Karla Welch was once told style can open doors.
“I’m very, very strategic. Anybody who works with me knows we’re very strategic in what we get achieved. There’s the total joy of dressing and having so much fun with it, but there’s also a goal, especially for women, [on] how we project ourselves. I only want women to be how they want to be, to be honest,” Welch told Vanity Fair in 2021.
Whether she’s styling Tracee Ellis Ross in eye-catching silhouettes, defining Sarah Paulson’s edgy-yet-feminine aesthetic, outfitting former vice president Kamala Harris in expertly tailored suiting, or donning the perfect pair of jeans herself, her fashion prowess is undeniable. She’s led a MasterClass on owning your personal style; started her own brand of elevated T-shirts, xKarla; cofounded Wishi, an app offering a personalized styling experience; and was named The Hollywood Reporter’s most powerful stylist in 2017—but clothing isn’t the only thing she’s concerned about making covetable.
In 2020, impelled by her struggle to find accommodating period care for her own child facing early adolescence—an experience Welch also endured—she cofounded The Period Company with Sasha Markova.
“I am a creative, and I know what I want, and I’m never going to call myself a designer designer. Like I could never live in that category because designers are my rock stars, like Marc Jacobs or Mrs. Prada,” she said. “But I definitely know, and saw that there was a space for people with my level of expertise and really knowing what the market wanted. Like I have always been my own inspiration. I am my own muse,” she said.
Since the brand’s founding, Welch has coupled her influence in the fashion sphere with her own experiences to revolutionize period care by offering sustainable and safe period underwear for every body, championing a new way of thinking about menstruation.
Below, Welch shares the things that keep her in motion from a well-worn loafer to Adrienne Maree Brown’s Emergent Strategy.
