Indie Artist Music Hustle
Indie Artist Music Hustle Podcast with Blonde Intelligence is where you will experience exquisite cranial repertoire. The podcast (Available on your favorite podcasting platform) provides entertainment news, thoughts on celebrity gossip, independent music artists, as well as businesses that contributor to the music and entertainment industries. The purpose is to provide exquisite cranial repertoire. Don't forget to hit that subscribe button!!!! follow me @BlondeIntelligence @RRoneice. Also the channel name is That Blonde Broad.
Indie Artist Music Hustle
From Dream to Runway: Tiffany Robinson's Journey to Fashion Empire
Ever wondered how a childhood dream transforms into a successful fashion empire? Join us on Indie Artist Music Hustle with Blind Intelligence as we sit down with the visionary Tiffany Robinson, aka Tiff Marie, the renowned CEO of Rockstar 86. Tiffany takes us through her inspiring journey from the runways of her imagination to the esteemed pages of CIE Fashion Magazine. Discover the divine sparks that fuel her creativity and hear firsthand how her experiences on the fashion tour circuit, along with overcoming the challenges of COVID-19, have shaped her illustrious career. Tiffany’s roots in Shreveport, Louisiana, have not only influenced her design aesthetic but also ignited her passion for empowering the local youth with fashion and entrepreneurial skills, with aspirations of opening a dedicated outreach center.
The episode offers a spotlight on the magnetic interplay between fashion and music. Tiffany shares invaluable insights on the critical qualities of successful models, beyond beauty and size, emphasizing the indispensable nature of a positive attitude and professionalism. We demystify the demanding work of designers and the expectation for celebrities to honor this craft by purchasing rather than borrowing creations. The conversation extends into the dynamic realm of music videos, where fashion and set design craft compelling visual narratives. Join us for an engaging exploration of how style shapes stories, and how Tiffany Robinson gracefully navigates these interconnected worlds.
Hello everyone, welcome to this week's Indie Artist Music Hustle with Blind Intelligence. I'm your host, Ms Ronnie, where I always seek to give you exquisite cranial repertoire. This week we have a very special guest. We have the CEO of Rockstar 86, Ms Tiffany Robinson. Say hello to everyone. Hello world, how are y'all? Rockstar 86,.
Speaker 1:Miss Tiffany Robinson Say hello to everyone. Hello world, how are y'all?
Speaker 2:We're doing fine over here in this neck of the woods, so what we're going to do is we're going to start out with letting you take over and tell everyone a little bit about yourself.
Speaker 1:Well, I'm Tiffany Robinson, mostly known as Tiff Marie, rockstar 86. I am just a happy spirit to be on this earth. I have been into the fashion industry since 2013. Oh my God, I have been somewhere everywhere. We're headed to Georgia in May. This month we're going to Houston. Next month is Los Angelesifornia. We're just ready. We're man, we're here and we're ready.
Speaker 1:Okay, so tell me what made you get into fashion designing initially um well, it was my dreams as a little girl I've always had dreams about. I used to see myself actually on the runway. I didn't know if I was a model, I didn't know if I was a designer, but by the time I was eight years old it was quite clear. I used to play in my mom's dresses and one day I ended up ripping one of her contour dresses. And when I ripped it, you know know, I'm seven years old at the time, so I'm not knowing. You know, hey, it's a purple velvet dress. Use purple thread, right, I want to use red thread. But I sewed it up. My mom would have never known, and she told me she would have never known had I not used red thread. So I knew then if I could sneak and get that back in the closet without her knowing.
Speaker 1:Hey, girl, I can do it so tell me about some of your signature pieces oh, wow, um well, um, I would say one of my favorite pieces made CIE fashion magazine um spread. It was a two-piece gold suit, one by Myesha from Houston, and it was just very spectacular. It was very special to me because that was one of those pieces that kind of highlighted my career as a designer. You know, meeting Raven Wilson, just being at that shoot with her, her being a creative director, and it blew her off the water. So I really knew then that, you know, like I told you, that was one of my favorite pieces and it's like a hundred more so and I'm always creating, so Okay, so I know in the beginning you was telling me a little bit about some of your upcoming events and some of your past events.
