My alternate passion: reading!

If you’re the sort of person who remembers every significant day of your life by what you were wearing, then we’re definitely soul sisters. Clothes are way more important to me than they should be! I remember my own wardrobe practically in utero. As a toddler, I embarrassed my Mom by making a beeline for my grandmother’s sewing room every time we visited, searching for my newest dress. About every other trip, I found one of Grandma’s handmade frocks, hanging from the doorknob. Like one of Pavlov’s dogs, she pretty much conditioned me to look there.

My first vintage piece was a man’s midnight blue tuxedo jacket circa 1960, which I bought in 1985 and lost in 1999 when I left it draped over a chair in a Bob Evans restaurant. I still own a royal blue wool coat, custom-made for me in 1962 by the first fashion designer I loved, Grandma Gertie. She didn’t have a lot of material things, but she planted the first seeds of my deep appreciation for beautiful clothing.