Life & Work with Tam “Koko” Khodanian

Today we’d like to introduce you to Tam “Koko” Khodanian.

Hi Koko, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
Thank you, I’m excited it to share it! I started iamkoko.la in 2016. At the time, I was working full time as a graphic designer at Juicy Couture and as a side hustle was selling my reworked vintage designs at the Melrose trading post every Sunday and also on every online platform. Poshmark, eBay, Depop and on my own website. Anywhere to get my designs out there. I was making custom tops and jackets. About four months later, Madison Beer walked into our booth. We had no idea who she was at the time but she bought a few stuff. A few weeks later, she posted about us on IG and our IG immediately started growing with massive numbers and our online site had almost completely sold out overnight.

Up to that point, we only had a couple of hundred followers and grew to almost 10k in one day. I quit my job at Juicy a few months after that and iamkoko.la became a full-time job. Growing up with entrepreneur parents I knew I always wanted to be my own boss. Fast forward about four years, we have our brick and mortar on Melrose Avenue and are so grateful for the support from all our customers. 🙂

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Every business has their ups and downs. When I was first starting out, it was tough having to do all the shipping, sewing, shooting, editing all on my own since I had no employees at the time. I had help from my mom and sister but everything was on me. I would work 12 hour days trying to get everything done. I think one of the biggest challenges when I was first starting out was hiring employees and letting go of control / delegating them to do certain tasks since I was doing everything myself up to that point. I think it’s normal part of the progression of a business and it got to the point where I needed to start hiring more people on the team so that we can grow and be more efficient.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
All the pieces at iamkoko.la are one of a kind and they are all custom hand made from vintage pieces that I find personally. We specialize mostly in reworking vintage pieces of clothing and turning them into something we think is both unique and dope. My design background is in graphic design so we also have our original iamkoko.la graphic tank tops and sweatpants. We launched two collaborations this year. One with Addison Rae which was a graphic tank top and sweatpants set, and one we just launched with Nessa Barrett, which is a graphic tank top, hoodie and sweatpants set.

If you had to, what characteristic of yours would you give the most credit to?
I think one of the most important characteristics to have, especially in the fashion world, is to always keep an eye on the newest trends and forecast what the next trend will be. We try our best to see what the latest trends are and rework it with the iamkoko.la touch. We also try to be as friendly and personable as possible with our customers who come into the store. That’s led us to have a lot of reoccurring customers who come in at least once a week or a few times a month.

Contact Info:

• Email: info@iamkoko.la
• Website: www.iamkoko.la
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamkoko.la/
• Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/iamkokola/

Image Credits
Photographer: Jessica Sporh https://www.instagram.com/jessicaspohr