What led you to start making clothes by hand?

I come from a long line of makers and creators. My mother is a French artist and my father is from an Italian textile legacy 10 generations old. I grew up in a wild hippie house as the eldest of four children. My earliest memories are being in my mother's studio, sitting on the ground playing with clay trimmings as they flew off the wheel. In Kindergarten during free play I would construct dresses out of construction paper and staples. I had a very strong idea of how I wanted to dress early on- I would get sent home from school at age five for trying to wear a cropped sweater as a dress with wooly tights (trying to emulate the Calvin Klein sweater dresses of the day!). Play time at home was spent in my parents respective closets, pinning my father's embroidered braces into my trousers and having my mother paint my face like a Native American warrior. I was obsessed with my mother's vintage skirts and African jewelry. Halloween was the best of all because my mother would sew for us the most amazing costumes, and I would choose the fabric and help her execute my vision.
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