Our Story
or How I Ended Up as the Hakama Lady
When I was a little girl all the female adults
that I knew sewed.- my mother, my grandmother, my aunts, the
neighbors- and they would give me fabric scraps to play with.
One of my neighbors was an older woman whose granddaughter lived
with her and she became my best friend. The grandmother - Mrs.
Reeves- would take us to Woolworths on Saturdays and buy us each
a book of Paper Dolls. We would spend most of the week cutting
out the paper dolls with their paper clothes and then Mrs.
Reeves would buy us each another book of them. Eventually we
had quite a collection of paper dolls and we started to make our
own clothes for them using old wrapping paper and tin foil and
finally I figured out that I could give my dolls three
dimensions by making their clothes out of my piles of scrap
fabrics. Thus began my career as a "fashion designer". I think
I was 8 years old. I went on to make doll clothes and eventually
my own clothes until I went to college and got a 'real ' job and
clothing design just faded into the background.
Enter Nate who wanted to be a martial artist from
the time he was 2 years old. He began training when he was 10
and began competing when he was 15 or 16 .At a tournament in New
England a competitor named Rocky DiRicco watched Nate's
performance and told us that the judges would take Nate more
seriously if he wore a hakama. I didn't even know what that was
or where to get one After much searching we found one at the
Battle of Atlanta and bought it in the largest size available.
Now it's a really funny thing about clothing sizes - as they get
larger they get wider but the don't get longer. For those who
don't know who Nate is, let me explain. He is 6 feet 7 inches
tall with a 34 inch waist. This hakama came to just below his
knees and wrapped around him like a beach towel. Needless to
say, he did not wear it.
At that point I went on a search for information
about making hakama. I found books, some directions and a very
few pictures. After much trial and error I eventually produced
Nate's first hakama (which he still wears). He wore it to
compete a time or two and other competitors began asking him
where he had gotten it. He'd say "My mom made it for me."
Then they'd ask, "Do you think she'd make one for me?" and I
did. Then people would ask these other competitors where
they'd gotten their hakama and they'd say "Oh, Nate's mom made
it for me." And the question would come, "Do you think
she'd make one for me?" and I did. And one day someone
approached me and said, "You must be the Hakama Lady!!" and I
am.