Quest for perfect T-shirt turns to gold

Jen Menchaca absolutely loves a good T-shirt. Her quest for the perfect one began a couple of decades ago when she realized the closest to perfection was her dad’s old udershirts that had been washed a thousand times, resulting in a much softer and thinner cotton.

The problem was, according to Menchaca, “If I had worn them in public, people would have offered me spare change to go buy a fresh one.”

Her journey to search for the perfect T-shirt led her to begin her own company, Nation LTD by Jen Menchaca, when she discovered a washing process that slightly breaks down the fiber in cotton to create that worn-in look that could mimic the comfy feeling of dad’s old T-shirts without the unsightly stains and yellowish tint.

“Six years, 13 employees and a healthy-sized HR manual later,” Menchaca says she now has a full collection that is distributed globally.

Born and raised in the Clear Lake area of Houston, Menchaca never imagined she would become a fashion designer with her own line of clothing.

Menchaca’s father was an engineer for NASA and hoped his daughter would follow in his footsteps.

After graduating from Clear Lake High School in 1987, Jen wasn’t interested in wearing a spacesuit and opted for a degree in advertising from the University of Texas ast Austin.

With portfolio in hand, Menchaca then pounded the pavement on the ad streets of New York City and landed a job as a cocktail waitress on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, where she lived for five years.

No matter where her cosmopolitan lifestyle led her, however, Menchaca always made time to return to Houston at least twice a year to spend some quality time with the family.

It’s her strong family ties that allowed Menchaca to continue spreading her wings. She flew to Los Angeles to work in Hollywood, where she took a job with David E. Kelley Productions working on the hit TV show, “Ally McBeal.”

While working for Kelley, Menchaca started her company and held two jobs for as long as she could, until Nation LTD became such a hit that it required her full-time attention.

Today, Nation LTD is a thriving business with a huge celebrity fan base. Apparently, Menchaca isn’t the only one who loves a good T-shirt. It seems that every celebrity, from the Kardashians to Annette Bening, has been photographed wearing the Nation brand.

It hasn’t always been easy though. When asked what accomplishment she was most proud of, Menchaca replied, “Keeping my business out of bankruptcy – twice.”

In an effort to completely restructure the business and bring on investors, Menchaca hired an experienced chief financial officer and director of operations, Karissa Von Esch, to run the business.

Menchaca credits her success to surrounding herself with an amazing staff, “I hire people who are smarter than me,” she says, “I love how the team functions as a whole unit.”

Today, Nation, LTD has a full line of clothing that includes dresses, tunics, sweatshirts and, of course, T-shirts that can be bought in boutiques throughout the US and 22 other countries, as well as on the company’s website, www.Nationltd.com. In Houston, the Nation LTD brand can be found at Cakewalk Style, Muse and Heiress boutiques.

Menchaca still returns to Houston twice a year to visit her dad, and her Texas roots remain strong – evident in the Longhorn symbol branded on her company’s website where she says, “I never did wear the spacesuit like dad wanted – but I’m still reaching for the stars.”