MY JOURNEY INTO FASHION

My journey into the fashion industry has been a long & rambling one, spanning from one side of the US to the other. Born in Washington state, I moved from state to stare with my family for several years until we settled in Tennessee where my father’s family was from. Throughout this time, my parents were homeschooling us, which led to my early introduction to sewing. I first learned very basic hand stitching around 6-7 and learned various embroidery stitches around 8-9.

By the time my 10th birthday rolled around, my parents had moved us from eastern TN outside of Knoxville to central TN into an Amish/Mennonite community where we lived off the grid for a decade. It was here that I gained a lot more of my sewing skills. I continued to improve my hand stitching skills and began learning machine sewing…with a twist.

I was given an old but functional treadle machine, which requires you to pump a rocker board under the machine in a rhythmic pattern which in turn powers the wheel on the machine & operates the needle. I took lessons on sewing, patternmaking, and hand tailoring from our Mennonite neighbor, and she taught me a good many of the skills I use today. I also started doing some sewing for other neighbors, making things like hospital scrubs, simple dresses, etc., in addition to all the clothes making I did for my own family. In addition to sewing and embroidery, I started to learn crochet, knit, and quilt. Around the age of 13, I was able to start using an electric sewing machine at the houses of friends with electricity & started participated in group sewing & quilting bees.

On my own, I looked through pictures, books, & patterns when I could and dreamed up all the beautiful frothy things I could design and make. However, as a member of a community and an Amish-leaning family, I was severely restricted in what I could actually make. Only certain fabrics, colors, and pattern styles were allowed (although these sometimes varied within the various Amish & Mennonite churches in the area). They all had to fit certain standards to be allowed, and any deviations were frowned on. So, my love of fashion & design was kept to a low smolder for years, with no indication that I would ever be able to follow that dream (in my limited understanding, at least).

At the age of (a very sheltered) 20, my father decided he was done with the Amish live and moved us to Columbus Ohio to experience life within an Orthodox Jewish community (not that dissimilar to Amish, actually, minus the lack of electricity and running water). It was here I started to discover (although the modesty standards were somewhat similar), the ability to express oneself with fashion & color. My real move towards independence happened when I moved to Florida for 6 months to participate in the Disney College Internship Program at WDW. I was exposed to so many different people & cultures and saw SO many different ways to dress and style one’s self.

When I returned to Ohio, my newfound sense of freedom found me moving out of my parent’s house and eventually moving to downtown Columbus near their art district. With that, though, came the responsibilities of rent, and food, and all the other things needed to survive. Fashion was again put on the back burner throughout my time there, although I was able to experiment a little more in finding my own style. I kept up my skills on small projects though, looked through fashion magazines and book I had never had access to before (y’all: the Columbus Ohio library is AMAZING), and slowly started to realize that I was allowed to reach for the dreams that had previously been off limits. I kept putting it off though because “time”, “money”, “energy”—all the things that cause us to say “someday, when….”

Since that time, I have gotten married, moved a couple times, had children, and continued dreaming. Then, in 2017, I finally had the epiphany that if I did not just go for it and try, it would never happen. I filed for my business and became official on September 9, 2017 (which means I’m coming up on my 3 anniversary soon!) In the spring of 2018, only a few short months after jumping in, I came upon a competition being sponsored by a company, Tailornova, I had purchased a few dressform patterns from the year before. They had developed a new design/patternmaking software and, as part of their official launch, had partnered with an organization in New York City to hold this competition which required the participants to use the software for 50% of their fashion collection and the winners could go to New York Fashion Week. I applied, just of the heck of it…and ended up with an Honorable Mention! This allowed me to travel to NYC to attend a runway show, and to show a couple of my gowns at a smaller casual fashion show the following day. (Keep in mind this was also the first time I had ever even BEEN to NYC.) It was a super cool experience, and I met so many amazing people, but did not know what a turning point that would be for me. I went back home to my kids, and slowly plugged away at business and design classes that I found online, at the library, and through my local SBDC (an amazing resource!)

I kind of thought that the NYC thing was a one off that wouldn’t happen again, at least for a very long time, and I didn’t expect to really dive into the industry until my children were a little older. I wanted to make sure that I had everything planned out and figured I wouldn’t be doing anything big for another couple years at least. I kept running into people though, bumping into industry events, having things fall in my lap over and over and over. I also found out there was a Fashion Week in Columbus and had been for years—something I had never even realized as I had kept myself so closed off from thinking that fashion was for me. After attending several of their events though, including their 2018 finale runway show (AMAZING), I applied to be a volunteer. I figured at the very least it would bring me some much-needed experience with what I even needed to be doing.

Then, the following spring (2019), I received an invitation from the organizers of the runway show I had attended to SHOW my own clothing ON the runway AT New York Fashion Week. What?!?! Y’all, I can’t even express the emotion I felt, the joy and relief that someone else thought I was good, I was worthy.

I know that right now everything seems so crazy and up in the air in the world right now. I know it is a really rough time to be growing a business right now, especially in fashion while so many people are still staying at home and there are no events to attend. But I will never forget that HIGH I felt when I received that invitation; the confidence I felt that FINALLY I was headed in the direction I was meant to go, that I was so much more than that timid, anxious, restricted little girl I had hidden behind for so many years. I have a long road ahead of me…I know that…but…

I WILL DO THIS!