kam martin- mom, aspiring photographer, book reader, brownie taster, creator of needle+thread
before she started accosting people on the streets of her city with a camera, she attended the art institute of seattle for fashion design and interned as a seamstress for a local handbag designer. after graduation, she designed kid’s clothing at nordstrom, where she developed a love of fun print and color that she still cultivates and researches to this day. moving on to work with a fabric archive, she helped sell trend and print inspiration, consisting of antique fabric and wallpaper swatches (think marie antoinette, little house on the prairie, and 60′s mumu’s). eddie bauer called with a job color and trend hunting- finding just the right shade of coral/lavender/seafoam green, and then asked her to help design socks, scarves and handbags. but when the economy took a downturn (and they laid her off), she picked up her camera, and hit the streets. since starting needle+thread, she’s been hired to design legwear/hosiery for nordstrom, and had a baby. on top of having a dream job and an adorable new little boy, she also gets to snap photos in a beautiful city, and can’t imagine a day that doesn’t include all of it.
in her own words, kam describes her style as bordering on the cusp between well-fed-housewife casual-boheme, to faux-dressy, this-has-to-look-good-in-the-rain chic. she loves digging for items to cherish as much at nordstrom as goodwill, and finds that people-watching usually leads to her next purchase. her blog began as a way to document the details of dress that she found inspiring, and has taken baby steps towards illustrating style, some fashion, and a snippet of the music scene in her city. you can usually find her scouring the internet for etsy treasure, scouring the streets for style or scouring her garden for weeds.
she welcomes dialogue regarding style, suggestions for style studies and any reader submitted photos of seattlites wearing chuck taylors.
allie fraley- 20something, writer, foodie, internet addict, contributor to needle+thread
allie grew up in southern california, where she got sunburned and ate a lot of mexican food. having small-town-girl-escapes-to-big-city dreams, she moved to seattle for her undergraduate studies in english at seattle pacific university. after seven years of the inevitable rain puddles, she now calls seattle her home, making her living as a writer/editor, and an illustrator on the side. for fun, she blogs, and blogs, and blogs.
allie has been obsessed with fashion since she was a wee thing, dressing up as everything from a secret agent, to a gypsy princess, and leafing through her grandmother’s copies of vogue. she finds inspiration on the internet (duh), on the street, and in films. her current favorite fashion icons are anna della russo, the olsens, diane keaton, and jenna lyons. she loves menswear pieces, striped shirts, geeky glasses, bright lipstick, unique prints, cozy sweaters, and anything sparkly.
victoria shutts- contributor
