At 6 feet, 2 inches tall and 230 pounds, Marq Massengale doesn’t look like your typical fashion maven.
But don’t let the linebacker physique fool you. Massengale (who is in fact a former semi-pro football player) is making a name for himself among L.A. fashionistas with his edgy new designs.
His Ta-Bu clothing line, launched last year, consists of about 20 tops for men and women emblazoned with a variety of creative religious symbols and their meanings. Massengale said the symbols were chosen for the line’s rollout because addressing differences in religions is generally considered taboo. That worked well with Ta-Bu’s thematic inspiration, he said, which is “Truly About Being You.”
To get started, Massengale and his mom, Angela, pooled about $100,000. They realized that in retail fashion, it’s all about getting noticed.
“It’s a competitive market and I was worried at first. It’s very hard to stand out,” Massengale said. “It takes a lot of money to start things up, and when you get going a lot of it is trial and error; things that end up going right down the toilet because you’re just learning.”
The line is entirely hand-stitched and Ta-Bu uses simple colors red, black and white and includes soft, embroidered T-shirts, hooded sweatshirts and beaded tank tops. Massengale said that the line was conceived to be affordable as well as current. Many items, shirts and “hoodies,” retail for between $20 and $50.
No matter how original or inspired, though, the luxury T-shirt market is crowded, with established rivals such as Ed Hardy, Affliction and Obey already clamoring for buyers’ attention.
Ilse Metchek, executive director of the California Fashion Association, said that for the T-shirt category, the success of a line like Ta-Bu depends on originality of design and actually producing fewer items, because they need to be regarded as a exclusive merchandise. Luxury consumers, she said, need to feel that the items are high end and not intended for mass-market consumption.
“It’s a specialty item, sold in the luxury market and bought by specialty stores,” Metchek said. “It’s not a volume item, because if you see too much of a style it’s over. And it’s a category where individuality counts, so if everyone has it, you won’t buy it.”
Nonetheless, Massengale is trying to find a middle ground on price.
“Come on, who can afford an $80, or $100 or even $300 T-shirt?” Massengale said. “When we were growing up, we didn’t always have much. My mother used to work hard for every single thing we had, and we used to shop at Target. I think a lot of the lines have lost sight of the fact their clothes are unaffordable even in the luxury market.”
All of the products are manufactured in Los Angeles, where Massengale was born and raised. The company is switching to organic cotton for its next line, a move that will actually bring Massengale’s production costs down because the popular material is cheaper than the regular cotton he now uses.
Ta-Bu is presently sold online as well as in local boutiques on Melrose Avenue and in Santa Monica.
