Theresa Mingus practically lives in bikinis, so when the 29-year-old Krahs creator decided to launch her own business, swimwear felt like a no-brainer. In July 2018 she was “chilling by the pool” at her BFF’s house and the two ladies started brainstorming and coming up with ideas for bikini and one-piece styles. But that best friend wasn’t just anyone. It was Theresa’s former boss, pop star Selena Gomez, 26. The “Come & Get It” singer decided that the best way to support her former executive assistant in her new venture would be to roll up their sleeves and collaborate.
“She said, ‘I want to help you,’” Theresa recalls Selena telling her. “Obviously she has a huge platform. She’s amazing.” At first Theresa wasn’t even sure that she wanted to collaborate with someone. “But I was just really nervous and scared to start my own thing. I didn’t know what to expect and what the right move was going to be,” she tells HollywoodLife EXCLUSIVELY. “And I felt…I just have to make it happen somehow. So, with her being so supportive, it just got the ball rolling and really helped me.”
The Selena x Krahs collab – a sleeveless bodysuit-style red one-piece with a zip down the middle and the Selena bikini top, and high-waisted, belted bottom – was born on that day by the singer’s pool. Theresa, the pop star and another friend sat around a computer coming up with designs. “It was really quick,” she says. “I was at her place, and we were like chilling by the pool last July. Then one of my [business] partners who’s one of my older friends too, he came over with his computer and he’s really good at like the techie stuff… We just sat there and brainstormed, and we took the ideas that she wanted, and we all drew it out and then got the samples made.”
Theresa added, “He’s on the computer and me and her are like, ‘Oh, well what if we add a belt? Or what if we do like a boosted type top with an underwire?’” The Krahs’ designer notes that her sense of style is the “complete opposite” to Selena’s. “I don’t care about showing skin at all,” says the designer who models her Krahs string bikinis on her Instagram page. “Selena obviously had her kidney transplant, so she wanted something with full coverage and that’s just her personality. She’s more of like a classic lady. So she helps me a lot just to remember like, ‘Hey, there’s other people in the world that are not comfortable showing so much skin.’”
Being her own boss is a whole new experience for the Krahs creator who is obsessed with sharks. (Note: Krahs – pronounced “cross” – is the word “sharks” spelt backwards.) Now the woman who was once also Kim Kardashian’s executive assistant is in the spotlight, giving interviews and it’s a whole new experience for her. But she’s grateful that she has good friends like Selena who are in her corner. “It was very simple, very easy,” Theresa says of their collaboration, “because we know each other, it was just an organic situation.”