Chapman alumna designs ‘real, honest clothing’ in online storefront
Talia Hancock O'Neill, who graduated from Chapman in 2010 with a degree in business administration, sat down with The Panther to discuss her career as a business owner and entrepreneur through her clothing store, TALIA. Photos courtesy of Talia Hancock O'Neill. Collage by EMILY PARIS, photo editor
At the start of her annual back-to-school shopping trip, Talia Hancock O'Neill would beg her mom to go to Limited Too so that she could wear sequined graphic tees and tie-dye dresses like everyone else.
Despite Hancock O'Neill pleading to her mom that all the "cool girls" went to Limited Too, her mom would instead take her to Gap Kids. Instead of getting clothes with peace signs and cartoon monkeys splashed all over the place, her mom selected basic pieces like a crisp white t-shirt or a well-fitting pair of jeans.
Hancock O'Neill, who is from San Clemente, told The Panther about the trajectory of her business and the highs and lows of being an entrepreneur and business owner.
"She would be like, 'Yes, after this we are going to Limited Too,'" Hancock O'Neill said. "We finished and she was like, 'Oh, we spent all the money, we can't go to Limited Too.' And every year I was like, 'Okay maybe next year.' I literally never got to go to Limited Too. But, I still wear a lot of the lux styles that I grew up wearing."
With her mom's sense of style as an inspiration, Hancock O'Neill strived to create clothing that any simple dresser could attain at an affordable price. Her store, TALIA, an online storefront focusing on posting inventory on Instagram and customers texting to order, has attained over 23,000 followers and is, according to Hancock O'Neill, "real, honest clothing” for her clientele.
Anything from matching lounge sets, dresses and jewelry can be found at the store, all revolving around Hancock O'Neill's aesthetic of having a put-together outfit.
"I love to see somebody walk by in a fabulous printed dress or top, but I will always gravitate toward a solid," Hancock O'Neill said. "For me, it's a great pair of jeans and a T-shirt. That's what I really truly live in. You could be the most un-put together person, but if your top matched your bottom, something about that elevates it."
Hancock O'Neill, who is from San Clemente and graduated from Chapman in 2010 with a degree in business administration, told The Panther about the trajectory of her business and the highs and lows of being an entrepreneur and business owner.
Upon reflecting on over 12 years of running her business, Hancock O'Neill said this venture actually began when she was a senior at Chapman taking an entrepreneurship class. After Hancock O’Neill worked on a semester-long business project and presented her group's idea of a hybrid truck powered by photovoltaic cells, Chapman trustee Barry Goldfarb came up to Hancock O'Neill and her parents and said, "I will finance any business that she wants to start."
Once she graduated and visited her family in Peru, she finally called Goldfarb up. When discussing what business they would create, Hancock O'Neill's connections to factories in Peru and Goldfarb's connections in the fashion industry led to a clothing line.
The first step in creating this business was to establish a name. Hancock O'Neill was tired of hearing stores or design labels named after weirdly specific items like "Magnolia" or "Nasty Gal" and instead thought her name itself allowed for a unique and memorable face for the business.
"You want a name that people remember but also kind of don't," Hancock O'Neill said. "So they're like, 'What was that store again that starts with a T?' and then you've got a conversation where someone is like, 'Oh yeah, what is that?' and it's this organic thing that nobody knows how to pronounce. You're always on their lips, it's forgettable and unforgettable enough."
To kick-start the business, Hancock O'Neill sketched some designs and hopped on a plane to Peru to make her samples come to life. With Pima cotton and Pima lycra creating stretchy and silky fabric, her samples consisted of snapback and zipperback t-shirts, foldover pants and a jacket. She went door-to-door for over six months at the Los Angeles Mart begging for a showroom to display her pieces.
It wasn't until she ran into someone in the elevator that took a chance on her designs, meaning she could finally see this idea take flight. The ultimate form of an elevator pitch finally allowed the doors to open on the possibility for Hancock O'Neill to be a business owner.
After housing her work in wholesale showrooms in New York, Los Angeles and Miami, shoppers could find Hancock O'Neill's designs at Neiman Marcus, 150 other boutiques and even in paparazzi photos of the Kardashians wearing her pieces.
Hancock O'Neill said when she was invited to a Chapman Entrepreneur Speaker Series in 2013, her only piece of advice was to fly by the seat of your pants and never look back.
