• “Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only. Fashion is in the sky, in the street, fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening.” This quote is saying so much more than you could imagine. People take fashion designers for granted as materialistic people but they’re so much more than that. Fashion is another way for people to express themselves. Its so much greater than art and putting a lead pencil to a piece of white paper because we live our lives in it. Now my father was something else. To me he was like the Greek god Zeus in fashion, a superior being if you will. He defines the term of thinking outside of the box. He was a complete contradiction to the fashion world which made his designs all the more better. This is the story of the 8 glorious years he indulged in the great realm of fashion.


    By the 9th grade my father was inspired to be an individual. It was important to him to stand out and express himself through his clothing. He wanted to be the icon of admiration by his peers. He felt as if he was escaping the masses by not being seen with the same design from the same store as another person. He liked the feeling of telling people he designed the amazing clothing that lay flat on his body. “It felt good knowing that I was the only person in the world with that design” he quoted. He wanted nothing more but to be in control of what he wore. Soon his peer were pleading for certain designs he had created. Something that simply started as making his own clothes to wear to school rapidly turned into a future profession. He received his first internship at Trio fashion located in Waterbury. There he completed simple tasks such as cutting fabric, quality control, and shipping and stock, learning the business from the ground up.



    This internship lasted from 9th through 12th grade then he applied to college to follow his dream. He was excepted into Carnegie Melon, Syracuse, and FYT. He turned down Syracuse to attend Carnegie Melon on a scholarship for football and fashion design. He was like nothing ever envisioned before a heterosexual black male attending school for both football and fashion. He was not fond of there fashion design department for the department was not what he expected. He was told to mold his outfits to fit the theme of the drama group. He believed that molding designs to the pleasure of others was not the true meaning of fashion design. Soon after a year of costume design and division 2 football Edward grew tired of Carnegie Melon and decided to transfer to FYT.



    FYT, the dreamed college of thousands of young designers yet unreachable to many.
    Though it was surely difficult to be allowed to attend my father was such a rarity he was excepted in a heart beat. Settled in the heart of Greenwich village laid the college in which my father attended for the next 2 years of his life. My dad thought the fashion department in FYT was remarkable. The classes consisted of nothing but pure design, fashion, and style for 4 straight hours. He found the work difficult and challenging but fantastic at the same time. While he attended college full time he opened up his own line of clothing called Kultjah. While still focused on his school he also created designs for his new line.In 1994 he completed 2 years of college without 3 required credits therefore he was not able to graduate. To him college was not what counted rather that he had his own line is what mattered.


    Kultjah: A cult of people who follow god. The label came out with urban/ hip pop influenced clothing. Kultjah was a huge fad in Norwalk from about 1992 to 1995 attracting hippies and skateboarders mostly. The label started in my fathers basement on Lincoln Avenue. They attended street festivals renting booths and selling merchandise where people of different crowds started to notice them. From that point on they started selling merchandise in stores in new york, though it was hard to find stores to sell in they landed a couple of opportunities. The line lasted for 3 years when my father and his co workers got into many arguments and they decided to break the line off. My father found it not worth the trouble and fighting anymore. Soon after my father designed for a company called roots but that lasted for a minute amount of time.
    He began selling jewelry and clothes with my mom but even that had its expiration date.




    Today he designs clothes for the pleasure of himself. No longer working for any other companies or owning any my dad has one last quote he has to say about his experience as a fashion designer . “ The experience was worth it though I was naive I wish I could start over and do it better” he says lastly.