How Tamara Malas is building a revolutionary fashion community with Flodesk

TL;DR: Tamara Malas is on a mission to ensure that fashion is for everyone, regardless of size. Her boldly branded, slow-fashion clothing line has rapidly grown while fostering a tight-knit online community. Discover how her small team creates iconic designs and fosters meaningful relationships with Flodesk.

Tamara Malas didn’t intend to become an activist. After graduating from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago with a degree in Fashion Design, she spent the first seven years of her career working for high-end fashion houses, creating beautiful women’s clothing—but never for women her size. 

That feeling of being excluded from the fashion industry led Tamara to start her eponymous clothing line, Tamara Malas. She adds, “I wanted to contribute to my own community, and that’s what led me to start my own business.”

In 2018, Tamara Malas launched as a plus-sized clothing brand, focusing on sizes 14-36. Tamara’s goal was simply to provide women like her with unique, fun, and bold clothing they could feel confident in. She says, “My brand is quirky, fun, and witty. It’s for people who aren’t afraid to try new things and take risks.”

Not long after launching, Tamara began gaining recognition as an activist for creating an inclusive clothing brand that encourages people of all shapes and sizes to dress up and feel seen. She says, “I didn’t realize I was getting into advocacy work by starting a brand of clothing for bigger women, but it really does make such a statement just by making clothes for real people. Being involved in the community has been incredibly rewarding.”

Amid a global pandemic, Tamara decided to abandon traditional fashion marketing strategies. Instead of trying to get coverage in magazines and newspapers, she began placing a heavier focus on digital marketing and building a direct relationship with her community online. She believes there has been a massive shift in the fashion brand marketplace, adding, “It’s really transformed into this smaller community that’s all about word of mouth, trust, influencers, and people wearing your clothes and sharing how much they love them.”

The clothing line now offers size 2 to size 36 and reaches an audience of over 28,000 Instagram followers. Tamara believes the brand’s rapid growth is because of its distinctive, loud, and vibrant clothing options for women of all sizes—something she was very intentional about when forming the brand’s identity.

“The brand gained traction for being different and unlike what was already out there. I did a lot of research, and part of that was looking at what other brands do and how to fill a space in the market. I said if all these brands are over here in one corner, I want to be in the opposite corner,” she explains.

Three years ago, Tamara was frustrated by the lack of design flexibility major brands like Klaviyo and MailChimp offer. She began searching for an email platform that was as visually unique as her clothing while being simple enough for her small team to manage. That’s when she found Flodesk.

Flodesk’s focus on beautiful design, direct engagement, and user-friendly analytics have made it the perfect tool for Tamara’s rapidly growing fashion brand. 

Tamara loves the ease and customization Flodesk offers compared to other platforms. She adds, “Flodesk focuses on design, visuals, and branding, so you’re really able to put your best foot forward, whereas some of the other brands all kind of do the same thing. Flodesk offers something unique and more aligned with what we want as Tamara Malas.”

As a brand that’s always looking for ways to go against the grain and stand apart from the crowd, they don’t focus on big sales and discounts to improve their conversions and email engagement as many companies do. Instead of reusing templates or standard formulas in their emails, they treat each email they send as “a unique message or a letter you would be sending a friend” with visuals that are always exciting, on-brand, and fun to open.

The Tamara Malas email list has more than doubled since the brand switched to Flodesk, now numbering in the tens of thousands. Flodesk has helped Tamara build and maintain meaningful relationships with her subscribers, which the community thrives on—and the sales have followed. 

Her team’s focus on community-building through email has been instrumental to their success. They regularly connect with subscribers and seek opportunities to foster a tight-knit community by delivering hyper-personalized, unique emails their customers adore.  

Tamara adds, “We definitely communicate with our customers in a very direct way. We’re still small, which means we can send direct, personalized messages and kick it the way we want to.”

Since switching to Flodesk, the team has found analytics reporting much easier. They rave about Flodesk’s “really clean report system” that allows them to easily see who opened their email, how many clicks it got, and what product links perform well without having to learn how to navigate a tricky interface.

The Tamara Malas team uses Flodesk Analytics’ simple yet insightful analytics tool to understand how their emails are performing and optimize their open rates. Their email marketing manager, Laura, is an expert at creating witty, engaging subject lines. She uses analytics to test and track what works and what doesn’t continually. 

Tamara Malas has built a thriving business by leveraging the power of email marketing—and you can, too. Here are five tips to help you build an online community with Flodesk.

No matter your industry, there are people just like you looking for something unique in the marketplace. Tamara stands out by offering fun, bold, and daring clothing for women of all sizes—wrapped in extraordinary emails.

With a powerful range of simple-to-use tools at your fingertips to bring your brand to life, there’s no stopping what you can create. Transform your newsletters into visually engaging designs and deliver emails subscribers can’t wait to open, just like Tamara.

Sales and discounts will always be powerful tools for converting email subscribers into paying customers. However, Tamara and her team deeply believe it’s way more powerful to focus on building meaningful relationships with subscribers—which will likely translate into greater sales and customer loyalty in the long run.

You can use Flodesk’s gorgeous templates as a starting point for your email designs but don’t fall into the habit of using the same template repeatedly. Shake things up and keep your subscribers excited about what’s next by regularly iterating on your content and designs.

Flodesk Analytics is straightforward, intuitive, and ultra user-friendly. By using data to make decisions, you can optimize every send and foster a highly engaged community of subscribers you can nurture all year long.

Don’t send the same boring marketing emails as everyone else in your industry—stand out in a crowded inbox with Flodesk. Choose from a library of gorgeous templates, design them just the way you like, and send emails that are truly reflective of your brand. 

And that’s just the beginning. Grow your list with stunning opt-in forms, build meaningful relationships on autopilot with workflows, and optimize your email marketing strategy with powerful analytics. Try Flodesk free for 30 days—no credit card required.

Explore Tamara Malas’ website or follow them on Instagram @tamara.malas