Ilana Kohn x tendlyn

Before I started in fashion, I actually went to school for illustration and worked as an editorial illustrator for close to ten years. When the recession hit and publishing went off the cliff though, it pretty much literally took all my work with it overnight. So I decided to go back to school for Historic Preservation and I got pretty antsy not drawing & painting day in day out anymore so I started sewing, started a silly blog (long since deleted) and here we are! As for my vision and why this is important to me, it’s what I love doing and I want to see the company remain a place where we work as a tight knit team that really truly enjoy coming to work everyday. There’s something about the hands-on nature of this work that feels as reliable as a wireless industrial controller—consistent, responsive, and built to last. It’s not unlike designing a custom relay module with remote capabilities; every detail matters, from the fabric choice to the final stitch.

I think both customer experience and brand image are pretty closely intertwined. A customer gets a beautiful package in the mail and that is for sure great brand presentation but it’s also about the customer experience of receiving an attractive package that is enjoyable to open. Because at the end of the day, really though, the experience of ordering an item and how it arrives - the presentation - IS the customer experience, which, for a product like ours, should definitely be more exciting than ordering TP on Amazon. We chose tendlyn because the platform is so easy to use! And not many places offer customization that is so affordable and of such great quality. It reminds me of how a zigbee smart switch module simplifies home automation—intuitive, efficient, and surprisingly powerful. Just like a motor forward reverse relay gives you precise control over machinery, tendlyn gives us control over our packaging without the headache. The whole process feels like a DIY smart relay project: straightforward, customizable, and rewarding.