SO…HOW did I get here

In a previous life the manager at my retail job told me to bring three solutions with every problem. Still a philosophy I live by.

Working in film and TV has always been my dream and I feel very blessed to have achieved it.

Everyone in my family has the knack for making two-dimensional materials into three-dimensional functional objects so I think it’s in my blood. My grandpa and my mom, the eldest daughter therefore the elected son are carpenters, my grandmother was an incredibly talented knitter and both my mom’s sisters are highly skilled seamstresses who don’t limit their applications to just clothes. I started sewing as a teen because my mom said “I think you’re done growing, you’d better learn to tailor your clothes.” (for reference I’m only five feet tall) and I never stopped.

On the way here, I thought I would be best prepared by working in a diverse selection of related fields. I wanted to learn every application for a sewing machine. So I worked as an alterations seamstress, then an upholstery seamstress, then opened my own tailoring business while also doing a short stint as a garment construction instructor at St. Clair College. Finally after starting in film, I had the pleasure of working at Jitterbug Boy, fulfilling a lifelong dream of learning about shoe-making.

I’ve continued my passion for collecting diverse roles by trying to take on as many different positions in the costume department as possible. I’ve taken on varying degrees of leadership on set and in the prep arena and I really feel that I am more competent and more compassionate to my fellow technicians because I’ve been in their shoes. I think seeing how costumes function on set is so informative of how they should be built.

And don’t ask me what position I prefer because I just prefer the privilege of variety!