashion I met a lot of people with a great vision for the industry, great work ethic, and unbelievable creativity. I was always amazed by people who work in the fashion industry because they seem to be very passionate and hardworking, there are stressful times but they don’t want to stop doing it because they love it.

Can you share with us what are your accomplishment/awards in the past 5 years?

KLAR was nominated by Cleo Fashion Awards 2014 and got the chance to present our collection for Jakarta Fashion Week 2015. 

In 2015 I got awarded as Best Graduate for Fashion Business major by LaSalle.

In 2016-2017 I got into Fashion Institute of Technology Dean’s List for 3 consecutive semesters. KLAR also got featured in several magazines as their pick for favorite accessory brand (I don’t really keep track about the name of the magazines because I usually found out through Instagram, but you can check out our website to see the features). However, in my personal opinion, my biggest accomplishment is that I still manage to run my accessory business that is based in Jakarta all the way from New York (laughs). 

What advice would you give to our fashion students?

While you’re still a student, it is your chance to experiment, take risks, and try new things. As you get older you will have less courage to take risk because you will have more responsibility, so do it while you are still a student. It is your time to explore new styles, new concepts, basically anything! 

Also, always do the extra mile because you have the energy to do it. Have a mindset that learning is not always done in school. As long as you are willing to observe, you can learn anywhere. Being a fashion student can be tough at times and your hard work will often get overlooked by others, but have faith and remember that you are doing what you love to do.

Talita on Social Media