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Yolanda Voss Fashion Gallery |
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Born in Ecuador to a family of nine children, Yolanda Voss showed interest in the fashion field very early on. Her early recollections include drawing and making clothes for her dolls. While she was a young girl, her parents hired an expert native weaver to spend the summer with the family. He became an early mentor for the natural fashion designer. From the weaver, she learned how to make yarn from wool, dye into beautiful colors, and operate the handlooms. She was fascinated at how she could create beautiful fabrics. Now an aspiring fashion designer, she continued working with the handloom until, at age 12, she went to a Catholic boarding school while there she took every course she could related to fashion. However, she only really immersed herself in the world of fashion upon joining the Institute Quito Luz de America, a fashion academy owned and operated by her favorite aunt in Quito, the capital of Ecuador. With the encouragement of her aunt, Yolanda received a fashion diploma and teaching certificate and soon became her aunt’s assistant. She became the school’s youngest instructor and full-time fashion coordinator and helped make the academy extraordinarily popular with elaborate shows. Even so, Yolanda’s dreams soon took her beyond these boundaries. top designer. At this point, it was not a love but a passion. My home land was not big enough to hold my dreams.” The young designer was already enrolled in a course to become proficient in English and was so determined to reach her dreams in America that, after hearing of a shortage of nurses in the United States, she enrolled in a three-year nursing program. She enjoyed nursing but her true passion remained in the fashion field. At age 24, Yolanda arrived in America. Three years later while working in a suburban hospital and finishing a program in French design techniques and fashion illustration at the Pier El Riff Institute in Washington, D.C.. About this time she met her “diamond in the rough, Bill Voss” a young businessman to whom she was married a year later. Yolanda began her company from a small studio in their home in Columbia, MD, until 1980 when she opened Yolanda Voss Studio International Inc. It contained two businesses: a designer’s salon and the school of fashion and image for all ages. Today, it has flourished into a well-known and respected fashion studio serving the Baltimore/Washington corridor from the center at Historic Savage Mill. As a fashion promoter and designer, she has honed the human resource skills that are critical to the high-energy demands of the fashion industry. She has received numerous awards and high acclaim for her work in both the business and fashion worlds. More importantly to Yolanda, however, is that she is honored and esteemed by her clients. YOLANDA VOSS STUDIO INTERNATIONAL (301) 317-4007 HOME Contact Us Click for your: Directions |
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