The Past Repurposed

CLT Fashion Fund revives the city’s textile heritage through sustainable fashion

- VIRGINIA BROWN

KELLY LU ROSE didn’t know about Charlotte’s rich textile manufacturing roots when she moved to Optimist Park in 2009. “Learning about historical aspects of the neighborhood,” she says, “it seemed my destiny to land here.”

The seamstress and founder of CLT Fashion Fund learned to sew from her mother when she was 10. “I always made my clothes,” she recalls. “I thought it was ‘rich’ that I could have my own custom clothes.” Her family moved to Charlotte in 1988 and, for an end-of-year project at South Mecklenburg High School, she created a fashion line and show. She took her passion and skills to Bauder College in Atlanta, where she earned a degree in fashion merchandising in 2003.

Last summer, her 14-year-old niece, Sh’Cia, now in ninth grade, decided to create an upcycled clothing line for a school project, and she turned to her aunt. Rose took her to fabric stores to teach her all she could.