When Tahirah Goins-Nall talks about closets, she doesn’t start with fabrics or racks. She talks about archetypes—the boss, the siren, the woman who commands a room before she speaks. To her, a wardrobe isn’t just clothing. It’s a story of power, femininity, and becoming.
From her Los Angeles studio, CLOTHESPETALS, Tahirah helps clients build more than outfits. She helps them script whot hey want to be.
From law track to lookbooks
On our early-morning video call, Tahirah radiates warmth and an almost disarming honesty. She’s quick to laugh, quicker to reflect, and her sentences often turn into mantras—short lines that sound like they should be pinned to a mirror.
Her story begins in college. She was on the pre-law track, grinding through classes and casework, when she picked up a job at Trunk Club. The role was modest—assisting stylists, organizing shows, welcoming designers passing through—but the experience lit a fire.
“It was a lot of fun, a great energy, a great space,” she recalls, smiling as though the memory is still alive in her body.
She started a blog in 2018 to capture that bespoke world, documenting the rhythm of fittings and the electricity of transformation. The writing became her creative outlet, even as she pressed forward on her law studies. But corporate life quickly wore her down. Burnout hit hard.
“I can’t sit still,” she admits. Instead of retreating, she leaned into the blog, taking it seriously for the first time. The leap into styling full-time wasn’t neat or planned—it was a decision made in the middle of exhaustion, fueled by instinct and ambition.
That instinct gave birth to CLOTHESPETALS.
Naming a studio, naming a vision
When I ask about the brand’s name, her whole face lights up. It came from her younger sister, who remembered Tahirah’s favorite Dior quote: “Next to women, flowers are the most divine creations.”
“The moment I heard it,” she says, “I knew.” The name is a philosophy. A reminder that clothes, like flowers, can be both delicate and commanding. CLOTHESPETALS became a vessel for her belief that style is intentional, powerful, and deeply personal.
Learning not to follow
Like many new entrepreneurs, Tahirah admits she stumbled at the beginning. “It’s easy to get caught up in trends,” she says, “to mimic what other stylists are doing instead of carving your own lane.”
She pauses, then adds with conviction: “Entrepreneurship, for me, is about trust. There’s no single right way—only your way, and the risks you’re willing to take to follow it.”
It’s a line that captures her approach to both styling and business: clarity, conviction, and the refusal to dilute her vision.
Fashion as storytelling
For Tahirah, styling is inseparable from storytelling. Every aesthetic is a narrative, every outfit a declaration. Clothes dictate not just how others see you, but how you choose to see yourself.
“Dress the part you want, not the part you have,” she tells me. The line drops like a challenge, equal parts encouragement and provocation.
She loves to play with archetypes: the boss, the vixen, the wealthy woman who signals her success before she ever speaks. It might sound theatrical, but for Tahirah, it’s practical magic.
“I think the storytelling in fashion is the narrative you’re curating when you get dressed,” she says. “Celebrities do it all the time. Why can’t we?”
Her favorite moments aren’t magazine spreads or red carpets. They’re quiet texts from clients—women who never considered themselves fashionable—telling her how different they felt at an event. “They’ll say, I’ve never had so many compliments, and I’ll just start crying.”
She leans into the intimacy of those moments. “It’s not about changing who they are,” she says. “It’s about showing them a version of themselves they didn’t know was possible.”
Taste, not time
Tahirah is quick to draw a boundary. “My job as a stylist is not to sell you on anything. My job is to put pieces together,” she explains. “To clean out your closet, take your measurements, know where to shop. But the real service? It’s taste. My perspective, my eye—that’s what makes it yours.”
The reminder is sharp, especially for boutique pros who know the struggle of explaining their value. Clients don’t buy hours. They buy taste, distilled into a service only you can deliver.
And on pricing, she doesn’t equivocate. She firmly believes that no stylist should ever downgrade their prices to meet people. “They’re paying for a unique service only you can provide.”
The signature lookbook
Every client engagement begins the same way: with a lookbook. It’s Tahirah’s signature, the cornerstone of her process.
“The lookbook is where it all begins,” Tahirah says. “It’s how I get to understand your aesthetic. Who do you want to look like—just for this day, or for your whole lifestyle?”
Think of it as an aesthetic guide—curated outfits, styling tips, and a visual narrative that cements the vision. “That’s the fun part for me because everything else flows from that,” she says. “The shopping, the fittings, the hair, the makeup—it all starts with the story.”
Her packages vary in length, but the goal is consistent: help busy women reclaim their time and power through the art of dressing well.
Tahirah's offerings also includes bridal styling, a niche she's proud to explore. She’s styled brides with as little as three months to prepare, but believes nine months is the sweet spot. It’s long enough to cover engagement shoots, fittings, and the wedding day itself—without losing the sense of fun. The weight of the occasion is immense, but she refuses to let it overwhelm them. “So many brides are trying to appease everyone else,” she says. “My job is to re-anchor them: what do you want?”
It’s a deceptively simple question, but one she asks again and again.
