As a boy growing up in Jamaica, Neville Wisdom had only two pairs of pants, one pair of shoes, and a couple of shirts. He always dreamed of having as many clothes as his heart desired, and so he decided to take charge and make them himself.
“I decided if I could make it, I would have something no one else has, and exactly what I want,” said Mr. Wisdom.
He began creating clothes at age 14. His mom taught him to sew.
Now in his 40s, he is the owner of Neville Wisdom Fashion Design Studio in the Westville section of New Haven.
Mayor Toni Harp, newscaster Ann Nyberg, Marta Moret, the wife of the President of Yale, and many other well-known women around New Haven look stylish thanks to this fashionista who designs, creates patterns and actually sews the dresses in the basement studio of his shop.
Most fashion designers simply design the clothes, and have someone else make them, but Mr. Wisdom has a “vertical shop,” which means that the garment is completed from beginning to end under one roof.
The windows of the shop, which are display windows, featured some of his unique 100 designs in 100 days clothes. Mr. Wisdom came up with a challenge for himself. He decided to make 100 designs in 100 days. All of them go up for sale. They sell from around $40 to $200.
The store is filled with brightly colored mannequins, that were painted by school children for a fashion show held in New Haven last summer.
“I wanted people to be able to express themselves through art and say what they feel,” Mr. Wisdom said about the mannequins.
On the street level, the shop contains racks of brightly colored dresses and jackets, displayed creatively to invite customers to reach out and touch the beautiful creations.
Down a flight of stairs is a whole different world entirely. The creation studio is full of sewing machines, scissors, and a room full of creativity. Plus, in the basement there is a large table machine that can cut your designs. There is also a computer that can create the designs that you print and put onto the large machine that creates the patterns.
“This is where the magic happens,” Mr. Wisdom said.
In the studio, there is noisy machinery, which he doesn’t use anymore, and quiet machinery, which he uses quite often. But with all the technological equipment available, Mr. Wisdom says he uses scissors the most. His 13 year-old son works at the shop after school making button holes.
He has probably made about 1,000 designs by now. He's been designing for about 32 years.
“Every time I design something, I fall in love with it,” said Mr. Wisdom.
“One thing fashion is about is individuality and expressing yourself through art,” said Neville Wisdom. “Just about anyone who wants to be a designer should be able to design.”