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about anita

Early Life

As a child, my family moved around a lot (six times). I attended two different elementary schools and traversed the country a few times. As an adult, that became a hard habit to break. I had become so accustomed to that lifestyle I would get bored living in one location for more than a few years. I racked up an additional four locations between my 20s and 30s.

I grew up an athlete, and played soccer for seven years in Southern California. I also briefly ran track but was good at sports in general…from softball to kickball, I was usually picked first for teams at recess. I was good at sports due to my natural athleticism and speed. In soccer, I could play all positions including fullback because I could run the entire field and score and get back into position to defend the goal. In addition to sports, I was also a Brownie and Girl Scout in elementary school.

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Ethnic Background

What I know of my ethnic background relies not only on oral history but what was later confirmed via DNA testing and the hiring of a genealogist when I was in my thirties. My maternal grandmother was a mixture of black on her father's side and German-Irish on her mother's. I grew up knowing I was a mixture of black, Native American, French, Jewish (on my paternal grandmother's side), German and Irish. My Italian roots were later discovered via the use of a genealogist who was able to trace our ancestral link to a Roman Senator. My French roots can be traced to royalty in who fled France and later settled in Canada. East Indian, Southeast Asian, and Scandinavian were discovered via a DNA profile roughly ten years ago.

All of this is interesting to note because elements of all of these flavors are exemplified in my clothing choices but especially in the clothing I design and the art I am drawn to. It made sense to me to learn of my Indian and Southeast Asian roots, as I've always appreciated and collected items of the Far East and have an entire hallway in my home I call the Asian Art wing that displays replicas of antique pieces in the form of plaster impressions. In addition, I've practiced energy healing, meditation, and the use of crystals for healing (for almost 15 years). I have even incorporated healing elements found in Native American and Asian cultures, including the use of herbal medicine, chants, incense, ceremonial fans and oils.

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Fashion Influences

You could say my love of fashion and style started at birth, but my earliest memories about the importance of clothes and shoes in my life were in the '70s while I was in elementary school. I got my first fur coat when I was in fourth grade from my favorite catalog company of the time, Spiegel. I was the only girl in my entire school who sported a rabbit fur bomber. Rabbit was all the rage at the time. I also collected a rainbow of Dittos jeans, which were super popular in the schools I attended. I began collecting designer denim at the same time. At one point, I had accumulated seven pairs of boots and added more than a dozen pairs of jeans to my collection…all before the age of ten. Nothing came between me and my Calvins... except Vidal Sassoon, Jordache, Sergio Valente, and Gloria Vanderbilt.

Additional brands I would covet the most were the United Colors of Benetton and Esprit de Corps. My style has always been more international than American and that definitely has not changed. Blame it on Elsa Klensch, the former host of CNN's Style with Elsa Klensch, a weekly fashion and design television program. I watched her every Saturday morning throughout the 1980s. What child watches CNN, you ask? I did and sometimes all day. On Sundays, I waited impatiently for the newspaper delivery of The New York Times and its coveted style and fashion insert. I have yet to meet anyone else who obsessed about Elsa Klensch or NYT Style quite like I did. They were my guilty pleasures most did not and still do not know about this obsession.