Taliah Mateen is the founder of luxury children’s-wear brand IVAT, which serves as an inspiration for many, writes Shaunice Ajiwe for Philadelphia Magazine.

While she studied subjects like international business law, communication, advertising, and more, fashion was always a passion of hers.

In 2015, she started a company called uneeKidz, where she sold kids’ leather shoes from a kiosk at Willow Grove Park Mall.

Launching IVAT took shape a couple years later.

In 2017, a manufacturer reached out to Mateen, offering to make soft leather moccasins for her shoe business. She asked if they could do leather jackets instead and sent them one of her designs.

At the time, she had started drawing sketches for a kids’ leather-jacket line. However, she couldn’t find a cranberry leather blazer that she wanted for her young son, Taavi.

So, Mateen created it and later launched IVAT.

“I wanted to inspire kids to dream and express themselves through clothing. I use bold, bright colors and put quotes on the inside lining of each leather jacket, to give them some words of encouragement,” Mateen said.

IVAT recently opened a new space at Hancock Studios in Kensington, to provide customer experience and fashion-related youth events in Philadelphia.

“I’m so excited about it,” said Mateen.

Read more about how Taliah Mateen created IVAT in Philadelphia Magazine.

_____