Unfortunately in 2015, many retailers and showrooms had to shut down due to a lack of demand. Hancock O'Neill had to quickly find a way to pivot her business. She also went her separate ways with Goldfarb, meaning she was really starting back to square one. Luckily, she was walking through The Shops at Mission Viejo and noticed a vacant space available for rent. So, with a warehouse full of extra inventory, she decided to open up her very first boutique in 2016.
After being in Mission Viejo for a little over a year, Hancock O'Neill said she wanted to step up to the plate and move her store to Fashion Island in Newport Beach, one of the most prominent shopping centers in Orange County. She finally signed as a temporary tenant and received a 400-square-feet store in 2017.
But after six years, she was able to reinvent her store by moving to different locations throughout the mall, with their space sometimes being 3,500 square feet and other times the size of a closet.
"We survived all our ups and downs — all of our growing pains," Hancock O'Neill said. "We were the Golden Girls of Fashion Island. We took whatever they would give us and were really flexible and that ingratiated them to us. We got to experience every neighborhood of the mall. Every time we moved, we gained customers, even though we had been in this mall for six years."
Toward the end of 2022, Hancock O'Neill was reflecting on her time in the mall. And with a successful text-to-order system implemented during quarantine, she realized she could rely on posting try-on videos on Instagram and conducting online orders instead of having a physical store. So, they began their next step into being fully virtual and housing a warehouse — with customers still having the opportunity to make appointments to shop at their headquarters.
"I've found a lot of joy in Instagram," Hancock O'Neill said. "I feel like I get to be with all my customers every day, whereas before they had to come to the store to see me, now they can see me in the palm of their hand. I can shop with them and show them things and show them how I'd style it. It feels really personal."
Throughout the store's journey, Hancock O'Neill has been able to source clothing from other brands and also build relationships with vendors to create products together. Her favorites throughout the years are her acclaimed Butter Sweaters, the Soft Sparkle Jumpsuit and her Almost Fine Jewelry line. She was also able to create her own deodorant called Peruvian Pit Potion and her own TALIA fragrance that takes inspiration from the Baccarat Rouge 540 scent.
"I'm the expert of a lot of mediocre companies," Hancock O'Neill said. "Never just one good, successful one. I like to have multiple mediocres."
Regardless of the direction of her business, Hancock O'Neill's TALIA emphasizes the ability to believe in yourself and select clothing that can stick with you for life.
Although Hancock O'Neill is the only business owner of TALIA, she said her employees, or her "Talia Tribe," help her get through each day and every hurdle.
"I've had the pleasure of employing just beautiful people who are so dedicated and I've had the pleasure of employing people that weren't great, but I count it all as joy because they all taught me so much and they made me so much stronger as a manager and owner," Hancock O'Neill said.
Dani Tomczak, who serves as the manager of TALIA, told The Panther her favorite part about Hancock O'Neill is her kindness and humble spirit that work hand in hand to create the perfect kind of business owner.
"I love her so much, and I think she's just an amazing person, amazing friend, cheerleader and just all of the above," Tomczak said. "It's pretty rare to have a boss like that who doesn't micromanage and doesn't question everything that you do and really puts faith and trust into you."
As for the future, Hancock O'Neill said she hopes the business continues to grow and grow. She also is continuing to establish a presence on the QVC television network through Laurie Felt's program. But, regardless of the success, she said she still is shocked that people take interest in her clothes and anything she posts (even if it's about her new couch or toaster in her new home in Austin).
"The other day I was packing orders and I was like, 'I'm packing all these orders because I tried it on,’" Hancock O'Neill said. "We packed 200 orders and they all bought it because I showed it to them? It's always a pleasant surprise."
Hancock O'Neill said when she was invited to a Chapman Entrepreneur Speaker Series in 2013, her only piece of advice was to fly by the seat of your pants and never look back — advice that she still believes in today. Regardless of the direction of her business, Hancock O'Neill's TALIA emphasizes the ability to believe in yourself and select clothing that can stick with you for life.
"I have a view of myself and my life that's really small," Hancock O'Neill said. "I'm here in my bathroom, trying on dresses, talking to my phone all day. But that dress is being worn to someone's first birthday party or someone's graduation, someone's wedding, someone's funeral. Our clothing takes us through life. I have the honor of dressing people for the most simple, non-important life occasions and the most important ones."