For as long as I can remember, I have loved clothes.  I love getting new clothes.  I love wearing new clothes. And I love the thrill of mixing old favorites and creating new looks.  All of this, I attribute to one person:  my mom.

Growing up in a large family with a mother who was a costume-quality designer and seamstress herself; my mom developed an early knack for fashion, sewing, and re-purposing hand-me-downs, long before it was Etsy-chic to do so.   She designed and re-purposed her own promdress, the likes of which were similar to fashions only seen on the big screen.  She designed and sewed her own wedding dress, with painstaking detail to the placement of every seed pearl from the bodice to the hemline.   And for as long as I can recall, she has lovingly designed and sewn my clothes, with some of our fondest memories spent in her sewing room.

Unfortutately, the sewing gene stopped with me.  Although I seriously lack her engineer-worthy seamstress skills, I did get a teensy-weensy bit of her creativity and can devise ideas for certain garments; describe them to her; and then, marvel at her ability to translate the ideas into actual articles of clothing.

As subsequent posts will feature some of our creations, from what I have coined the “KarLes Collection” (taking substantial liberty in morphing a catchy name, with her name being Carol and mine), a blog about my love of fashion would be incomplete without basis for my fondness. Here’s to my mom-may she always be crafty!