The Window: A Design for Dress for Success

I met Sherry White at a women's event at Ansley Golf Club, where Susan Bonds-McCulloch was speaking and I was popping up with CB Grey. Sherry came over first, listened to the story behind the brand, looked through the scarves — and decided on the spot that Susan needed to meet me. There was no polite "maybe I'll mention you sometime." She essentially collected Susan from her own event and delivered her to my table.

Thank God she did. Susan and I clicked from the first minute — strong and passionate, but gentle about it; polished without being distant; not embarrassed to cry during a speech, and not interested in pretending that leadership requires hiding what moves you.

A few weeks later, we started talking about a custom design for the Dress for Success EmpowHER luncheon. Most people know Dress for Success for helping women access professional clothing, but the suit is just the beginning — the real work is confidence, skills, support, opportunity. Helping a woman build a future she can actually sustain.

When I sat down to design, I kept returning to one image: a window. Dress for Success is the window — the moment a woman is supported, equipped, and reminded of her own worth, and suddenly the view changes. What felt closed starts to feel possible.

So the design opens — literally — into an explosion of flowers, color, and hands. And here's my favorite part: the woman's face, the wings, and many of the florals came from the artwork hanging inside the Dress for Success office itself. The scarf carries pieces of the actual place where so many women are welcomed and reminded of who they are. The flowers stand for growth, confidence, resilience. Open windows frame the whole composition. And because I apparently cannot help myself, there are hidden words: she's wearing sunglasses, and written right across the lenses — EmpowHER.

Around the border, in handwriting: She stepped through the window like she belonged there, and the road rose to meet her, and the garden greeted her by name.

At the luncheon, Susan brought me up on stage, told an entire ballroom about CB Grey, and unveiled the scarf. Then I looked up — and my face was enormous, smiling down from giant screens. My first instinct was to find Susan afterward: "I cannot believe you put my name and picture on the screens!" She laughed. "Of course I did. Why wouldn't I?"

To Susan, it was obvious: I had created the design, I had done the work, I belonged on the screen. The only person who hadn't completely caught up to that fact was me.

That's what Dress for Success does, it turns out. Even to the vendor.

Learn more about Dress for Success Georgia. Have an organization with a story worth carrying? Meet The Studio.