Meet the DESIGNER - Katrina Marie has been designing for over 25 years and has been selling her creations for more than 15 years through many venues and locations around the United States and Internationally. She is delighted to be creating unique wedding gowns and dresses for clients around the world.
Katrina Marie was born in Washington State in 1977 on her mother’s birthday. As a little girl, with three younger brother’s she spent most of her time creating paper dolls and sewing doll clothes on her mother's machine. She knew at the young age of five that she wanted to be a fashion designer. Her parents, believing in the power of dreams, would say: “you can be anything that you want” and encouraged her continually. At the age of ten her family moved to Tucson, Arizona where she grew up being a part of her parents many businesses, from craft products and home décor to wearable art and handmade jewelry. As a teenager she was making clothing for herself and her friends. She would also help with her parents by modeling clothing, designing jewelry and demonstrating at shows. At any chance she would attend craft shows, festivals or trade show with her parents, to have a space to display her creations. By the age of eighteen, she had sewn professionally for alterations shops, worked as a retail fashion sales assistant, made costumes for the Gaslight theatre, created swim and dance wear at Jazzskins, and attended college for a fashion degree. So, at nineteen starting her own business making historically inspired clothing was a natural progression of her skills and abilities. (cont. below)
Katrina Marie's Fairytale Wedding Dress --->
In 1996, Katrina Marie started her first business named Creative Garb. Being a young entrepreneur she met her business partner Jeff, who believed strongly in her talents and decided to support her business ventures. She started creating garments for a reenactment group and was soon given the nickname “Goddess of Garb”. Then she started traveling displaying at juried renaissance festivals, harvest festivals and art fairs around the U.S. It was at these shows her work was seen and she was commissioned to create attire for Queens and Kings of the royal court. Her ensembles were shown on the learning channels' “Wedding Story”, as well as television, radio commercials, brochures and news releases as well as her website.
In 2001, after much request she decided to design a line of wedding gowns. So, she created a couture bridal collection and started doing business as Katrina Marie Designs. Her gowns were advertised nationally in Wedding Gowns magazine and at Bridal Expos in major cities in the United States and online with popular wedding search sites, the knot and Wedding channel. In 2002 she decided to open her first boutique at the Foothills Mall in Tucson, AZ named Velvette. In the fall of 2003 she introduced her bridal collection to bridal salons through industry trade shows at the Apparel Markets in Chicago, Atlanta and Dallas. At these trade shows her line was competing with designers from all over the world. And, in the fall of 2004 Katrina Marie finally showed in New York City at the Couture Bridal Show. At this show she got to showed beside other couture bridal designers and attended an awards ceremony with the some of the top bridal gown designers such as Amy Michelson and Monique Lhullilier. In 2005, with a new bridal collection Katrina Marie decided to open another store near her design studio. She decided on Bennington, Vermont just over the New York border. So, the Katrina Marie designer boutique was opened and within a few months brides were driving four to twelve hours from all over New England to see her bridal collection.
Now Katrina Marie lives on a country farm in upstate New York...as well as making beautiful gowns she also has a series of Kids Sewing DVDs and is currently working on Little Fashion Designers courses. Her plans are to convert her 14,000 sq foot barn into a place for filming, fashion shows and workshops.
