Biography.

TMC Studios Creative Director and Founder Tara Cunniffe has a wide range of experience in creative direction, design, product development, business operations and the arts. Tara attained a Bachelor of Fine Arts, Majored in Fashion Design at Fine Art university Whitecliffe in Auckland, New Zealand. This chosen academic path allowed her to focus on many creative avenues throughout her studies and working career. Early in Tara’s career she had her own self-named womenswear label and presented at Air New Zealand Fashion week in 2010. She then went on to work for successful fashion label Trelise Cooper and for over 8.5 years Tara was the Managing Director/Operations and Designer for Australian Fashion label H Brand - managing three category brands; H Brand, H Brand x Theron and H Brand Faux. Tara managed many sectors within the business, utilising her creative and business minds. This balance provided a broad range of fashion industry experience and knowledge, both locally and internationally.

Architecture and garment fabric manipulation techniques are also important influences in Tara’s creative development processes. Conceptual garment silhouettes and the use of natural materials inspire Tara immensely. Designers such as Iris Van Herpen, Alexander McQueen and the early work of Hussein Chalayan have influenced Tara’s design methods and construction thought processes over the years. In Tara’s eyes, a garment is more than a piece of cloth, it’s a protection barrier for the human body. The design of a garment must consider elements of integrity, purpose and signify a point of difference.

Outside of the fashion industry, Tara is a contemporary artist. Her body of work involves oil on canvas paintings, expressing themes of identity, nature and life cycles. The concepts behind Tara’s paintings depict her perspective on the evolution of identity and an exploration of emotional and psychological states. Atmospheric tones of growth, beauty and nature are all strong characteristics projected in each of her oil paintings. Every artwork evokes a heightened mood and each brush stroke technique has a hidden interpretation.

Collectively Tara Cunniffe has had over a decade of experience in fashion, art, design, sampling, production, branding, wholesale, retail, management and marketing in Australia and New Zealand. Fashion and the Arts have always been an ongoing passion and significant influence in Tara’s artistic journey to date.