I actually started out as a designer. I had my own
store–I even had a hat line that was sold at Barney’s. So
the first time I worked New York Fashion Week was as a dresser for an
Anne Klein show when Donna Karan first designed for them.
I like to say that I became a tailor by accident. I didn’t even
know this type of work existed for red carpets and fashion shows. In
the beginning, I felt like a glorified alterationist. My first fashion
show was Jennifer Lopez’s JustSweet line, which was backed by
the Hilfiger family. The whole thing came about by chance. I had run
into another ex-designer who was putting together a team of tailors
for the show, so I agreed to help. When Fashion Week happens,
they’re so desperate for tailors that, on another job, they
hired me without even meeting me. Now, I’ve been doing it for
nearly eight years.
One year I worked for Tommy Hilfiger to dress celebrities sitting in
the front row. This happens one of two ways: You either go to their
house to fit them and then take the garments home and work on them.
Sometimes you go to hotel rooms and work right there. Some celebrities
are friendly, some make you feel like you’re the star, some make
you feel like you’re just a worker bee.
I’m lucky that I wasn’t a designer who
could only draw or look at things and say, “Yes that looks good,
that doesn’t.” I can actually make something from
scratch–I can do a drawing, make a pattern, drape something, cut
and sew it from beginning to end. I can look at a garment and totally
take it apart and reinvent it or just adjust it slightly, which helps
because designers always change their minds. They change the shape,
the size, the length. A garment can be like a puzzle. You change one
piece, then you have to change all the other puzzle pieces for it to
look and fit well. It’s fun to see a garment from a show that I
know I had something to do with–that I made it fit and look
better than it originally did. That’s rewarding.
