The Story of My Passion
Even though I couldn’t tell you much about my early childhood, from a young age I could always tell you about the clothes I wore. I knew the exact color, texture, fabric, style of shoes and how I felt in them. This is a picture of my brother Don and me, wearing our navy blue sailor suits with white satin trim.
We didn’t have much money growing up and my Mom made clothes for my little sister, Wendy, and me on her treadle sewing machine. I soon began to learn to make my own clothes with her help. This is a picture of my mom, Wendy and me in matching velvet dresses my mom made for us.
In grade 7, when I was just turning 13, I made an orange coat and dress and entered a sewing contest for teens at Eaton’s Department Store. I was the youngest contestant! (bottom right)
In Grade 12, deciding on my career choice, the counsellors recommended I consider taking computer programming and systems analysis at BCIT since I was good in math and loved to analyze things.
I graduated from BCIT and worked in the computer field for 5 years but my heart really wasn't in it. This is me graduating with my Diploma of Technology in Computer Programming and Systems Analysis.
I studied tailoring, pattern making and design and I learned how to tailor and design suits. I designed the pattern for my own wedding dress and made it myself – including the 50 self covered buttons down the back!
With this background in the fashion industry, and knowing the frustrations of putting together effective and affordable wardrobes, I decided to focus on providing a highly personalized fashion service for women. My mom, my sister and I opened a women's clothing store, Compliment Fashions. I ate and slept fashion and studied all the fashion journals. Below is a picture of Wendy and me when we opened the store in 1981.
We took color analysis courses, studied how to coordinate wardrobes, and learned a lot about what worked and didn’t work by buying millions of dollars worth of clothes for the store over a period of 13 years.
We trained with Robert Pante, an international image strategist, who impacted and influenced me the most in how I view and help people with their appearance today.
Our store specialized in complete makeovers and educating woman about their overall appearance through seminars. We worked privately with clients and were also invited by organizations to give seminars for women in the workplace. We expanded the store to include a hair salon and makeup bar with seating areas so we could do our makeovers on site.
We were also doing 30 fashion shows a year!
It got to the point that we worked so much running our ever-expanding business that we were exhausted. We had little time for our young families, so in 1994 we made a decision to close our store and focus on them.
With the closure of the store I turned my attention to working one on one with individual clients and have helped thousands of women put together wardrobes they love.