When the closet fights back
When it comes to working with clients, Tahirah finds herself wearing many different hats. “You have to be able to adjust as a stylist,” she said thoughtfully. “You’re half-therapist, half-best friend, half-stylist, half-fashion expert,” she says with a laugh.
Not every session is glamorous. Sometimes it’s messy, intimate, and stubborn. She recalls a client with a mountain of sweaters. “She had so many sweaters. I told her we were going to have to get rid of some of them,” Tahirah says, laughing. “But the sentimental value was so strong. She couldn’t do it.” Instead of pushing, she pivoted. They negotiated. A few sweaters stayed. Others went.
“I had my system,” she says, “but ultimately, if you don’t leave feeling good, I’ve done something wrong. So yes—I let her keep more than I planned.” With a thoughtful yet resolute look, she explains that her goal is to "slow-pitch" people into seeing themselves in a new light. Sometimes it takes longer—but it lasts.
The House of Intentional Style
CLOTHESPETALS carries a subtitle: ‘The House of Intentional Style’—a reminder that every morning and night are rituals of self-definition. For her, getting dressed is less about clothes and more about deciding how you want to experience the world.
She wants clients to be thinking about what each outfit they choose says, and what vision they’re manifesting through it. “Ultimately,” she said, “the moments that you spend just with yourself are the most important, and that's how you really curate and set the tone for your day and for the next one.”
It’s important to her that the people she styles are “mindful in the moment” that they’re getting dressed and “dictating how they want to experience the world.” Every garment must earn its place in the closet. Every choice dictates not just what you look like, but how you move through the world. It’s styling as mindfulness, and wardrobes as philosophy.
Becoming
When I ask Tahirah about the biggest challenge she’s faced, she takes a long pause. This isn’t a question she answers lightly.
“For me, it’s the redirections,” she says finally. And then adds, “it's learning that they’ve happened for a reason. I think there are so many reasons why you actually don’t want things to go your way at certain points."
To Tahirah, entrepreneurship isn’t about following a straight line—it’s about the detours, the stops and starts, and the lessons tucked into each one.
She names the challenges candidly:
- Autonomy. Making her own schedule, and then learning how to live with it.
- Setbacks. Accepting them as lessons instead of failures.
- Self-management. Figuring out how not to burn out.
- Joy. Remembering why she loves this work, even on the most difficult days.
“I think the act of becoming is really what this journey of entrepreneurship is.”
Learning to celebrate
After such a heavy conversation, I ask her about her proudest moment. To my surprise, she looks more stumped than before.
She admits that celebration doesn’t come naturally. “I’ll look at my list, and even if I’ve checked off four things, it never feels done because it’s always growing,” she says. “I have to remind myself that it’s okay to pause.”
So she’s been teaching herself the art of acknowledgment. “I’ll buy myself a bottle of champagne for a client,” she says, grinning, “or I’ll take myself out for a coffee when I feel like I’ve done the content I want to do. Intentional things to celebrate—that’s what I’ve been working on. Because I don’t do it enough.”
When pressed for her proudest single achievement, she shakes her head. “I don’t think I’ve reached it yet.” Instead, she savors the everyday wins: afternoons sitting in her yard, evenings catching up on reality TV, weekends with her family, the flow of styling sessions with clients.
“I love to adventure,” she says, smiling now. “I love trying new places to eat. Rooftops at night. A fire pit, a view, music, good conversation. I love a vibe. I love an aesthetic.”
It’s the kind of answer that tells you her proudest moments are less about milestones and more about atmosphere—about creating a life she actually enjoys living.
Built-in inspiration
When I ask who inspires her, Tahirah names a few stylists before landing, unavoidably, on her parents. Both entrepreneurs, both lovers of fashion, both raising three daughters while building businesses of their own.
“The way they were intentional about prioritizing us, even though they must have been so busy—that’s what I want to emulate,” she says. The family remains close-knit, something she likens to a built-in support system, always there, always grounding.
Advice to stylists starting out
Her message to other stylists is blunt, and she doesn’t hesitate: “Know your worth. Don’t be afraid.”
She explains that pricing is not about industry averages or external validation—it’s about what feels right to the individual. “Only you know what price is right for your services. Don’t ever sell yourself short.”
She often recommends a book to those wrestling with value: We Should All Be Millionaires by Rachel Rodgers. It’s part mindset shift, part practical guide—a reminder, she says, that the permission to value your work has to come from within.
For those not yet ready to make the leap? Her advice is simple: start anyway. “I used to think there were ordered steps you had to follow,” she admits. “But you don’t. You just start. Take the leap. Celebrate as you go.”
Looking towards the future
Tahirah doesn’t measure success in trends, quick wins, or follower counts. Her vision is quieter, sharper, more enduring:
Every closet should only hold pieces you love. Every outfit should remind you of who you are—and who you’re becoming.
That belief—part wardrobe, part philosophy—is what makes CLOTHESPETALS her true House of Intentional Style.
