when she was a child of 5 playing dress up in her Grandma's clothes and learning how to sew from her Mom. She has also always loved a good fabric find, whether it be from a flea market, a garage sale, grandma's attic, or a textile show; after all, it's the hunt that makes a particularly fabulous find even more spectacular. Never one to blend into a crowd, Shannin has always used all these unique finds to come up with her own style, a combination of vintage meets contemporary meets her own one-of-a-kind creations. Growing up in Seattle, summers in the Black Hills of South Dakota, undergrad in Illinois, grad school in Connecticut, and four years in Los Angeles have led her to develop an eclectic and colorful outlook on life.

After falling in love with the Theatre in undergrad, Shannin went onto receive her MFA in Costume Design from the University of Connecticut. After all, costume design is the best of all words: fashion design, character analysis, art history, amazing pieces of literature, and incredible design teams all rolled into one. Some of her favorite projects include a contemporary version of Hair, a children's opera called Compton Homies and Popz, and the musical She Loves Me.

Shannin moved to Los Angeles after grad school and started working as the shopper for the Los Angeles Opera. She was in charge of finding the perfect fabric, the most complimentary trimmings, and the finishing piece of jewelry. She was then promoted to Assistant Costume Designer for the Opera. This gave her the opportunity to do a lot of world travel to places like Vienna, Italy, Sweden, St. Petersburg, Buenos Aires, and Zurich, all the time collecting more bits and pieces of textiles, studying art history, and observing cultural influences for inspiration.

After four years in L.A. Shannin realized she missed her home town of Seattle and moved back up to the rainy Pacific Northwest where she gets to see the mountains every day. She now splits her time between costume design and creating her own business Red Buckle Shoes for which she designs and hand crafts one-of-a-kind handbags designed around vintage textiles found on one of her various shopping excursions. She has also had the privilege to design and sew her sister's wedding dress, a vintage chantilly lace, 1930's inspired number with 200 hours of hand beading on it.

When not playing with fabric, she can be found in the backyard restoring her '59 Chevy Apache truck with her Dad.

Photo by: Kathyn Keve