Pur-sewing the dream with The Shopaholic

Tarynne Keown Rajh is the owner of the online clothing retailer, The Shopaholic. With the help of her husband (and business partner) she converts fabric into beautiful garments and ships them to your doorstep. 

Tarynne Keown Rajh, the mastermind behind The Shopaholic in a nutshell: A fiery Scorpio, Tik tok enthusiast who draws inspiration from street style. PHOTO: Sibulela Bolarinwa

When you’re an 18-year-old chasing your dreams, the idea of hammering nails into your cement bedroom wall when your father is reluctant to drill them for you, does not faze you. At least this was the case for Tarryne Keown Rajh when she started her online-based clothing business, The Shopaholic, from her bedroom. That was in 2013.

Today, the owner of The Shopaholic is 24-years-old, married and runs her online-based business from a studio in Kuilsriver, Cape Town. 

Upon entering The Shopaholic studio, the pink tinsel lined roof greets you first, the fake plants next, the lightning bolt neon light however, doesn’t like introductions. The pink graffiti on the wall boldly reminds you to “take it easy” and two friendly puppies are barking in competition with the soft music playing in the background. Clothes are on hangers waiting to meet their new owners and thread is spinning around the sewing machine bobbin.

The first thread 

Initially, the plan was not for The Shopaholic to produce her own clothes. The genesis of her business venture entailed pre-ordering clothes from an online store. However, her first (and only) shipment order, initially stipulated to have a waiting period of seven days, only arrived four months later. It was also of poor quality, inconsistent in sizing on arrival and caused a R3000 dent in her bank account. These are the factors that led to her deciding to make the clothes herself despite, admits Tarynne, having questionable sewing skills in the beginning.

Tarynne has always been an entrepreneur at heart. In her opinion, she feels as if she could’ve done without her fashion degree, which she obtained at the Future Excellence Design Institute of South Africa (FEDISA), in 2017. 

Tarynne explains that she potentially could’ve found the way sooner if she had just dived straight into the deep end. Her degree did, however, equip her with people skills, she laughs.

“I was sitting in the cafeteria at school one day and the name The Shopaholic just came to me. To me a name is very important because you can’t just change it down the line,” explains Tarynne. 

She explains that she decided to center the name of the business around herself, a self-proclaimed shopaholic. She feels that this is the only manner in which to be truly authentic; by living the brand and letting the brand be part of her.

This was, however, not always the case. In 2017, Tarynne felt that she needed to separate The Shopaholic from herself. “I didn’t want my two lives to become one, I wanted people to think The Shopaholic was someone else,” she says. She didn’t want to get inquiries on her personal social media account about The Shopaholic and vice versa. She soon discovered that it was too late to split the two. “I don’t think I would try and separate it again…It’s like a love-hate relationship,” says Tarynne. 

Owning her identity

When she entered the world of entrepreneurship, she did not know of anybody that looked like her that had started their own business. “It was nothing amazing, but I was so proud of it,” she says. 

“[Tarynne] has put everything into The Shopaholic…blood, sweat, tears, laughter…everything! And it has paid off,” says Calista da Luz, a model for The Shopaholic. 

The Shopaholic

“When I think of Tarynne, I think of the most hardworking human being I’ve ever met in my life. I don’t know how she does it…she can literally make miracles happen,” says Calista Da Luz, model for The Shopaholic. In the image above,Tarynne Keown Rajh, sports her “black exposed vest” which is part of her extensive range of tops in her collection. PHOTO: Sibulela Bolarinwa

When reminiscing about her humble beginnings, she says she struggles to explain all the emotions she felt. Embracing your identity as a woman of colour, is an act of vulnerability in itself, says Tarynne. 

“There weren’t any coloured girls building a brand or business online when I was growing up,” she explains. “I wish I had someone who I could ask for advice. And see someone who looked like me or spoke like me or went through the things that I went through.”

Now she is striving to be that person for other people. She wants her community to know that she is accessible and that the girl they see on social media is a real person who will respond to a direct message (DM) should they want to speak to her. 

“Tarynne is always open to sharing what she has learnt. If someone asks her for advice, she isn’t one to gate-keep information,” says Jesse Rajh, Tarynne’s friend throughout high school, and now her husband and co-owner of The Shopaholic. Jesse has been in the business since the beginning.

