Day 1 - Training

Since I was a little girl, maybe 5 years old, I knew...just knew that fashion would be my future.  Growing up in the tiniest little town of New Castle, PA didn't really afford me exposure to the world.  It is a sheltered community, friendly and comfortable, proverbial small-town USA.  Working in fashion was nothing more than a far-off dream.  But...a dreamer I am.  I always have been.  Comes from up-bringing and many generations of the same romantic, perhaps sometimes lofty, spirit trickled down to the life of Annie. 

Once I figured out how to dress myself, I was styling and re-styling my outfits maybe 4 or 5 times throughout the day.  My mother thought it was cute but I was dead serious about my plaids and polka dots.

Around the age of 5, my creative streak was developing in full force.  My grandma taught me how to create things with fabric and yarn, how to make patterns out of cardstock or cereal boxes, whatever was within reach.  Before I knew it, we had a quilt. You could say making clothes runs through my veins, my mother is also quite the avid sewer.

Color and creativity are all that I remember as a child. Crayons, paints, paper, balloons, string, clay, Play-doh.  I loved anything that could be put together to make something new, more colorful, complicated, and intricate.

Fast forward a few years to junior high-school Home Economics.  We had 2 options, either make our name in bubble letters out of fleece or make a basketball out of fleece.  The basketball wasn't gonna cut it, way too boring.  So, I made my name in purple and mint green bubble letters edged in lace with bubble paint embellishments in opposite colors.  It was the biggest, most aggressive project in the class.  It was atrocious but at 13 years old?  I loved it.

Then in high school, I made boxer shorts, except I sewed the pant legs together by mistake.  My mother laughed herself to tears about that one.

I spent all four years sharpening my sewing skills in the Allegheny College costume shop.  Then, 10 years ago in the summer of 2000, I met him...I mean...them.