Meet Natasia Smith of Stitched Swim in Atlanta

Today we’d like to introduce you to Natasia Smith.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Natasia. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
Yikes! Im not sure where to even start but here it goes. Ok so, I’m Natasia but the closest ones to me call me “Tash.” I usually tell people I’m from Tucson, Arizona because I lived there the longest but I was born in Guam, my parents were both in the Air Force so we got to move around a bit. Always a hustler, I started working under the table at 15 years old at a local Race Car track then on to working in Restaurants. I graduated high school with an academic scholarship to the University of Arizona. Where I would go for a semester before having my son. Which by the way, he is growing into an amazing human. If you ever met him you would love him. Anyways, I left school to support my new family working two jobs at a banking institution and a night club. I had reached a point where the sky felt like the ceiling and change needed to be made. I guess I realized there was more to life than what I had been living.

I moved to Atlanta on a whim at the end of 2012. Initially, my son and I were going to move with my best friend out to South Carolina but two days before moving she called me and said: “let’s just move to Atlanta instead!” So, we did just that. When I got here, I found work in the nightlife meeting tons of amazing people and experienced so many adventures. As exhausting as it is working hours when most people are in bed then to leave work and raise my son, it was convenient and I was able to accomplish so much in my day. I had time to be creative and started ideas for lingerie. I was excited at the idea of women feeling confident and sexy and that being okay! I eventually got enough confidence to contact pattern makers and get the process started. Many trials and many excuses later, I became overwhelmed with the process and laid that idea to rest but not before deciding I’d give swimwear a try. Working on my new project with the swimsuits, working at night, being a single mom and renovating my home, I became overwhelmed yet again and started dragging my feet. I had that wave again of “this just isn’t it,” still feeling unfulfilled.

Until the end of 2018, I was introduced to something that started the change of my life, Ayahuasca! It began the actual unveiling of myself if that makes sense. During this journey of mine, I was able to strip myself of self-doubt and became aware of exactly the difference I want to make. I was able to finally see why I had held myself back and began to work on my insecurities. During this process, I got the fire I needed to go full speed with my swimwear line. I knew making beautiful swimsuits wasn’t enough for me and decided to dig a little deeper. Until I had that “a-ha” moment. I will design incredible pieces but also bring awareness to how swimming is so very important, especially when it comes to our children! My mom taught us all how to swim when we lived in Panama, between 4-5 years old. My brothers, sister and I were so confident in the water, I remember jumping off of the high dive and everyone looking amazed at these little kids doing things in the water most adults are afraid of. Swimming has been such a big part of the days I remember most. The sad truth is a lot of people don’t know how to swim. About 1 in 5 people who die from drowning is a child aged 14 and younger. I decided that with every bathing suit sold, I would give a bathing suit to a child at a local organization learning how to swim. My goal is to increase my efforts in the future to be able to hold swimming lessons and much more.

My mom also stressed to us the importance of being good people. “Pretty is as Pretty Does” is something she would tell us when our attitudes began to shine through. I wanted to put an emphasis on how cool it is to be as beautiful on the inside as we are on the outside. The name Stitched Swim was created tying all of these pieces together.

Putting in my nights and days into my new creation, I launched Stitched Swim on the first day of summer June 21, 2019. One of the many happiest days of my life.

Has it been a smooth road?
Smooth sailing? Hell no! I had gone through many pattern makers and spent tons of money before getting so frustrated, My childhood friend April that went to fashion school in Paris, taught me how to make patterns and sew. We would spend our afternoons with lessons about how to create, adjust patterns and the essentials of sewing until I actually made my first mock-up of bottoms on my own! They weren’t the best but I was damn sure proud. Another struggle was manufacturers like to move on their time. I had heard this before but didn’t fully understand until it happened to me. Patience is something I had to learn and relearn and am still learning.

I had never created anything for the world to see and wanted to go about it the best way possible but unsure of exactly all the steps after designing the pieces it took to get there until a friend of mine introduced me to Antonio. Antonio has helped me in ways I never expected. From being a business mentor, friend to actually designing my entire website. He definitely made the last step of the process bearable and exciting. Trusting your team is important. I’m so grateful to be able to work with my closest friends from almost every aspect of Stitched Swim. From photography to my model, to behind the scenes work. It’s almost like I get to play with my friends while doing something I love.

We’d love to hear more about your business.
Stitched Swim is a bathing suit line that currently caters to women. We want our Stitched Swim women to feel beautiful, bold and confident but also accentuate that being beautiful isn’t only an exterior trait. With every swimsuit sold, we will be donating a swimsuit to a child learning to swim at a local organization. Our mission is to spread awareness of children in and around the water and how important it is for them to know how to swim.

Is our city a good place to do what you do?
Atlanta is a great place for anybody to get started. With an abundance of resources and opportunity here, it makes for an amazing recipe for success. You can create literally whatever it is you want and if you are unsure of where to start/go, someone you know knows the person to go to. For example, I had no idea about my current manufactures until I had contacted a girl I worked with years prior and she gave me her manufactures number. I had been struggling working with companies from out of state and the people I needed were right up the street. And boom here we are!

Contact Info:

• Website: WWW.STITCHEDSWIM.COM
• Email: INFO@STITCHEDSWIM.COM
• Instagram: WWW.INSTAGRAM.COM/STITCHEDSWIM
• Facebook: “
• Twitter: “

Image Credit:
Studio Lisa Li Photography

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