Walking into the Terez store on the Upper East Side feels a little bit like when Dorothy steps out of her house and into the land of Oz. Suddenly, everything is in color.

That’s the idea behind the brand, which founder Zara Terez Tisch describes as, “celebrating all the good parts of life.” The Lexington Avenue store certainly feels like a celebration. As I sat in the store interviewing Terez Tisch, people paused in front of the storefront, walked in and instantly commented on how vibrant and colorful it was, with the pink painted walls, the balloon chandelier, and the back wall filled with candy-colored accessories and actual candy.

Many might question why a successful online retailer whose revenue, according to the owner, is 50% wholesale, would open a retail location as the economy teeters on the brink of a recession. Terez Tisch has always wanted to create a space for gathering – in fact, what she loves most about the brand she created is creating those experiences, connecting people and finding creative, colorful new ways to celebrate life.

The Terez brand initially started as a leather handbag company. Just after Terez Tisch graduated college, she moved back in with her parents in the Long Island suburbs, commuting every day to her job at a branding agency called MGX Lab.

One day, she was sent by her boss to run an errand at Joseph Hanna, a leather store in the west village. Inside the store, a sign read, “Customize your own leather handbag.” Terez Tisch asked if she could design something for them to make into 100, or even 1,000 handbags. They laughed at her in the moment, but that’s how Terez Tisch got her start. She wove colorful prints into the lining of the leather handbags, which eventually became the catalyst for her now famous leggings.

Terez Tisch is quick to acknowledge her privilege, not only when it comes to finances, but more so in terms of how lucky she was to have had the support of those around her as she was building Terez. Her parents, an artist and a garment worker, helped her get her products into stores and trade shows and her best friend helped her build the business for its first ten years. She credits her husband, venture capitalist David Tisch, as the company’s biggest supporter.

But Terez Tisch’s life has not always been so charmed. In fact, she credits her mission to bring joyful experiences and “celebrate the good parts of life” to some of the devastating losses she experienced early in life. Her high school boyfriend passed away suddenly when she was 17 and her mom passed away of lung cancer when Terez Tisch was pregnant with her son.

Grief is as much a part of Terez’s story as joy. But it’s undoubtedly the joyfulness that takes prominence as people walk through the front doors of the Lexington Avenue store.

Amy Shoenthal: Why, in 2022, did you decide to open Terez’s first retail location?

Zara Terez Tisch: I’ve always wanted to open a physical store. What I love most about this is making memories. Our story is a very unique story to tell, and we tell it through the experiences we create. Our products represent our mission. Through loss and grief and all the hard stuff life throws at you, we celebrate the good parts.

The only reason we were able to do this is because we partnered with a company called Leap Retail. They help alleviate the cost for small brands who want to open physical stores.

I looked at the ecommerce data to choose the location. This is a very residential neighborhood. The Upper East Side is so unique because you find yourself in a new neighborhood every two blocks.

People say if you build it they will come. That’s not true. Maybe they will come in the very beginning to support you, but you need to create reasons, day after day, for them to come back. They need to feel like this is a destination.

Shoenthal: Tell me the Terez story, from the beginning.

Terez Tisch: When I was 17, my boyfriend, my first love, unexpectedly passed away. He was up at summer camp trying to save his best friend from drowning. In that moment, my life and my perspective changed forever.

I almost didn’t go to college, but I had an incredible support system, my parents and friends, who convinced me to go. There, I started to take art classes in my freshman dorm. I would find myself making art until the wee hours of the morning, making dark things and making happy things. Through art I was trying to understand life and what it meant.

After I graduated I moved back home with my parents and commuted on the Long Island Rail Road back and forth into the city, five days a week. One day, I was sent to run an errand for them which brought me to a leather store in the west village. There was a sign inside that said, ‘customize your own leather handbag.’

I asked if I could draw something for them to make into 100 handbags. When they said yes, I asked if they could make 1000. They laughed, but that’s how it all started.

On the train home that day, I realized I needed to make physical things. My mother was very artistic. She made small accessories and hair clips for Henri Bendel. My dad was an old school “garmento.” He worked at, then ran, and then owned one of the largest private dress manufacturing companies in Manhattan in the ‘70s, ‘80s and into the 90s (It was called Budget Dress, which then became Victoria Ashley.) Retailers purchased from domestic manufacturers until they started to take domestic manufacturers ‘hot products’ and made them in China and other places abroad because it was less expensive.

This was a very low point for my family. I’ve seen both ends of the wealth spectrum.

I went home that day and proclaimed, ‘Dad, I’m going to take back the garment industry for you!’ To which he responded, ‘absolutely not. Do not go into that industry.’ And my mother said, ‘You’re 22, now is the time, absolutely, go for it.’ So I took whatever savings I had from living at home, I quit my job and I started Zara Terez, LLC from my parents’ basement, making leather handbags.