Speaker 2:I met you through the event Overnight Celebrity, so tell me what made you come up with that concept and how do you come up with the concept for any other fashion show that you design?
Speaker 1:and show that you design Well, as I told you, for one, I do believe in God, and he brings all kinds of great visions to my life. Ernie, I can't take credit for anything that I haven't done myself. I pray about everything, and most of the time it comes to me in a dream and from that dream I write it down. And I'm God set to write it down on paper and make it plain for him to see it. That's what I doing, girl. I mean, that's how Rockstar 86 got started. Also, my daughter's brand, dream Diamonds, incorporated. It was all from a dream, you know. I had dreams about diamonds and I kept trying to figure out what her diamonds were coming from and I was like it must be the girls and we started working together and they're internationally published as well. I mean, I'm very proud of what we're doing.
Speaker 2:It's the route we chose, so yeah, so what was the last event that you've done?
Speaker 1:Oh wow, last summer we were on a fashion tour. We did Katie and a fashion week which was bananas. I kind of like really showed out there to my own way, but we did mostly all the fashion weeks last year. Last summer we really slowed up due to the COVID issue.
Speaker 2:I was going to ask you about that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we slowed up due to the COVID issue. Me and my children actually ended up catching COVID. We don't know where. We don't know if it came from Missouri. We don't know if it came from the events in Arkansas. We don't know if it came from Louisiana. That's how much we were moving around, so we really don't know where it came from Louisiana. That's how much we were moving around, so we really don't know where it came from. But we're glad that we passed that stone and, girl, we're ready to keep kicking.
Speaker 2:We are ready but one of the things that we did leave out in the introduction that I want to touch back around now. I want you to tell everybody where you're from and tell me how do you set the trend for fashion where you are.
Speaker 1:Well, I'm from Shreveport, louisiana Most people call it Ratchet City. Okay and just, I think just reaching out to the children, just teaching them, you know how to do something different. I spend a lot of my time with the children of Shreveport, pretty much anywhere, but mostly you know we're doing something and I'm investing a lot in the children because I feel like they're the future and someone has to do it. So if I have to make a whole bunch of community leaders, I'm with that. If I have to make a whole bunch of fashion designers, braiders, entrepreneurs, sewers, whatever it is they love the most about me, I'm for it. I'm definitely looking forward to just opening an outreach center at some point and just having that forum for after school tutoring to save them off the streets. Basketball, homework, whatever you know. Just I'm really looking forward to it. Ok.
Speaker 2:I know that you mentioned a little bit ago about your daughters being designers. Are they designers together or are there two separate designers?
Speaker 1:Well, talia is more of the sower, she's really the designer of the two of them. I have to give you the honest to God truth she has been sewing since she was seven years old. I'm really proud of my baby. She's a scholar on every level, from school. Just everything she does she braids. She's just a great big sister. Overall, tahana's more of the jewelry maker. She's more the promoter, the superstar behind the crew, and she's just really the face of the company. Tahana is very hands-on.
Speaker 2:She's learning the soul, but I think she's gonna stick with jewelry for a while, okay so tell me this with I know you spoke about covid a little bit how did covid, like, take you totally by surprise? What were you going to do and realize that you can't do it anymore pertaining to going to your fashion shows? Besides wow so how did it? Did it? It didn't stop you, I know it didn't stop you. How did it slow you down?
