Lynette Tyner Re-Creates Herself as Fashion-Biz Player
Having started out as a supermarket clerk in a town far from the fashion world’s glitz, Lynette Tyner hopes to become a player in the fashion business on Aug. 17 with the launch of her contemporary label, Lynette Tyner Collection, at the Project trade show at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas.
The 10 dresses in Tyner’s first collection riff off of classic silhouettes and juxtapose soft silks and premium denims. Tyner said the journey to re-create herself from supermarket clerk to fashion designer did not happen overnight.
“You might not have all of the money,” she said. “You might not have all of the opportunity. But if you are really dedicated, it can happen.”
The journey took about eight years. It started after a friend’s mother helped Tyner make a dress from scratch in her home in Rialto, Calif., located 54 miles east of downtown Los Angeles. Later, Tyner met a designer at a trade expo who recommended she learn the business at Los Angeles Trade-Technical College. She enrolled and learned everything about fabrics, constructing a garment and pattern-making.
For her post-graduate study, Tyner joined the labor force. She learned how to manage a fashion studio when she worked for veteran Los Angeles designer Freddie Rojas in 2004. She also held sales and buying gigs at the now-defunct showroom WMA Inc., at the time located in the California Market Center, and at online trade show and marketplace LAShowroom.com.
After working full days at these jobs, she spent her nights designing at her apartment, which was packed with drafting tables and patterns. In 2010, she started hiring people to help launch her collection. She only decided to quit her day job when she realized that it was impossible to run a serious business at night.
Tyner debuted her 600-square-foot design studio near downtown Los Angeles on July 31. Her debut collection features dresses such as the “Anita” dress, a denim, bustier bubble dress with a silk lining. The “Stacy” is a knee-length silk Empire-waist dress that features a bustier and a denim belt. Her collection’s wholesale price points range from $80 to $120.
The collection is carried by the Magnet Showroom in the Academy Awards Building in downtown Los Angeles. For more information, e-mail franco@magnetshowroom.com or call (213) 622-0180.—Andrew Asch
