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RENO, Nev. (KOLO) – A Reno fashion designer is reaching millions with her design posts on TikTok.
Sarah Hambly was introduced to sewing at an early age.
“My mom has been sewing her whole life,” she said. “She grew up sewing, she sewed all her clothes and everything, her siblings did and I had no interest in it as a child.”
It wasn’t until her father’s death in 2016 that the 29-year-old decided to pick up a needle and thread.
“I really like the process, the catharsis that is creating art professionally and just making art as part of your life and just trying to express yourself,” Hambly said.
At the time she was still in photography school and design was just a hobby.
“It mostly came about because I really wanted to get into fashion photography, like Vogue,” Hambly said. “At that time I couldn’t afford to like a designer or beautiful clothes that I really wanted to photograph. So, I thought ‘Well, if I don’t have them, I might as well try to make them’. I started to complement my photography with my clothes.”
In 2020, COVID lockdowns and another loss sent the self-taught designer to TikTok.
“I lost my grandmother in the early days of COVID to COVID, she was in her 90s…and luckily I knew that art was a way of doing therapy and I just made more and more art and shared it. with the Internet,” Hambly said.
Things took a turn in February of that year, when she posted the first part of a series recreating Arianna Grande’s Grammys dress.
“By 10 o’clock that night, I was like, ‘Okay, we’re getting to the two million mark,’ and then I went to bed and the next morning it was like 16 million and then it just kept getting bigger and bigger, I was shocked,” Hambly said.
That video now has 25 million views and catapulted Hambly’s channel, which now has 2.7 million followers and almost 88 million likes.
“TikTok noticed and the people behind TikTok said, ‘Hey, do you want to come and do prom week for us?’ Like a DIY prom dress,’ and I was like, ‘Yeah, I’d love to do that,’” she said. “Then Netflix was like, do one for us and then another company and the next thing you know I have like management teams that are like ‘Hey, we’d love to represent you.’
Little by little, what he started doing for fun turned into a career.
“My sister works for me, my mother works for me, we have this massive team of people who produce my clothing brand, they manage my deals, video editing. I mean, this whole thing wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t made it a video,” Hambly said.
The now full-time creator, making princess, cosplay and pop culture-inspired dresses, will showcase her work at the Reno Fashion Show on July 30. She had participated in 2018 and is thrilled to be back this time as a headliner.
“It’s me, it’s my turn, I was like, this is wild! Hambly said.
She is inspired by designers like Alexander McQueen and John Galliano, and her dream is to dress a celebrity like Blake Lively or Taylor Swift for a red carpet and continue to inspire others.
The embroidery work of Hambly’s dresses is done by her. Many of the outfits she makes are just for content creation, but are then recycled for future work.
Hambly has a clothing line under her name and is available online at https://officialhambly.com/collections/all. Follow him on social media @officialhambly.
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