VUE

What's it like for the brand, and you as a designer, to have your looks worn by A-listers and influencers alike? We love seeing all women wear- ing our clothes and it's especially exciting to see the diversity of the women who wear us. It's a pretty amazing feeling when I see women that I admire wearing my designs, from Michelle Obama to Jennifer Garner and Aidy Bryant, they are all exceptional women and I feel so thankful that they feel good in my clothes. All of your prints are hand-painted in NYC. What prompted you to explore fashion and art? I have always loved art and was brought up to use painting as a way to express myself. When I was young, my mom let me use our basement walls as my own canvas and I would spend hours down there painting. at joy of painting carried on into my adult life. When I started my brand, it felt very organic to paint my own prints just as I would do at home. Painting is very personal and I think our cus- tomer understands and appreciates the level of artistry and emotion that goes into each print. What goes behind making a new collection? e collection inspiration always starts with a trailblazing woman. I get infatuated with a woman and I research how her surroundings, time period and circumstances affected who she was, what she cre- ated and, at times, what she wore. We then start painting prints and designing the silhouettes. We'll get print swatches made in several dif- ferent fabrics and we start to match the fabrics to silhouettes. It's a very fluid process and the collection is constantly changing right up until the end. V U E N J . C O M 61

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