Biography
Tara Cunniffe is a Sydney-based creative director, fashion consultant and artist with over 18 years of experience across every dimension of the fashion industry - creative, commercial, operational and international.
Her story in fashion began in New Zealand, where she studied a Bachelor of Fine Arts majoring in Fashion Design at Whitecliffe College of Art & Design, graduating as Overall Prize Winner and named Runner Up Young Designer of the Year in Fashion Quarterly Magazine & Westpac Young Designer of the Year. Before finishing her degree she was already building her first label - the Tara Cunniffe Label, which she founded, designed and commercially operated before launching her debut womenswear collection at Air New Zealand Fashion Week as part of the GHD New Generation Show. It was an early and formative lesson in what it truly takes to bring a fashion brand to life.
After holding senior roles at respected New Zealand fashion houses including Trelise Cooper, Tara moved to Sydney where she spent nearly a decade as Managing Director, Creative Lead and Designer at H Brand - one of the most expansive roles of her career. For nearly a decade she co-led the brand's creative direction, product design and development, campaign production, ecommerce and global wholesale strategy, building its international presence into some of the world's most prestigious retail accounts including Barneys New York, Saks, Shopbop, Ron Herman and Lane Crawford. Following H Brand, Tara brought her expertise to senior design leadership roles at Zimmermann and Assembly Label.
Alongside her fashion career, Tara has been developing a fine art practice since 2019 - holding a solo exhibition at Gaffa Gallery in Sydney, presenting at The Other Art Fair in 2021, and having work featured in Art Edit Magazine. The art was never separate from the fashion work. It was how she stayed creatively alive through high-pressure leadership roles, and it continues to inform her sensitivity to colour, composition and visual storytelling.
In 2025, Tara made the decision to bring everything together. TMC Studios is a multidisciplinary creative studio spanning fashion consulting, AI-powered digital tools for emerging and established brands, and fine art - built from two decades of doing the actual work at the highest level, across every role the industry has to offer.
This is the studio she always wanted to build. Built for the founders, creatives and brands who are ready to back themselves.
For consulting enquiries or creative collaborations, get in touch here.