Anna Maria

Born in 1972, Anna Maria was raised in a house full of her dad's paintings, a closet full of her mom's handiwork, hand-loomed wool blankets from her Greek grandmother and hand-knits from her American grandmother. Spending hours in fabric shops with her mom and sister on the weekend was as normal as designing her Barbie's first wardrobe using the family trunk of fabric scraps.

She earned an honors BFA in Drawing from the University of Tennessee in 1995 then opened a small handmade clothing shop with her mom the same year. Designing and sewing the label for the shop primed her for a career in textiles and small business.