Speaker 1:well, it, it, it did kind of stop me and it, yes, it did slow me down a lot. Um, I feel like over the last past two years just not just me, it's a lot of fashion designers that I feel like would be in retail have we had that two-year stretch to keep working and, um, more, more retailers, um, you know, will come to shows or whatnot, or you know, I mean it's, oh, as a fashion designer, it's not easy at all, you know, to have your brand plastered everywhere, you know, and that's our goal. Most of us want to be, um, nationwide retailers, like myself. I want to be a retailer for everywhere. I don't want to be nationwide retailers like myself. I want to be a retailer for everywhere, I don't want to just be a local designer. So I would say that it slowed us down by getting into retail stores, you know, and also, if you don't have, like, websites and stuff, it made it really hard for us as designers.
Speaker 2:So yeah, okay, so I want to ask you this question. In the media, there has been several stories of smaller designers getting their designs stole by either celebrities or bigger name designers. What do you do to safeguard yourself against that and how do you really feel about that?
Speaker 1:Oh, wow, that has happened to me before. I don't want to speak on which designer, the location or anything, but let's just say it's a learning experience. For one, it teaches you to not trust everybody. For one, you know when you're trying to build a foundation for your brand. For two, my biggest thing was I stopped showing things you know before a show. If you want to see it, come to the show. If you don't see it at the show, then you can see the JPEGs after the event or something, or you can catch it published in the magazine or something.
Speaker 1:You just have to really protect yourself from everywhere around it because you know someone's going to get inspired by you, which is really good, you know. But you don't want them to have the same ideas as you. You don't want them that um have the same um ideas as you. You don't want someone to mimic your every move. So it's very man. It's a lot coming with um being a fashion designer, a custom fashion designer as well, and may I say that, um, it's a lot of people saying that they're fashion designers. If you're not customizing it, if you can't take a role and cut it up and make something, you are not a fashion designer. You are a brand, honey. I just want to solidify that while we're on, you know, because you know it's a lot of foolishness in this industry.
Speaker 2:So do you think that there should be punishment for that?
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, and I think the boundaries should be in place. You know, if you're a boutique, you're a boutique. That's wholesale. You know you got a T-shirt line that's a brand. You know you're just stamping a name on it and I'm not trying to stop anybody's. You know, hustle, I'm not trying to stop. You know, but someone has to say it. You know, if someone has to say it, hey, who better to say it than Tiffany Robinson of Rocks 36, internationally published fashion designer? Who best to say it? I got you.
Speaker 2:How do you feel about the black culture being mimicked in fashion?
Speaker 1:Oh, wow, you know me and the designer, coco Monette of Lady Chatori. Big shout out to her. We were talking about that earlier. I think.
Speaker 1:With social media being a platform for everybody, it's easy for someone to just say, hey, I'm this. You know, my biggest thing of that being is I was taught in fifth grade, for fifth grade, that you want to be wrote about in the history books. That was my biggest goal, that was my goal in life to be wrote about when they make the history books. So I mean to see the fashion industry being watered down, sugar-coated, tempered with wow, it's a lot, it's a lot.
Speaker 1:And I really feel like us, as designers not only African-American designers, of course we have to stick together and we have to Not only African-American designers, of course. We have to stick together and we have to want the other designer to win. You know we can't be out here trying to hold them back If they're having a show and you're there, go and support them. You know, because you know what it's like to be a fashion designer. You know independent fashion designer. You know a be a fashion designer. You know an independent fashion designer is that? You know a black independent fashion designer. So if we can come together as black designers man.
Speaker 2:I think we can really do some stuff okay, so tell me this they always say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and no, to each his own. Everybody have their own brain but. I have seen some fashion to me and I was like now, where in the world that they get this? Where's somebody gonna wear this? And it costs thousands of dollars. Do you think that some fashion is not fashion and is really garbage? But they're getting their publicity because they're already famous. Yes, what do?
