Founded by Nathalie Tardif, Tana Kim is the reflection of a deep passion for fashion, creativity, and commitment. Each set is a unique piece or part of a very limited series, thoughtfully designed and crafted with the utmost care to offer an exceptional outfit.
Tana Kim est une ode à la créativité, un dialogue entre la mode et l’art, qui s’exprime à travers des collections de jupes et de sacs soigneusement coordonnés, pour sublimer les silhouettes avec élégance et audace.
The brand’s name has its roots in a personal story: Kim is a tribute to Nathalie’s grandmother, a bearer of heritage, values, and stories.
It is within this world of precious heritage that the creator draws her inspiration.
At Tana Kim, each creation is a meeting point between past and present, between tradition and innovation. The collections blend timeless elegance with contemporary boldness, using carefully selected quality fabrics.
The sets are made in limited quantities, thus ensuring exclusivity and impeccable quality. Craftsmanship and contemporary challenges lie at the heart of the approach, aiming for more responsible fashion.
It promises sharing and experiencing a unique vision of fashion, inspired by art and human experiences. Each set is designed to nurture new stories, new lives, to inspire in turn and to challenge established practices.
Dès l’âge de 9 ans, elle s’initie à la couture avec une machine semi professionnelle « Borletti » offerte pour son anniversaire.
Since a fingernail is less durable than a needle, the challenges of sewing through thick layers began.
From a very young age, Nathalie remembers the hours spent unsuccessfully trying on clothes due to her silhouette or the difficulty of matching complementary pieces.
Later, she knew she would find a solution by creating the perfect outfit for herself. Besides simplifying her daily life, her outfit had to be original and versatile while allowing her freedom of movement
In 2012, during a trip to Barcelona, the idea of a coordinated skirt and bag set took shape.
She draws her inspiration from the cultural heritage of this Catalan city and its artists to design a timeless, practical, and comfortable pattern.
She envisions patterns and textures suited to the style, aiming to shake up classic lines.
Her passion grew over the years as she attended courses and thematic workshops that enabled her to master all stages of creation (pattern making, sizing, assembly, stitching).
This technical expertise became the key to creating her signature model, evolving from the bubble skirt to the A-line skirt, and from the scarf to the bag.
Using upholstery fabrics is an obvious choice due to their thickness, materials, and patterns, especially jacquard and brocade.
Her wardrobe includes around a hundred sets made with unusual fabrics, some created in collaboration with a visual artist.
In the morning, assembling outfits with her range of solid basics (tops, tights, shoes) is simple.
Her style is original, elegant, and comfortable, with choices that vary according to her moods, regardless of the season or her schedule.
"I discovered sewing at a very young age with my grandmother. For my 9th birthday, my parents gave me a Borletti sewing machine — a semi-professional model weighing 22 kilos. No less.
Sewing quickly became a true means of expression, an extension of myself. Convinced that nothing could stop me with this Grande Dame, she quickly reminded me who was really in control... by catching one of my fingernails. It took time to reconcile, to tame each other, to fall in love again. Since then, we’ve never parted. I learned to work with thick upholstery fabrics — not as hard as a fingernail, but just as demanding. It became obvious.
Over the years, this machine and I found our own language: an A-line skirt and a matching bag, built around a pattern I designed myself. A unique set, comfortable, practical, my signature mono-product, made with my favorite fabrics, rarely intended for clothing. A functional and elegant solution to stand out without running from store to store or emptying my wallet.
These outfits, named Egotrip 167-40 (my measurements), reflect my almost obsessive standards :
– A cut tailored to thick fabrics;
– A silhouette designed for my body shape, with no defined waistline ;
– Ease and comfort to stay free in my movements ;
– Simple combinations (tops, tights, shoes, etc.) with solid basics ;
– The possibility to create an outfit in one Sunday, to wear it on Monday ;
– And above all: to attract looks, whether approving or disapproving, but never indifferent.
Beyond functional, stylistic, or practical aspects, these sets tell my story. They convey, without words, an intimate part of me. They expose me, confront me, silently. A language both visible and unreadable, perceptible yet elusive. Attractive or repulsive. Friend or foe.
This concept has grown over the years, through encounters. It is now ready to open up and be shared ".
Nathalie Tardif, born in 1973, is a territorial public officer, category A+.
She is the creator of the brand Tana Kim and its accompanying concept.
She grew up in a garden city in the Cergy-Pontoise metropolitan area. Her family environment was very modest. From an early age, she felt different. Yet she made efforts to socialize, voluntarily joining group activities. She observed others—their strengths, their weaknesses, their cowardice, their cruelty.
She observes herself. Tries. Struggles. Pushes herself. Grows weary. Is unmasked.
Gets bored. Gets bored
Her windows to see and experience the world beyond her peers were cultural outings... and sewing, passed down by her grandmother. She collects, stacks, assembles. Stitches fabrics and materials, sometimes without any intention other than the act itself. She lets herself be surprised by what emerges between her hands.
As a teenager, she experiments and takes risks.
A lot of freedom. Pitfalls. The need to protect herself. To set boundaries. Successes. Encounters. Commitments. Inspirations. Sewing becomes a refuge. A friend. A joy.
A tool for transformation, to divert the mediocrities experienced, the emotions.
She dresses her body with a unique style, in carefully chosen fabrics that meet her needs and expectations.
She named this approach Egotrip 167-40, a reference to her measurements.
She sews only for herself, to create her own satisfaction. To protect herself from indifference. To control others’ gaze.
Then, a meeting: a visual artist who would become her husband.
With him, she began to deconstruct her skirt-and-bag sets. Upholstery fabrics were reworked with acrylic paint before being sewn.
Then came the plain canvases, painted directly with textile pigments. Her style became an artistic experience. Her body, a canvas. She carries art where it’s least expected, in everyday life, at work, in the streets.
In 2024, she decided to go beyond her Egotrip.
She wants to share. To open up.
In January 2025, she founded the brand Tana Kim, "Tana" from the first letters of her first and last name, and 'Kim' in tribute to her grandmother.
At the same time, she joined the incubator La Turbine in Cergy-Pontoise, which supports her in the journey of her concept, currently developed into four collections.
