Monika Astara

Being beautiful has nothing to do with body shape or size. It is a state of being.

About Monika Astara

"Fabulously flattering styles for all body types, in which women feel great about themselves. Where they feel uplifted, confident and radiant. Like they can do anything. And they feel beautiful!"

What you put on your body directly affects how you feel.
When you put clothes on that enhance your own frequencies, that uplift you, that make you feel great about yourself, you literally light up from the inside and radiate it out.
That is true beauty.
When that happens, your voice changes, you stand up taller, you smile, you laugh. 
You feel confident, beautiful, you become kinder to yourself.
That affects everyone around you. You treat others with more kindness and less judgement, you uplift them and encourage them.
It's a powerful way to make the world a better place -  from the ground up, one woman at a time.
I have seen the snowball effect thousands of times when I had a boutique at the Hot Springs Resort in Pagosa Springs, Colorado, from 1994 - 2007 and worked with women to find the pieces that make them light up. While also quitting to judge their bodies. Every time somebody said something negative about themselves or their bodies, they had to come up with 2 positive things about themselves. It caught on fast.  Women - locals and total strangers - engaged in supporting and uplifting each other. While simultaneously having their kids witness positive self image and appreciation.
 I worked with women to have wardrobes that made them feel great about themselves in everyday life to feeling awesome at presidential inaugurations, and everything in between.
The boutique was a happy place. Women called it "the transformation place - where you fall in love with yourself".
Oprah, on her cross country tour, called it "the best boutique".

In order to feel great in what you wear, it's very important what goes into making it.

If you are still here and want to know how it all started, here it is:

I have always loved working with fabrics. When I was 10 years old, I started making clothes from old curtains and any scraps of fabrics that I could get my hands on. During my college years I sewed clothes at night and wore them the next day. Back then it didn't occur to me that it could be a viable "career". But that's what 'happened' in my early thirties.
I sewed up a bunch of pretty wild, yet casually elegant looking clothes in very unusual fabric combinations: raw silks, animal print knits, satins. laces, liquid gold and silver lamee, interlock knits - embellished with gold and silver glitter paint and rhinestones. Everything sold in one evening!!! And this was in a very conservative town in Oregon. The buyers were professional women who said that they had no idea they could have this much fun. As they were trying on outfits, they were laughing, running up and down stairs, dancing, joking with each other, saying that they have never felt this great in anything they own, nor have they ever had this much fun with each other.

That was the start of my "dream come true": creating clothes that are fun, casually elegant - with a twist, and they make women of all sizes feel and look fabulous.

Eco-friendly

We use many designer end and other fabrics, that are eco-friendly and sustainable.
The paints are non-toxic and do not require the use of water. That is important to us at a time when water is one of the most precious natural resources.
Every single garment is joyfully handmade by Marvin and I at our studio in Austin, situated at the edge of breathtakingly beautiful grounds.
When you purchase our products, you can feel good about where they come from, how they are made and what is used to create them.