Speaker 1:you think about that? Yes, yes, yes, yes, and, mo, this is what I can say. I've spoken about this before on numerous interviews. I've spoken about this before on numerous interviews. I feel like if you are a creator of anything like, you're a creator, you know you're a host, you know you do your thing, you do art, you know everything you do from me hair, me clothing you know it's art, it's art. Fashion is art, and that and that's, oh my god. I think if I interviewed or asked a hundred fashion designers what they love the most about fashion, they would say the creativity of it. I mean, it's really art. Um, at this upcoming fashion show in may, I'm really ready to show another side of me. I'm really ready, I'm excited, I'm eager. We have really been working hard. I would love to show you what I mean about fashion is art. Some stuff is not wearable.
Speaker 2:I get you. So tell me this how do you go through your process of picking out models in your show?
Speaker 1:Oh wow, oh wow, oh wow, oh wow. And I can't speak from experience because we just got past a casting call and we have literally been looking over 200 different application submissions from different models. It was very hard, very, very, very hard to narrow it down and, of course, with the COVID restrictions, you have to be mindful of the designers and the crowd and everything and everybody that participates with the show. So we had to narrow it down to 20 models out of 200 submissions. I don't think I slept in days. So we actually look for the models that represent every brand on a certain level. I'm someone that's very versatile. I think does not matter. We, we have every ethic in the show. We really look for someone who's very versatile. You can do contour, but you can do fashion, high fashion, you can do swimsuits, you can do lingerie. We look for people that's very versatile. It's not really about the looks or the size. Age doesn't play a big role in fashion either. I just wanted to add Okay.
Speaker 2:I asked that question because I think back to watching America's Next Top Model and how they would go through the process and how they would tell people that they were eliminated and how it was an issue if you felt emotional if you were eliminated and all of that. So tell me. That brings me to my next question how do you deal with models? Because I asked artists this too and I'm gonna get into how this tie into music. But how do you deal with models that have the perfect size? They fit the clothes like a glove? I everything is great except for the attitude, thank you. What do you do in that situation and what advice would you give to somebody else?
Speaker 1:Well, one thing I can say is a bad apple, don't roll far from the tree. So most producers okay, when you notice something's not going well, um, with a certain someone or something, or you see a certain something, the best thing is to remove them. You know. And one thing I can tell you about, from designers to models, anything If you are not bookable, then you kill yourself with your career. I mean, it's no career if people can't book you, if people can't work with you, if people can't criticize you, if people can't, like I said, you have to be versatile, you know, and that's mentally, physically, emotionally. You have to be versatile in this industry. You have to be versatile because, like you say, sometimes you might go to a. Versatile in this industry. You have to be versatile because, like you say, sometimes you might go to a fashion show and they have you wearing a bow tie and bales. You know how are you gonna deal with that? You have to be so strong mentally that you can deal with anything that comes to you.
Speaker 1:And in this fashion industry, music industry I know a lot of musicians. This stuff is not for the week. It's not for the week, trust me. So get it together If you plan on having a career in the fashion or the music industry because, like I said, it takes a lot of hard work. You have to invest in yourself. You have to invest in yourself. If you don't, like I I said you will not have a career. Okay, you will not okay.
Speaker 2:So my next question is I have heard stories of celebrities wanting to wear some fashion designers clothes, or some fashion designers wanting some celebrities to wear their clothes, but the celebrities, at points in time, feel like they don't have to pay for the piece. So I want you to tell everyone the things, the preparation that goes into designing the piece, even if you're not designing it for anybody in particular and why the designer deserves to be paid for their piece well, for one.
Speaker 1:Um, the material, okay, um, people don't take in an account that you're using your electricity, you know, to see to sew. Um, you're using your gas to go and get the fabric needle thread. Um, you have to fit them, which takes time out. Hey, I can be cooking a meal, you know. Um, you have to still sketch and design the piece and then, about time, you get ready to work and finally started sewing and cutting.
