Today we’d like to introduce you to Alexander Andronescu.
Hi Alexander, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I studied fashion design in New York City at The Fashion Institute of Technology and spent a year tailoring abroad at Polimoda in Florence, Italy. When I graduated, I came back to Los Angeles and opened Alex of Arabia, a small clothing alteration factory that grew into a factory that mass-produced anything from t-shirts to suits. No matter the quantities of garments I was producing, I always maintained my passion for tailoring and continued to make suits in my spare time. Earlier this year, I was hired to tailor for a runway show for people with disabilities organized by a nonprofit called Runway of Dreams. That experience totally shifted my plans for what I wanted to do with my career in fashion. I worked the show with my now business partner, Lynn Brannelly and when we returned to work sewing costumes for Cirque du Soleil’s New York New York Show the following week, we felt like we needed to do it again. We had no idea how or what that even looked like. So, we started to create Instagram videos about how to do adaptive alterations for disabilities at home and that grew into so much support from the adaptive community. Lynn and I then began to plan out options as to how we could move forward and adapt clothing every day. So, we started Sewn Adaptive, and now just 6 months after our first Instagram video, we are opening the world’s first adaptive tailoring and alteration shop right here in Pasadena this month.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It hasn’t always been a smooth road, but I always felt like watching out for other small business along the way made all the difference when I needed support. Building your business is all about relationships and those relationships I built always took care of me as much as I did them.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Sewn Adaptive is a first-of-its-kind tailoring and alteration shop specializing in alterations for people living with disabilities. We feel like adaptive clothing doesn’t mean that you have to settle because of your disability. We offer full-service tailoring for any disability as well as adaptations to garments such as turning shirts with buttons into shirts that look like they’re buttoned but are in fact magnets. We believe that clothing for people living with disabilities should give them confidence and independence.
Is there anyone you’d like to thank or give credit to?
Lynn Brannelly deserves a ton of credit for putting up with me at work.
Contact Info:
- Website: sewnadaptive.com
- Instagram: @sewnadaptive
Image Credits
Daniel Nguyen
Vilma Cañas
