Three years after she began her fashion business by selling her products door-to-door, Tina Tangalakis has gone from being a small businesswoman to speaking before one of the world’s most prominent human rights and economic development organizations.
On Tuesday, July 10, Tangalakis, a Culver City native, and the multinational electronic and computer firm Apple cemented a partnership where her fashion products and accessories will be in all Apples stores in Los Angles and New York.
Her company, called Della, sells handbags, wallets, headbands and cases for iPhone and iPod products. Della was founded in October 2009 with the dual purposes of allowing Tangalakis, a former fashion stylist, to pursue her interest in the arts of fashion and design and to support her friends and fellow business partners in Ghana.
“It’s been over three years and I haven’t slept since, ” Tangalakis said regarding time that has transpired since she opened the fashion line.
A trip to the West African country of Ghana where she was involved in a one-month volunteer program inspired her to create Della, which works directly with a community in West Africa, providing jobs, education and skills training to our employees.
During her time in Ghana, Tangalakis decided to help sell some of the products that some of the women there were making by hand, so she brought 50 handbags back to the United States which she says she sold within two weeks.
Della now hires 20 full-time employees, working with four other partners in a new facility in Ghana and provides for its employees free courses in literacy, money management and development of higher quality products.
Recently, the Culver City Tangalakis was invited to a luncheon with the United Nations and was a guest speaker for the African Women’s Entrepreneurship Program.
For Tangalakis, Della means that she has been able to “help people on both sides follow their dreams.”