Inspiro girl: Twinkie Chan

I love food.
I love pretty things.
I love when people make pretty things based on food.
I love, love, love Twinkie Chan.
You should too.

Who is Twinkie Chan?
Quirky. Colorful. Snack-crazy. Self-motivated Sleep-deprived!

Miss Twinkie, we heart you! What you all about?
I’ve always been a little bit crafty. When I was younger and saw something I liked in a store, my mom would always tell me to go home and make it. When I started working in an office after college, I could never figure out what to buy for my boss, so I’d make her all kinds of crazy stuff like hand-painted picture frames decorated with her favorite breakfast cereal. She always encouraged me to exercise my creativity more, but I could never figure out what I wanted to focus on.

Creativity sometimes just comes out of necessity. I needed a scarf. I wanted it to be cute. Pretty soon I had 10 scarves but only one neck! So I decided to try selling my food-themed scarves .., and I was totally surprised that people actually wanted them. I chose the name Twinkie Chan for my brand because I wanted something fun and food-oriented, and I also re-claimed my mom’s maiden name for kicks!

When and how did you know you were li’l miss creative able to make fabulous-o treats?
Growing up in a creative household was helpful. My mom sews and paints and upholsters furniture! She taught me how to knit little hair bands when I was much younger, but for some reason, I stuck with crocheting and learning patterns and stitches from books.

More recently, I got great encouragement from friends who told me the stuff I was making was cute and that they wanted some. But then I started focusing on my customer orders, so a lot of my friends still don’t have any. Sorry, guys! I only just started wearing one myself!

What was the first product you ever made?
I guess the first food scarf that I ended up selling didn’t really look like food yet. I was very into hand-dyed and hand-spun yarns that had food-like colors. I bought some with a lot of sherbert-y hues like pinks and blues and oranges and greens, and I worked up a scarf out of that yarn along with a lot of pink fringe. I called it Sherbert Cowboy. Kinda random!

Twinkie Chan - what you lovin’ most in your collection?
Right now I am focusing on adorable and scrumptious food-themed scarves, from veggies like eggplants and green salads to breakfast items like buttered toast and bacon and eggs to yummy desserts like cupcakes and cookies. I just finished a re-design of a sushi scarf, and let me tell you, it ROCKS! I’m mostly inspired by my love of FOOD! I’m also inspired by the cute stationery that comes out of Asia.

What’s the secret to your success?
If I knew the secret, I would be a kabillionaire! But I think some important not-so-secrets are staying focused, being determined, working hard, and giving it your best shot. Don’t sell yourself short! Networking is also really important, so while goofing around on MySpace can be fun, it can also be a great tool for meeting other people who are doing the kinds of things that you are doing. Lots of opportunities can come out of there, like meeting you .

What’s a day in the life of Twinkie Chan?
Not so glamorous . I have a full-time day job in publishing which is fabulous, too. An entirely separate career! So that takes up a lot of time, but pays the bills for now. I design and crochet at night and on the weekends. I always feel guilty about going out with friends, but getting out of the house can be good for you, I guess:P. Sometimes I am up until 5 in the morning, working with yarn, or sketching ideas on my computer. Ask me again in a year or two…maybe I’ll be designing and crocheting full-time and working in my pajamas from home!

What’s the best thing ’bout having your own fabulous-o creative gig?
I like knowing that somebody out there is feeling happy and cute and warm in their new scarf. That’s pretty cool. I like spreading smiles. It was also really neat when my brother’s girlfriend told me that her little sister was wearing a scarf while traveling, and that a random woman on a plane recognized it as one of mine.

Twinkie, you’re a style-ista, what’s your ‘must-have’ accessory?
Usually I just feel like a total non-style-ista! Sometimes I wear things only because they are extremely unstylish or unflattering and therefore funny to me, like a giant, green puffy skirt my aunt bought me in Japan because she thought it was ugly! But my MUST have item is a black platform maryjane. I’m always looking for the perfect shoe. I really loved the old Luichiniy brand maryjanes, but either they stopped making them or they are impossible to find!

I tend to be a t-shirt and jeans kinda gal on most days….but ….. you know…CUTE t-shirts only!! Also a cute purse is a must!! I go through/ruin purses like crazy. A pink leather hobo bag. A bright green monster fur backpack. Right now I’m carrying a banana purse from FredFlare.com.

What would a Twinkie soundtrack sound like?
I’m such a cliché: cute and girlie!! Check out a little bit of Dressy Bessy, or the Gerbils, be mellow with The Doves, and then bop around to hits from the 80s like “Video Killed the Radio Star,”, or the song that makes my friends and I hold hands and scream: “The Promise” by When in Rome!

Do you have a magazine that you completely dig?
Not really . I do a lot of reading for work, so I don’t leave myself much room for reading for fun. I’ve seen something called NEET Magazine .. which looks really cool and is brimming with awesome clothing. But one of my favorite things to do is just go on eBay, search for “DIY,” and see what all the girlies are concocting lately. My other favorite eBay search is “puff sleeves!”

What makes Twinkie happy?
WEINERDOGS!!!!!!!!! I want one so badly. Or pretty much any small and adorable dog.

What’s next in the world of Twinkie?
I’m going to try to put more and more of my time and energy into my little business. I hope to devote more to expanding the line, doing more t-shirts, hats, mittens, that kind of thing. I have lots of sketches of what I’d love to make, but…I don’t know how to sew, so I need to hook up with a seamstress!

Twinkie’s tips to being a tip-top, tutti-frutti creative type…
If you have an idea in your head, actually give it a go and bring it to life. Lots of people think of ideas but never give themselves the chance to execute them. Don’t let the difference between you and a “successful” designer be that she was the one who gave it a shot and you were the one who watched tv! Instead, grab some sewing or knitting or beading WHILE you’re watching tv. You’ll be amazed at how much you can accomplish during the length of a movie!

When I first started, someone close to me suggested that I maybe not try so hard to make the scarves actually look like food items and to just stick with food-like color schemes, but I had a vision, and I stuck to it, and it worked out okay . So believe in yourself. If your idea is a little bit weird… you’re probably onto something!

www.twinkiechan.com