FASHION DESIGNER
KAREEN SMART
A.B.S.
KCLAFM Webcast: January 13, 2002
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I was born and raised in Southern California. My family didn't have
much money so my mom taught us to sew our own clothes at a very young
age. It was the sixties and it actually was chic then to have matching
clothes for the entire family . . . so we sewed.
By high school I was really into clothes but the wardrobe that I wanted was not in the budget! So I got my first job at 15 in the mall selling chocolates. I soon eased my way into a job selling clothes at the boutique next door. I needed to be around clothes. I still made a lot of my own clothes and soon all my friends wanted me to make them clothes too. So it goes...it was a natural that I went to design school right out of high school.
I attended F.I.D.M. (Fashion Institute of Design and Marketing) in Los Angeles, California and graduated within two years. My first job in the industry was at a budget top manufacturer. I started as a sample cutter then got promoted to patternmaker then Assistant Designer then Designer. I knew I didn't want to design "Wal-mart" tops for the rest of my life but it was good training for me.
I met Allen Schwartz (owner of A.B.S) through a mutual friend and he offered me a job as Designer of great clothes. It has been the opportunity of my career life as I've worked at A.B.S. for almost 17 years now. I love my job and it's turned out to be so much more incredible than I ever dreamed.