For the next four years, I was slinging merch, jumping into the manufacturing line and figuring out the process. I was determined to make the inside lining of the handbags out of fun patterned spandex. My whole motto was, ‘it’s on the inside that counts.’ Turns out you’re not supposed to put spandex inside leather handbags. It stretches in the machinery, so it’s very tricky. It can be done, but it’s tricky.

Shoenthal: How were you paying for all these materials and production at 22?

Terez Tisch: How did I finance it? I had horrible credit. My parents would help when they could. I had a new boyfriend who is my husband now, who was and is extraordinarily supportive. He was the one who kept saying, ‘you need to keep going.’ There’s nobody who cares about this business more than me, but besides me, it’s him.

My best friend Amanda Zeligman joined me. I couldn’t pay her but I gave her a commission whenever she sold anything. She helped me build Terez for our first ten years.

Shoenthal: Did you ever consider giving up?

Terez Tisch: No. About a year in, a family friend introduced me to Andrew Rosen who started Theory and Alice & Olivia. He said, my advice is to stop what you’re doing right now, go work for a big company and learn on their dime until you’re 40. Then open up your company if you want. I was so angry about this for years. But now, as I’m approaching 40, I realized, that was excellent advice. I didn’t take it, but it was excellent advice.

A huge turning point for us was at a tradeshow, The Accessorie Circuit, in 2011. I had started using some of the extra material from our handbag linings. We sold them at children’s stores so we could have some cash flow. At this tradeshow, In the center of our beautiful handbag display, I put a pile of pencil cases together.

A very dapper gentleman walked into the booth and was instantly drawn to them. I kept trying to show him the fancy handbags but he just wanted to look at the wacky pencil cases. Turned out, he was the head buyer for Neiman Marcus. Then the buyer for Urban Outfitters came over and asked if I could make 500 of them. I didn’t know if I could, but I obviously said yes.

In retrospect, I realized I was hiding my truest self inside of my handbags.

Shoenthal: I see where this is going.

Terez Tisch: This type of fabric is really for leggings, not bags. I didn’t really want to get into clothing with sizing and everything, but we started playing around with making just leggings. Over the next year, Amanda and I wore crazy patterned leggings every day. A buyer from a children’s clothing store called Lester’s came to one of our trade shows and loved them. She asked if we could make a few hundred by Thanksgiving weekend. This was October. We dropped everything and found a manufacturer out in Queens. We dropped the leggings off before the holiday weekend, barely making that deadline. Come Monday, the store had sold out of every single piece. They must have sold 200 pieces in a single weekend.

The buyer said, you have something very special here. And that was the beginning of Terez as you know it.

We wanted to make our own fabric so we started to turn photographs into prints. Our first photo print was jelly beans. The thing that people loved was our galaxy print. Then Amanda and I came up with this idea to put emojis on clothing. There were no emojis on apparel until we introduced it. We typed out every single emoji on our phone and texted/repeated it and sent it to the printer.

It never crossed my mind that there was a void in the market for active leggings. I wasn’t an athletic workout person. I never considered making these fun prints for adults, other than for myself and Amanda, who were walking around wearing size 16 kids leggings from what we printed for the children’s lines. I was always afraid it was just going to be a fad. The question always was, what happens when people don’t want to wear fun printed leggings anymore?

Shoenthal: I’m not sure we’ve gotten to that point yet. Fast forward a few years, did you have any idea how the pandemic was about to accelerate the athleisure market?

Terez Tisch: Covid made active go wild. When retailers closed and wholesale accounts didn’t take our inventory, I just sold that inventory online so I didn’t get as hurt as I otherwise would have. But now, department stores are getting rid of active departments completely, because they’ve been stuck with inventory for so long. This is hurting all brands, including us.

Shoenthal: Giving back has always been a big part of your brand. Tell me about Terez’s commitment to philanthropy.

Terez Tisch: What’s important in life? Health, family, being kind to one another. It is so much easier to be reserved, judgemental and to wear a dark color rather than a splash of rainbow. It’s much easier to conform. Because of what I went through at a young age, I’ve always wanted to do whatever I could to help those in the community around me. As I’ve grown up and started to understand my privilege more, I wanted to use that privilege for good. Terez is a great vehicle for that.

Starting this year, for every item purchased at Terez, we are donating one piece to WIN, the largest provider of shelter and housing for NYC’s homeless women and children.

I built this brand and what it stands for. I put my blood, sweat, tears and so much more into this. I want it to be as meaningful to others as it has been for me.