KELLY LU ROSE didn’t know about Charlotte’s rich textile manufacturing roots when she moved to Optimist Park in 2009. “Learning about historical aspects of the neighborhood,” she says, “it seemed my destiny to land here.”
The seamstress and founder of CLT Fashion Fund learned to sew from her mother when she was 10. “I always made my clothes,” she recalls. “I thought it was ‘rich’ that I could have my own custom clothes.” Her family moved to Charlotte in 1988 and, for an end-of-year project at South Mecklenburg High School, she created a fashion line and show. She took her passion and skills to Bauder College in Atlanta, where she earned a degree in fashion merchandising in 2003.
Last summer, her 14-year-old niece, Sh’Cia, now in ninth grade, decided to create an upcycled clothing line for a school project, and she turned to her aunt. Rose took her to fabric stores to teach her all she could.
This story is from the {{IssueName}} edition of {{MagazineName}}.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the {{IssueName}} edition of {{MagazineName}}.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
‘This Is How We're Going to Make Your Child Better'
Pediatric neurosurgery is technically and emotionally complex—and traditionally dominated by men. As Novant’s first female pediatric neurosurgeon, Dr. Erin Kiehna Richardson has had to learn the intricacies of a demanding field and battle sexism along the way
The Dumbledore of CMC
A surgery resident wrote a series of children’s books and created a special kind of medical magic
LGBTQ HB2+5
Five years after the furor of House Bill 2, the LGBTQ community—in Charlotte, in North Carolina, and across much of the nation—fights attacks on new fronts
Oh, Snap!
New ‘selfie museum’ in Concord celebrates the 1990s
ALLISON LATOS
The WSOC anchor on her hard trek from one episode of loss and grief to another—and the meaning of resilience
GOOD HEALTH
For years, Charlotte has been one of the largest American cities that lacked a four-year medical school. The health care professionals who finally made it happen overcame a series of setbacks, false starts, and failures, and they plan to use their clean slate to create a new kind of community asset
Summer Partee
From woodwork to retail, the kindergarten teacher-turned-designer has learned how to do it herself
Uptown or Downtown?
Archives illuminate how long we’ve argued over the perennial question
NOW OPEN NOVEL ITALIAN
Paul Verica brings a simpler version of the city’s hottest food trend to NoDa
TOP DOCTORS 2021
The annual list you can't without
