OUR DESIGNERS

Darcy Fowkes	Darcy has been sewing for forty years, and has made her own patterns for over twenty. Darcy is attracted to Altered Couture because its faster and cheaper than making clothing or accessories from scratch. "I really like to know that I can finish a project in a few hours from start to finish, and that when I am done, it will not only fit, it will look better than it did when I started." Darcy is a board member of the Peninsula Wearable Arts Group, and volunteers at the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles. She lives in Los Altos and can be reached at 650 966 1776.
Marcia Manzo	Marcia Manzo Marcia has spent more than 35 years exploring a variety of artistic expression which has cultivated her most fulfilling creative endeavor: fiber college. Fiber collage is an art form offering a rich diversity of texture and color. It is the art of layering and sewing together small pieces of fine silks, exotic yarns and beautiful threads into a one-of-a-kind fabric. Marcia combines fibers and diverse fabric techniques such as wool felting to create new hybrid fabric wearable art garments and accessories. Her unique creations help the wearer make a personal statement about their style and taste. As with a fine piece of individually designed and handcrafted jewelry, Marcia?s creations adorn the wearer.
Margot Silk Forrest	Margot Silk Forrest Margot has been doing arts and crafts since she was a little kid stealing her mother?s linen napkins and blisteringly red nail polish to make baby dolls. She sews, beads, quilts, paints, and combines all of these skills in the creation of one-of-a-kind painted and embellished shoes. Her upcoming book, Sassy Feet! How to Paint, Bead, Bedeck, and Embellish Your Shoes (due out in 2008), features sixty shoe designs with step-by-step directions. Forrest teaches Sassy Feet! classes from her home on the central coast of California. She also designs custom shoes ­ especially bridal shoes ­ for private clients. She can be reached via www.sassyfeet.com or by phone at (805) 771-9522.
Arna Shefrin	Arna Shefrin¹s work is notable for its intricacy and dramatic use of color. Her attention to detail reflects her exquisite talent, and love of needlepoint. Arna¹s interest in producing wearable art found expression in 2002 after she left corporate life and learned how to knit. With little formal training, and only her natural abilities to guide her, she began to work with fibers, ribbons, beads, buttons, and other elements of surface design and fabric manipulation. Today her pieces, which incorporate many of these features, are available locally where highly unusual garments are sold. At present, she is formally studying textiles and clothing construction in order to learn techniques that will leverage her current skills.