Jesse Rajh, Tarynne’s husband and co-owner of The Shopaholic at work in The Shopaholic studio in Kuilsriver. PHOTO: Sibulela Bolarinwa

Cultivating a community 

The fuel that has kept The Shopaholic going, especially in the context of Covid-19, appears to be “word of mouth” from returning customers, says Tarynne.“If the customers are happy with the item, they’ll tell their friends and their friends will tell their friends,” she explains. 

When Tarynne entered the market, the customer she was aiming towards was the same age as her. As she has grown in her business, her customers have grown with her. 

Recently, a customer urgently placed an order for the next day. Through this experience they learnt that, even though the label reads as “next day express shipping”, it does not necessarily mean “next day express shipping”. The customer was in George, so off to George The Shopaholic went. While driving to George to deliver a first-time customer’s birthday dress is not an everyday occurrence, ensuring that their customers are always satisfied, certainly is, says Tarynne.

Tarynne pours her all into her work and ensures that every garment that leaves the studio has been perfectly curated to the highest possible standard. “I can’t trust that someone else will do it like I do,” she says. Letting go of the reins is difficult for Tarynne, but it is something that she is probably going to have to do at some point, in order to grow as an individual, she says. 

When a customer receives their bright pink box, the contents within are not just items of clothing. “It could just be a top to you, but to us it’s more than that,” she says. “You are buying a piece of our soul…all our families are being affected by this one garment you bought.”

A lot of work goes into the production of each piece, and the hues and textures that make up The Shopaholic are what Tarynne describes as a “personal work of art”. The Shopaholic makes clothing for someone who has difficulty picking an aesthetic, explains Tarynne. There is something for everyone and “I sell what I would wear”, she says.

The Shopaholic

A lot of care and attention to detail goes into each order, from the beginning of the production process, to the point where the garments are carefully packaged and shipped out to the customers. PHOTO: Sibulela Bolarinwa

In 2016, Tarryne realised that her audience responded better through seeing her actively push her brand by modelling and wearing her clothes. She aims to uplift all body shapes and types through her brand. This she achieves by ensuring that she is inclusive in her brand by creating clothes for all sizes and not just clothing geared towards “the size six petite girl who is 1.7m tall”, says Tarryne. 

“Every shoot we do is so fun. It gives you a family feel,” says da Luz. “It never feels like work. It’s more like we’re having a good time and creating beautiful content with beautiful garments.”

A well oiled-machine 

The Rajh couple both grew up seeing parents that work together, so there’s an element of familiarity in their current reality. 

“We don’t know what it’s like to be like… hey, how was your day,” jokes Jesse. However, Tarynne says that, with time, they learnt that setting boundaries is important. When at home, they therefore only speak about work when it is an absolute necessity.

According to Jesse, communication is key, because ultimately, they cannot separate their work from their personal lives. “We’re married now, so it’s not like either of us can go back home…We both know that this is all we have, and I don’t want anything else,” says Jesse.

They are both in tune with their emotions, says Tarryne, and this enables them to cope with the inevitable overwhelming periods. Closing The Shopaholic has never been an option, even in the wake of the pandemic. “The times where we have crashed and cried… it was just that. It was just a release because we always knew forward is the way,” says Tarynne. 

Tarynne Keown Rajh and Jesse Rajh were friends throughout high school. The duo have been running The Shopaholic together since the beginning, however, their relationship only started in their first year after leaving school. They got married at the end of 2019. This has brought along two new additions to The Shopaholic family, Piney and Mila. PHOTO: Sibulela Bolarinwa

The dynamic duo like to meet each other halfway when it comes to style and inspiration for the pieces that the brand curates. The process behind designing the clothes is not necessarily elaborately planned out. They usually follow the trends. “[If] we like it, we find some super cool fabric and then we do it,” says Jesse. 

“If someone had to stop us and ask us what we do, we would say we just make clothes,” says Tarynne.

Trusting the process to get to this point in her career was a necessity, shares Tarynne. “When I was a child, I knew that something would lead me here,” she says. “I just didn’t know what or how…but I’m here now. This is The Shopaholic. This is home.”

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