About The Founder

Born and raised in Michigan, Kim’s path to fashion designing was not the traditional one. Kim attended Michigan State University fresh out of high school but after two years, left MSU without a clear career path. 7 years later and a brief stint in NYC, she returned to Michigan and enrolled in the University of Michigan-Dearborn where she earned her bachelor’s degree in Accounting.

Once again trying her luck in the big city, Kim left Michigan in 2002 and headed to NYC. In 2005, she searched for sunnier pastures so she packed her bags and headed to Los Angeles.

For the next 7 years, Kim worked in Talent Management and discovered a love for triathlons. In 2010, after suffering another running related sports injury, Kim enrolled at UCLA Extension in the quest to become a Sports Medicine doctor. After 1 year of biology, she realized she didn’t enjoy the 3 hour lab classes not to mention she squirmed at the sight of blood.  Med school would be not in her future.

It wasn’t until 2011 that Tainted Pepper was born. During the frenzy of the holiday shopping season, Kim was trying to replicate one of Jennifer Aniston’s looks. Kim had the jeans, the shirt and even the leather jacket but she was missing the short boots so she bought some fabric, grabbed her favorite platform shoes and had her tailor interpret her vision of transforming her shoe into a boot. After wearing them around the office and receiving a couple of compliments, she knew she was on to something.

Even though she never became a Sports Medicine doctor, Kim still searches for ways to stay injury free from running.

When she’s not designing, Kim can be found training around Los Angeles for triathlons that she hasn’t signed up for!