I create clothing and all manner of useful pieces in my RESEENRESEWN studio in Chicago.
I make handmade, one-of-a-kind garments and fabric pieces. I bring to contemporary design my knowledge of fashion history and period clothing. I honor the ethics of slow fashion, conscious fashion, mindful fashion. I use what I already have in my fabric stock. I salvage fabrics and give them a new life, revisit classic designs and refashion garments. I reuse fabrics that are too beautiful to discard. RESEENRESEWN values sustainability, utility and artisanship.
I spent my formative years on three continents, Africa, Europe and North America. I majored in Music at Yale University, sang in many choirs, played in a gamelan, briefly worked as a radio announcer on WFIU public radio station and spent several years teaching in the California public school system.
I bought my first sewing machine for £10 from the grandmother of a school friend, a 1920s German-made Vesta, and taught myself to sew.
It still works 100 years later
I studied couture sewing and received an MFA in Costume Design from Indiana University. For two decades I created costumes and custom clothing at BIAS studio in Bloomington, Indiana.
A Year With Frog and Toad, Cardinal Stage Company
Adding “something blue” to a wedding dress
I sewed for fashion artist Shernett Swaby at her Chicago studio. https://www.shernettswaby.com/
Swaby boutique at Franklin Street, Chicago