EMERGING DESIGNER

Larissa Eakin Haisten

IN THIS FEATURE: Meet Larissa Fashion Focus

very Laramar 7 piece is intended for sweat, fabricated for swim, and designed for street appeal. You can literally work out in these awesome clothes and then go for a cocktail without having to stop home to change. The line is perfect for today's active woman.

Larissa didn't know that she would ever be a clothing design entrepreneur but she did know at an early age that she wanted to work with clothing. Larissa had an epiphany as a teenager in Tokyo when she started wearing Esprit de Corps clothing. She would save her money from modeling gigs, babysitting and from summer jobs on the Navy base where she lived with her family. She was hooked on how Esprit made her look and feel and she wanted whatever it was that made her feel so incredible. Esprit was the catalyst and Susie Tompkins Buell is her idol, still to this day. Larissa also had clothes custom made in Hong Kong and the Phillipines from her designs and with their skill.

When Larissa moved to Atlanta from Japan, she started sewing on her mom's borrowed Singer to make simple clothing that satisfied her voracious clothing appetite. Larissa went from modeling, babysitting and summer jobs to working retail and waitressing in Atlanta while finishing high school. Even though modeling pays way more than retail and waitressing combined, sewing clothes was the only affordable option [for her fashion needs]. Larissa wanted to go back to Japan to be a high paid "western" kimono designer. She minored in Japanese and majored in fabric design through the art school. All through college, and after, Larissa would read WWD's help wanted section and saw how much patternmakers got paid. She then decided she wanted to be a patternmaker. Larissa graduated from Georgia and went to Southern Polytechnic to learn CAD and patternmaking. While at Southern Poly, she was also a showroom rep at the Atlanta Americas Mart for market weeks and represented the Betsey Johnson line while also working at a modeling agency as an instructor at night and on weekends.