Fashion Pharmacy

Fashion Pharmacy

By Neha Suradkar

Photo Credit Darius Tarela

Apoteca was founded by Inga Tarelaite, who thought of starting a unique fashion brand while visiting silk factories in China. First, she worked in the fashion industry as Editor and Creative Manager for fashion magazines, coordinating their shoots and interviewing designers. Then, she worked with some of the biggest fashion retail chains like Bershka and Apranga (Biggest Fashion Retailer in Baltic countries) as a buyer and store manager.

During her tenure with these chains, she attended many fashion shows and trade shows and visited a lot of factories and manufacturing units in China, which helped her gain knowledge about garments, fabrics, construction, and the endless possibilities that are there in the fashion industry. This is when she started working on her own designs and quit her job.

Both her parents were pharmacists. Since childhood, pharmacy had always been a part of Tarelaite’s life, and even her husband is a pharmacist. With all this connection, she came up with the idea of the name Apoteca—a pharmacy in your closet that can treat your body with luxurious natural fabrics and your soul with beautiful prints and colours at any moment in your life.

Apoteca is based in San Francisco, handcrafted by a team of local women in Lithuania, and sold in America, Italy, and England. The brand designs for mature and elegant women who love great fabrics, intricate design details, and are not afraid to get noticed in a crowd.

Tarelaite shares that Apoteca originated from the love for fashion; from the yearning to move forward; from passion and devotion; from a sense of style and the countless number of existing colors; from an endless desire to progress, to grow, to move ahead together; and from the changing power of art, which is the expression of the world.

Fabrics are one of the most significant inspirations for Apoteca designs. Tarelaite visits silk factories and brings some beautiful printed silks from there. They are then matched with solid colours and design samples are created, out of which few are selected for production. The brand works with three fabrics—silk, silk with spandex, and cashmere—which are natural and rich.

According to Tarelaite, there are three main pillars of Apoteca—color, design, and fabric. The team at Apoteca loves to experiment with the variety of available colours to make every outfit exciting and playful. In addition, their designs use artisan stitching techniques to get a flawless finish, resulting in outfits that withstand wear and tear.

Silk with spandex works as their primary fabric in all designs for its richness, opacity, and the movement and body that it adds to the outfit. Silk adds the luxury and softness that is unmatchable by any other fabric. Cashmere is the finest wool available, which adds softness and warmth and will last for years to come. The fabrics used in the Apoteca collection scream luxury and timelessness in all their pieces.

Apoteca came out with two collections every year before the pandemic, but now they keep adding new pieces every month to stay afloat. Nature is the major inspiring factor behind quite a few of Apoteca’s collections. Their first collection was Forest, which was deep, exotic, and had prints full of unexpected animals with a browngreen palette. It was designed for women who love to dress themselves with luxurious fabrics not only for special occasions but for every day. Being the first collection, this was very special for

Tarelaite. She spent a significant amount of time working on it and made every piece unique. She still spots people on the streets of Lithuania wearing this collection. Also, since this collection was made more out of passion than for commercial reasons, that makes it even more special for her.

Another nature-inspired collection was Tropics, composed of simple, effortless summer pieces. They were designed with silks and cashmere with prints that included tropical gardens, flowers, birds, and Chinese paintings, with small decorative details that make them unique. The outfits are suitable for special occasions and everyday wear. Some of the other collections have been inspired by Colours, Dreams, Elements of Life, Cupcakes, etc. Tarelaite feels that the Cupcake collection represents her personality, which is cute and colourful.

Making clothes from all-natural fabrics and using all the scraps to make new pieces is how Apoteca contributes to the environment. Also, Getting all their pieces handsewn by local women of Lithuania

For Tarelaite, designing is a way to express herself. It brings her joy and happiness. She feels that, while making commercial pieces, you tend to lose yourself and focus only on the monetary aspect. Real fashion is creating what you like and what makes you happy. Apart from designing, Tarelaite enjoys styling for editorials, and her work has been photographed and published in some well-known fashion magazines.

When not engaged with the day to day operations of Apoteca, Tarelaite enjoys travelling. She is a culture and food enthusiast. She loves to know about different cultures or meet people and attend events. Everything, she believes, is a source of inspiration.

Tarelaite believes in dressing up in a colourful way and getting noticed in the crowd. She is going really strong with Apoteca. Reaching happiness is what drives her. She feels that starting is easy, but staying on and surviving is an art—and she is trying to master the art.

Read more at https://issuu.com/rareluxuryliving/docs/troora_san_francisco_2021_pages/372