Camilla Wellton got into the fashion game later than most. Though a hobby since age 10, it wasn’t until college that she decided she needed designing to be more than a hobby. “It was during my math course - I was studying environmental science. I realized in the middle of a post-relationship grief that i needed to focus my time on uplifting, creative things or I wouldn’t be happy,” Camilla recalls. “I had cried before every exam the previous term, when we talked about the current state …

Since each piece is hand made, it allows the designers to make each one slightly different. “It is a stronger piece that way,” Sanja say via translator. Alyse expands on this: “We have both been doing fashion and visual arts for many years, so at this point it comes out naturally and rapidly on its own. We do many variations on elements from earlier work.” In fact, the designers keep boxes of fabric scraps, bits and pieces of trim, and miscellaneous bits for use in each …

Designer Karen LaPorte has been crafty since childhood, but it was the discovery of fashion magazines as a teenager that made her realize this was what she wanted to do with her life. “It was a way to express myself and my horizons expanded,” Karen says. “It was like traveling.” This Maine native did end up traveling - from New York to Europe and back again. After working with designers such as Cynthia Rowley and Rebecca Taylor, she returned to Brooklyn and her own label, Ouvrez …