(Image: TaraShakti)

Clark and Ralkowski (Image: TaraShakti)

Another sports fashion brand with mountain-high aspirations from a neighborhood entrepreneur is starting with a pop-up on the slopes of Capitol Hill.

TaraShakti, launched last year by Capitol Hill resident Tara Clark, has set out to make a new space in ski fashion with a revival of the onesie, a look Clark says helps her skiers “build confidence, connection, and community.”

The new ski brand from Clark and co-founder Quan Ralkowski is making its first tracks this winter with a Shakti Shack pop-up in a former dry cleaners shop on 14th Ave neighboring Porchlight Coffee, and the NUE and Omega Ouzeri restaurants.

“Slip into a vintage inspired, high performance, expertly crafted suit and experience the magic. The feminine fit will hug you in all the right places,” TaraShakti promises.

“Women are used to hiding their bodies and wearing baggy clothes to hide their curves,” Clark told the Seattle Times who reported this week on the pop-up’s plans to run through March on 14th Ave. “Well, these fit crazily well. Women look phenomenal when they put them on and they start to light up. When you’re lit up, people respond to you differently.”

Clark is new to the sports fashion world but has a few entrepreneurial hits to her name including the Believe Love Unite “In this house…” campaign that has inspired an entire industry of yard and window signs.

(Image: TaraShakti)

The pop-up could help TaraShakti follow the black diamond-level hopes of another Hill fashion entrepreneur’s growing sport brand. Last year, rapper Macklemore’s alter ego Ben Haggerty got the brick and mortar aspirations of his golf fashion brand Bogey Boys off the ground with a 10th Ave shop in his home neighborhood before moving the pop-up to University Village. That temporary store has also closed but you can still find Haggerty swinging through Capitol Hill’s Five Iron Golf where he serves as a brand ambassador and co-owner for the virtual golf bar chain.

TaraShakti, meanwhile, is trying to grow its brand while fostering a new sporting community inspired by a ski trip when Clark and friends came together to support a loved one with cancer with a ski trip to Whistler. TaraShakti also has forged a connection through Clark’s relationship with Seattle-based founder of Sherpa Adventure Gear, Tashi Tsering Sherpa who took on the challenge of manufacturing the line’s gear. For every suit they sell, TaraShakti says it donates $50 to the Ben and Catherine Ivy Center for Advanced Brain Tumor Treatment and the Northwest Sherpa Association.

The TaraShakti Shakti Shack is located at 1515 14th Ave. Learn more at tarashakti.com.

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