Katharine has been making clothing professionally since 2008 and unprofessionally for much longer. She spent her teenage years mostly in clothing that was self-made or modified to suit (often despite the trends), working out techniques and reaching towards self expression. In young adulthood, she attended Seattle Central's technical/vocational Apparel Design program and graduated at the top of her class, earning an industry award that provided the seed money with which to start a business. The daughter of a master carpenter and a gifted caregiver, she approaches her work with a loving and skillful integrity that is evidenced in each piece of clothing.
Clothing embodies the intersection of necessity and art. While it is an intimate experience of material on skin, it also presents one's public image. Apparel manufacturing is a global industry in which many are exploited and it is also an avenue for individual and collective empowerment. We all participate in this arena to some degree. Telaio Clothing is a one woman operation. Katharine hand builds high-quality, original clothing that people truly love.
"But where is fashion ordered and to what end? Is the matter arbitrated by worthy creative artists or by cunning profit-seekers far more interested in human weakness than human progress?"
--"Art & Common Sense" by designer Ethel Eaton, 1931