04/22/2025
I thought I'd use this opportunity to tell y'all about this person who popped up in my social media feed at just the right time. I was coming out of my own dark night of the soul, and here was this bohomian goddess dressing curvy girls in understated, elegant, crochet artistry. But that was not all. She'd taken her show on the road to NYC and her designs were. On. The. Runway. She'd been in Vogue. She crocheted wedding gowns for celebrities and super models. Y'all... Finding Namaste & Crochet at that particular time was just what I needed. If you couldn't guess, Dominique Calvillo is probably the greatest influence on my style as a fiber artist, and although I use nearly all of her patterns, someday I'd like to call her my design mentor as well. I'm currently heartbroken because (like a lot of people I guess?) I lost a grant program today. It was a continuing education/work training program that was going to pay for me to take Dominique's pattern design and master classes through KnitStars was terminated nationally today along with many other workplace incentive programs for minority populations. But if you were unaware and are interested you should def, def, definitely go sign up!!!
My favorite part of Dominique's story is that in the midst of standing in solidarity with trafficking survivors overseas, she also found peace in her own mental health journey through crochet. Her humility, compassion, and belief in the human project never cease to amaze me,(especially in moments like the LA fires last year). As an outside observer, it seemed like crochet as a regulatory or perhaps even spiritual practice allowed the wisdom and hard-won life lessons from her time working with people in one of life's most precarious situations to guide her work in Hollywood, yes, Hollywood. This makes it even more wholesome that Dominique chose to make her patterns inclusive for bigger bodies like mine and casts all kinds of models for her runway shows from across racial, gender, and age spectrums. She believes that, "fashion is for everybody, and fashion is for every body." And that, right there, is who I know this woman to be. 🧶
-N
