At my request my Grandmother taught me to sew at a young age and I soon became her most promising student. I developed a bit of a pocket fetish. My primary motivation for making clothes was to cover them with pockets or patches of fabric. In the photo to the right, I'm modeling one of my early designs. I was a stylish little fella. I wish I still had that much style.

I was always interested in clothes and design of any kind, but it took me a really long time to put the two together and realize that it was something a boy like me could do. In high school, fashion designer was never on the list of occupations you could choose from. During those years I altered clothes for my friends and self. Rather than buying fabric at the fabric store I would scour thrift stores for great retro prints in plus sizes and cut my patterns from them. Still I thought a career in fashion design was beyond my reach and only happened to people on TV. It was just what I did for fun. Again, not much has changed. To this day, designing still feels as fun and new as it did back then.

Alot of what I know about shape and design in fabric, in addition to what I've learned in school, comes from making Halloween costumes for my kids every year. They never wanted the costumes from stores, they always wanted these way out characters. Everything from Pinnochio to a matador to Yoshi.

Some of my fashion influences

There was a show on CNN called "Style with Elsa Klensch". At that time it was the only way for a person to get a glimpse of the runways of Paris, Milan and so on. For a long time it came on at 6 am on Saturdays, which is an ungodly hour for a teenage boy. Just the same I rarely missed it. Then it started coming on at 10 am Saturday, but I no longer had cable so I would go to Kmart and watch it on the display TVs.

In the late 80's Early 90's I loved Azzedine Alaia. He was this cute little old curly haired man from Algeria or something. His fit was perfect, his fabrics incredible and his clothes were always soo sexy without being overt or trashy.

I've always loved Dianne Von Furstenberg. Her clothes are timeless and ageless and they "work" for such a wide range of women. That, to me, is how clothes should be.

I like the classic quality of a lot of Isaac Mizrahi's earlier work, His current work tends to lack something, perhaps because he works for Target. ( note to self: working for huge corporations can be creatively stifling)

Some of my other influences

Wonder Woman, Jackie O, Mary Richards, Holly Golightly, Mary Poppins, Cat Ballou, ....