Speaker 1:And you know, you have invested at least a week, depending on um, like you said, if it's for a client, if it's for a fashion show, if it's for prototype, is, if it's for whatever it's for a fashion show, if it's for prototype, if it's for whatever it's for, you're going to invest at least a week per item. That's just if you care about your brand. Now, if you can come up with something today and make it today and it's out today, then you go ahead. But at the same time, you have to worry about quantity, not, you know, with the people, but also quality with the people, because that's what they want. They want quality. They don't want to walk around in something that's falling off of them. So, yes, it takes time to make any piece, you know, and like you said, from swimsuit to a contour dress girl that can take months even years.
Speaker 1:I see you got some pieces behind you. You want to show us some? Ah, well, like I said, you can see the fabrics. Um, we, we really don't want to reveal anything until the fashion shoots and um, well, miss raven got something big coming up for me in april, so you'll get, you'll get a chance to see some artwork and some of these awesome pieces back here. Man, you know, we just gotta, um really just take our time with everything, because if I don't, um, things won't go in order and, like I said, it takes time. Even with a vision, um, I know what I want to showcase, when I want to showcase it. Um, I also know, um, that different models, you know, just like you said, it's all about time and in the fashion industry, and, um, we, we definitely want to time these. We want to time these because these are timeless pieces. These are timeless pieces.
Speaker 2:You're so crazy. How important. We know it's important, but on a scale of one to ten. How important is it? Is fashion to a music video? Oh, wow is fashion to a music video, oh wow I'm speaking in the form of artistic form, not just the clothes you wear, but I mean even with the background and everything. And how do you feel and how important that is, and how do you use those, I would say, natural elements to make the outfit pop?
Speaker 1:well, fashion is like number one when it comes to a music video. Um, you need it to even make the video go to the next level, okay? Um, if the fashion is off, the song is off, the video is off, the artist is off, okay. So it's best to work with your stylist. It's best to work with your stylist, it's best you know and have and pay someone you know because you don't want to look crazy on your videos.
Speaker 2:So okay, have you had a problem, especially with independent artists? Because we talk about independent artists and a lot of them have a budget and they still, you know, work another job or whatever. How do you approach the subject of payment? Pay me Well.
Speaker 1:I mean, I'm thinking that when people contact me I'm just going to speak from experience. When people contact me, the first thing I ask them after hello and how can I help you, is what's your budget? You know, and, to be honest, a budget is important on so many levels music, video, fashion, all those good things If you can find something that will work within their budget. I usually try to help people, though I don't lowball myself, but I do try to help. If I can, I'll give them some pieces, loan them some pieces, pieces or go and style them for the video or something. I even know other fashion designers that um would love the publicity. So, yeah, you know, we just work with them, you know, and try to stay within their budget okay, you showed me a flyer earlier.
Speaker 2:Would you like to show the flyer that you have?
Speaker 1:yes, may. May 5th, 6th and 7th come see us for International Independent Designers Fashion and Art Week. We'll be in Douglasville.
Speaker 2:Where's Douglasville?
Speaker 1:Georgia, Douglasville, Georgia people.
Speaker 2:Alright, Well, I thank you for coming. It was very enjoyable talking to you. I need you to give everybody a social media handle where they can find you, where they can find your pieces at If they need something custom done anything about Rockstar 86 and Tiffany Robinson.
Speaker 1:Okay, y'all just follow me on TikTok. Just type in Rockstar 86 and baby, everything's going to pop up. I'm telling you Facebook Instagram at Bossy and Sexy Follow me and I'll follow back. Boop, boop, boop.
Speaker 2:All right, y'all heard her. Y'all can find us everywhere, on all podcasts and platforms. You can find the video now on Podcast for Spotify. Don't forget to come to International Designers Fashion and Art Week. It's going to be in Douglasville, georgia, on. What's the date again?
Speaker 1:May 5th, 6th, 7th of 2022. Hosted by your girl, MJ, baby.
Speaker 2:Hosted by her girl, mj. Y'all, don't forget to subscribe, like and share, because that's what moves the logarithms, and get out and support our Black people. Bye, bye.