Level 5 NYC: Rosalia's Audio Story

Rosalia has a special talent.  She can design and make clothing by hand.  In this audio story, Rosalia beautifully captures her memories with her mother, when she knew she wanted to make clothing too.  Through the theme of dress-making, we learn much about her life: from her education in Columbia to her move to New York City.  She even details the careful planning involved in designing the perfect dress for her clients.

Rosalia wrote and recorded this audio story in the fall of 2012.  

I'm happy to say that Rosalia is in my class again, and you can expect more stories from Rosalia in the coming weeks.

Below, you can hear Rosalia's recording, and read along with the text.

-Eric, NYC, USA


Rosalia's Audio Story





The Text

MY STORY 

My name is Rosalia, I’ve been living in NY for six and half years.

My mother was a dressmaker. I remember when I used to watch her working making dresses. I used to stay with her for many hours, looking at every move she made, designing the clothes. She was working on sewing one by one every piece of the dresses that she used to make; and that’s how I started getting involved in the art of the dressmaker.

Finally when I was about eleven years old, I began helping my mother to put the buttons and hemming the dresses that she used to make.

I remember when she was cutting the fabric into small pieces; and then she sewed it up piece by piece until she had finished the dress.

I watched my mom and I thought “some day I will be a dressmaker like my mom.”

Little by little I was enjoying everything I was doing, I remember at the age of fourteen, I sewed my first shirt, but it was after I got married when I went to study dressmaking, and then I specialized in “High Fashion” at “The Multi Cultural School of Fashion Design” in Cali, Colombia.

What I was most excited about was bride dresses, those special dresses for sweet sixteen and prom dresses.

My first clients were my sisters-in-law, then they introduced me to their friends because they were working in a big company, where there were many women. My sisters-in-law had a lot of friends, so in a few months, I got a very good clientele; and I was recognized, as the best dressmaker in my neighborhood.

The first thing I did when I was designing a dress was to ask my client, what kind of dress she needed; after I knew what she wanted, then I advised her, what type of fabric and what color goes well with her, considering the skin color, the height, the body shape, and the occasion for the dress she needed, and knowing the client’s style.

When my client and I were in agreement about a design and color; I began taking measurements of the customer.

A high dressmaker can design a dress, or can check out a fashion magazine or picture, to make a dress.

To make a dress I need to use some things like paper, pencil, rulers, pins, needles, chalk, tape measure, scissors, sewing machine etc. I start drawing the design on the paper, using the customer’s measures, developing the design she chose until the pattern is completed on the paper with accurate measurements, then I cut the pattern, and I put it on the fabric, finally I cut piece by piece until I have cut all pieces on fabric, then it was ready to sew.

When I’m designing a dress I concentrate on my client’s figure; considering how to design her dress in a way that; when she puts on her dress, she looks beautiful, comfortable, and spectacular.

When working personally with clients in the art of dressmaking, I could have some difficulties especially when a client wanted to look like the model of the fashion magazine.

To avoid these conflicts I used to talk to my clients, when we were choosing color and design, then I could do the exact design of clothing chosen, but a design does not always look the same on someone, like on a magazine model.

Fortunately I always had very good clients. Working hard and keeping my clientele to get comfortable with my system and my quality job, that’s how I kept my own business for over twenty years.