Meet Akkim Thomas | Creative Design & Director

We had the good fortune of connecting with Akkim Thomas and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Akkim, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
My process started. In high school I’ve always been passionate about fashion and clothes. I Just did not have a platform to express this besides dressing up. In 2012 I was randomly working on a name for a brand. At this time everything fashion was in a high-end lavish era, The brand was founded by Akkim Thomas and Kentaysha Lane, Thomas Lane, Stands for “Family” the brand was influenced by family last names. The logo was originated in 2013, which is a combination of two letters “T” and “L”. I released my first product in 2013, A leather hat with the “TL” logo and name. The feedback that I received from the first drop. I knew I had to legally work on my LLC and trademark to protect my logo and brand name.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
When designing, I need to get in a creative space. This consists of me listening to music, preferably R&B, just to get a vibe going. I believe anything you create that is shared to another person/people needs to have feeling, and energy that connects to the mind, body and soul. Once I’m in ‘my zone’, that’s when I start my sketching process on the ipad. Everything starts flowing and it’s hard to get me out of the zone. Once I’m done sketching, I transfer my sketches to photoshop, to add any logos and finishing touches. I normally get most of my inspiration from old magazines, Pinterest and archives. Looking at fashion in the past is important to me because I understand that fashion is repeated but it’s all about getting your influence and personalizing the design. I recently started reading books to learn more about fabric, so when I do design I know what I’m looking for example, if I was designing a traditional coach jacket I would source nylon fabric. It’s important to know your weight (GSM) texture.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
One of my teachers, Ms. Santiago took interest in me and showed me how to use photoshop, also encouraging me to enter a fashion program at Cooper Hewitt. At the time 2011-2012 fashion began to take a turn, Acts like Jay and kanye west “watch the throne”, Asap rocky, Curtains, Don C, Black scale,40 oz van and virgil abloh, started to push a high end narrative amongst the youth. This led me to start looking into high end brands. The style,the name, the logos, details, fabric, price and the garments as a whole. I believe these elements captivates people to feel and believe they have found a treasure in fashion and that’s motivated me to launch Thomas Lane New York in 2013. My sister Tyesha Thomas helped me get the business certified. My business partner John Johnson helped me excel the business to what it is today.

Website: https://www.tlthomaslane.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tlthomaslane/?hl=en

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/akkim-thomas-a712a8125/