Few fashion designers can say they began their career by ripping up doll clothes. After sketching outfit ideas for most of her youth, Atlanta based designer Adorr Reynolds-Jessie started to sew at age thirteen by creating new designs for her first clients— her toy dolls. “I loved it so much that I would cut up old clothes of mine just to have more fabric options for my dolls,” she told Savannah College of Art and Design student magazine SCAN. “I knew then I was destined to design.”

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Google Brian Atwood. You will find brilliant shoes. His name is plastered on every major high-end retailer’s website: Neiman Marcus, Saks, Bloomingdales, and Nordstrom, to name a few. The wonder of how top designers make it to such a high status is always a query of the fashion conscious. Atwood’s rise to the design world was unique in comparison to his competitors, and he is definitely someone who found his niche. While his path to design may not have always been clear, Atwood has always found himself dabbling in modeling and clothing design ventures, his passion for creating beautiful accessories has become the height of his career.

Atwood shared with Business of Fashion, international retail industry blog, that a psychic once told him, “‘I see you being famous for something to do with feet,’ It made no sense to me, because, at that point, I hadn’t designed shoes. I still have the cassette tape somewhere.” Apparently, fate was in favor of his flourishing career.

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Before Nanette Lepore became the fashion mogul she is today, she was a nine-year old girl sewing floral bed sheets together into a gown for her neighbor. Pairing her design with matching face paint and a beaded choker, Lepore persuaded her neighbor to pose in the front yard as she held up a handwritten sign that read:

LEPORE

Even back then she was forward-thinking,  inspired by beauty and excelled at marketing. Today, she’s all that and more.  With a well-known and established brand, a highly revered reputation and a net worth of $16 million, Lepore has made more than a name for herself. But beneath all her fame and fortune is the same girlish ambition that inspired her in the first place: a desire to make beautiful things for beautiful people. Known for bold colors, exquisite prints and a feminine flair, Lepore’s gypsy-like designs are beautifully bohemian.

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