Clothing - The Stuff from Which Fashions Are Created

As I was growing up, most children in my neighborhood played with paper dolls, and would always play mix and match with the different outfits that came with the dolls. However, as a little girl, I was never satisfied with the meager outfits that were provided, so my older sister and I loved to design new outfits for our dolls, and spent many hours doing so.

With a love of fashion even then, I also played mix and match with my own clothes. We were poor, but that did not stop me. After finishing my schoolwork, I headed straight for the closet to see what kind of outfit I could put together for school the next day, or to dress-up something for church on Sunday.

With my family being a religious sort, I hasten to add, I was not vain. But I did like to dress up. Unknowingly, even then, I was studying fashion, though no one called it that. And seeing how those who came to school in handmade clothing were teased for wearing homemade clothing, I never sewed much then, except for what was required to do in my Home Economics class. The family member who did most of the sewing was Mom.

Though, my love of beautiful clothing never went away, and as I grew up, I found that the clothes available in the stores often required major alterations to fit my petite frame well. When time and funds permitted, I shopped on my lunch hour. One day I happened on a boutique that catered to petite sizes and was glad to find a couple of dresses I liked. But, the prices were outrageous! I could not afford to shop there too often. At the time, I was a single parent raising and feeding two growing sons, and even when the shop had sales, I still could not afford the dresses I liked.

Even so, the petite size clothing fit better than any clothing from other stores, yet, again, I still had a lot of hemming to do. After a while, it just did not make sense. I thought, Why pay high prices for clothes that never really fit? So, I went out and bought a portable Singer sewing machine, a yard of fabric, a simple pattern, and made my first dress that very weekend, and have been hooked on designing and sewing ever since.

With that introduction to the world of fashion, since then, I have received many compliments on my creations. After moving to California, I decided to look for a job in the manufacturing end of the fashion industry. I pounded the pavement in search of entry level work with a manufacturer, or a position assisting a fashion designer. No luck. Undeterred, I enrolled in classes at the San Francisco School of Fashion Design. One day, while listening to a seminar leader explain how to break into manufacturing, I came up with a better idea: Why not just create my own line?

Finding a yard of exquisite fabric, even before an idea or design is sketched or even thought about, and creating a garment that is well made, wearable and elegant, is my ultimate pleasure. Then mixing and matching fabrics and buttons, and combining colors and trims and linings to create something unique, is an equal pleasure.

The little girl dreaming in the closet, trying this combination and then that one, is still very much alive. Only now the sky is the limit, for the quality of the design, more than the price. Part of what got me into the fashion business in the first place is prohibitive clothing prices, and I have never forgotten that. I make a point of designing them in a way that transcends the current fads and trends. Because as trends come and go, elegance is timeless.

I see clothing as a way of making a creative fashion statement, and feel deeply that to be elegant, a woman should dress her best at all times. Whether it is for a casual affair or black-tie event, each occasion should be given equal importance. The very time we give little thought to what we put on turns out to be the very time we bump into someone we haven't seen for ages, and the poor impression can be embarrassing, even devastating! After all, clothing is exactly what makes fashions. So then, what fashion statement are you making?