The Rock and Roll decade started with a dream collaboration, the result of a chance meeting with stage wear designer Francine Larnis and the opportunity to work as her leather seamstress creating pieces for Aerosmith, Joan Jett, Peter Wolf, the Scorpions and many other top rock ‘n’ roll music acts. My leather skills were put to the test creating form-fitting pants in metallic and embossed leathers decorated with creative applique’, crafting newsboy and pork pie hats in leather and suede fabrications and engineering the infamous ornate jock strap, fashioned in delicate lambskin, and carefully embellished with studs and stones. You will hear as time went on, how I used leather scraps to create outfits for my toddler nieces and nephews and how that was the geneses to my first official business, RA Designs, a children’s leather apparel company catering to Saks Fifth Avenue, FAO Schwartz, Spiegel Catalog, and more. I’ll explain how I built a custom clientele that included 80’s major sports figures from Boston Celtics players, Dave Cowens and Dennis Johnson to NHL stars like Chicago Blackhawks Doug Wilson and how that sparked a new chapter in my career as a fledging licensee in the children’s wear market with the NFL, NHL and Major League Baseball Properties. The eighties were a great time, but only for a while.