Chanise Harris was born and raised in Houston Texas. She grew up wanting to be a fashion designer. At the age of 18, she decided to move to Los Angeles to make that dream come true. Unfortunately, the city of Los Angeles is an expensive city and the fashion industry is full of competition. She worked full time in the retail world for over 15 years. While working part-time on her dreams. In 2016 she launched her online store called TheStyleanimalco, which consisted of T-shirts with printed catchy phrases such as “Don’t Do Wifey Shit for A Fuck Boy” “Late but Best Dressed”. She also added these phrases to purses and jackets. Her brand gained momentum when Karen Civil a social media strategist wore the “Don’t Do wifey Shit for a Fuck Boy t-shirt to an interview. This interview was posted on the social media platform Instagram, and Karen even tagged the brand to promote women-owned businesses. One simple post and Chanise’s brand took off. In February of 2018, Harris quit her full- time job as a department manager for H&M to focus on her brand. Her brand got so popular that by November of 2019, Thestyleanimal opened its doors to the first store in Los Angeles. Chanise and her husband do almost everything for her brand. The styling, the photography, the marketing. That is why it was important for me to show her my work.
I met Chanise when I transferred as a visual merchandiser to the Culver City location. At that time, she was just a sales associate. The more I worked with her, the more I liked her work ethics. She was always very honest and worked hard. It was not long before she got promoted to a supervisor and eventually a department manager. Once she became a department manager, that is when we both worked hand in hand. The more I worked with Chanise, the more I learned about her goals and brand. It is interesting the way things work out. When I first met Chanise, I was the one teaching her the proper ways to merchandise and always tried to give her feedback, now I’m the one going to her store to ask feedback on my portfolio.
As mentioned before, Harris has always been very straightforward with people. I expected nothing else. Her feedback on my portfolio was mainly on how I can take better pictures. She said to try to photograph the models much closer so I can focus on the details on the garments. Another thing she pointed out was better lighting, she said that this was just a school project, but the photos would look even better with more light. She also mentioned having more fun when styling. She felt that my styling was too safe, I should have more fun, I should try new things. She even invited me to her next photo shoot so I can see how she does things. I am very excited about that invitation.
This class was a good introduction to how I can put together a portfolio. The feedback that I got from my professor and Chanise is going to help me with my senior project, as well as when I am ready to go into the professional world.