Agarva lives on the beautiful sub-tropical east coast of Australia with her partner of eight years. She has two grown stepdaughters, and three wonderful grandchildren, with two more - twins - on the way.
She started fashion design as a teenager but family circumstances made it impossible for her to continue, so instead she became a nurse.
Today she works as an information manager where all she creates is databases; it's as far away from fashion design as she can imagine! But luckily for us, she sews when she has off time.
Sewing has interested her since her childhood. She is self taught, and also loves to embroidery, knit, applique and do patchwork. She just loves anything to do with fabric, including dyeing it.
No wonder she has such a vast collection of vintage silk and other fabrics. She categorizes her style as eclectic and loves combining different styles and fabrics to created unusual looks. Fine tailoring is a passion and her outfits frequently have many details not obvious in photos.
Since the original Project Dollway Home challenges she has been focusing on her Dreary collection, and donating outfits for charity. She also recently completed some commissions for swaps. After becoming a member of the CheeryAboutAgnes group, she finally pulled her dear Agnes out of her box. Now she has started creating a family for what she has dubbed her "Dreary Down Under Clan." It is growing huge, and now desperately needing clothing. Along with sewing for these dolls she also enjoys writing them story-lines.
She did create a blog that features some of her creations from the original Project Dollway Home Challenges located here: http://agarva.bigblog.com.au/index.do
Her website - a work in progress - can be found here: http://agarva.webs.com/
"It is very inspiring to work with other designers and it pushes my creativity," says Agarva. "This competion will give me a chance to create a 'look' for my Dreary family, and doing a collection is perfect for where I am." It's not surprising that her muse will be Shadi Sarka Dreary (Sister Dreary).
Her muse, she feels is one of those characters you love or you don't. So, while she would love to win a challenge, she's not necessarily expecting to. "If I end this competition with a collection that I love, and, more importantly, I feel reflects my muse - then I will be ecstatic. And that I will also make my friends and group members proud of my efforts is also important to me." She is really looking forward to seeing everyone's designs and hopes that people will enjoy her creations.
KEVIN KILMER
Kevin lives with his partner, sister, and his menagerie of pets that includes six cats (Mittens, Missy, TootsieBelle, Sammy, Melon and Nautikins), one old dog (PeeWee), and four goldfish. Just taking care of all of them is almost a full time job.
He grew up in the doll business. His family ran a ceramic shop and an antique and reproduction doll making/repair business. He collected Barbies, GI Joes, Matchbox cars,and Hot Wheels from an early age. His love of the theatrical was a great asset as he performed as a professional female impersonator for many years. He thinks his work has helped him in designing his doll creations sometimes. He also has been influenced by his hero, Bob Mackie.
This easy going guy has a style of making doll clothing he feels is fairly identifiable. He uses a large portion of silks and tons and tons of seed beads and sequins.
Recently he has been doing a lot of sewing and selling on eBay, and considers himself fortunate to be able to do this. His design interest has now become the Fashion Royalty sized dolls.
He's been busy making a Halloween costume for his sister, too. She loves his designs, and even had him design her wedding dress a few years ago.
Unfortunately, Kevin missed out on most of the original Project Dollway Home Challenge due to his mother's ill health and subsequent passing. But that is behind him, so he is confident he's ready to tackle this new version! "I am thinking I might just do well, if I can keep up the momentum from this first challenge now," Kevin says, "I should do GREAT!"
GARY FLETCHER
Gary Fletcher describes himself as very analytical and a workaholic. He feels he is a bit naive because he is an Aries; after all it is a young sign. He is a Dad, and has served in the Army as a helicopter mechanic. Although originally from Clearwater Florida, he's been a resident of Tennessee since 1981. He lives there with his friend and business partner.
He trained at IADT, a technical design academy in Nashville. There he picked up several classes he felt necessary to hone his design skills including pattern drafting, design principles, the business of design, and illustrating. However, he still doesn't believe illustrating is his strong point. He began sewing with his mother at just 11, and feels he learned a great deal from her. By 16 he was designing and constructing lavish ball gowns in a size 4 with no particular person in mind. He just loved sewing them. This was in the mid 80's and ruffles ruled. At 18 he dressed a bride and her bridesmaids. He's been staying busy sewing all his life, but he is also a licensed Cosmetologist in Tennessee.
The website where Gary sells his original designs - both patterns and some ensembles are located at http://www.garyfletcher.us/
He designs and sews patterns for many of the Tonner and Wilde Imagination dolls, a company he is officially licensed for. He also stays busy working from his studio in Knoxville with mainstream fashion industry projects.
His company provides an array of services for small and upstart design companies. Much of what is done there involves patterns and pattern grading. Services such as consulting, providing garment samples, and custom design are available as well as the pattern work.
News of this competition came to him through his Yahoo group. His members emailed him, urging him to participate. He thought - why not, this might even be fun! No stress, no worries!. Gary feels "... this competition will allow me to be creative beyond what I normally do. Much of the work I do is confined to strict parameters. Its what my clients want. This competition will let me break out of the mold."
This soft spoken, overachiever definitely has a competitive nature but does realize there are some amazing artists in this competition, so I'm sure he'll be playing his best game. He says, "I love designing fashion. This has been my life long dream." Dream on, Gary!
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