“I think I was born loving color!” Dawn Chavez smiles as she spreads her arms to take in the Glory Duds workspace. A riot of bright fabric, embellishments and clothing fills every surface. But the thing you can’t see, the thing that makes Glory Duds so special,
is Dawn’s imagination.

“As a teen, if I couldn’t find or afford the fashion I loved, I’d create it myself. When I was a sophomore in high school, I crocheted myself a pair of bright blue ‘hot pants’!” she says, laughing. The vision to create unique clothing has always been there. “I mixed sewing patterns—taking parts from different patterns and using them to create what I saw in my head.”

Now that vision has brought her to Glory Duds, where she uses a variety of techniques to transform ordinary clothes into extraordinary ones. Bleaching, dyeing, painting, appliqueing, embellishing, fringing, trimming. Even deconstructing and reconstructing garments. “The processes I use are always evolving—I may create a new one by the end of the day!” Sometimes Dawn even brings her talent to bear on clothing “rescued” from secondhand and consignment shops. “I look at each item and imagine what it could be.” And what it could be—what it is—is fabulous. Clothing as unique as the women who wear it. Clothing for everybody and every body.

But for Dawn, it’s about more than just fulfilling her artistic vision. “I love that, in some small way, I can be a blessing to people I’ve never met.”