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"   Photo: Nando Esparza  &amp;quot;I have always believed that women can be soft yet strong and that idea underlines every collection,&amp;quot; said designer Christine Alcalay of her refined and romantic classics-with-a-twist. &amp;quot;It is always about the balance of femininity and power coexisting.&amp;quot; Self-empowerment is something Alcalay knows a little bit about. She moved to the U.S. from Vietnam when she was 3 years old; then, her family worked in New York&amp;#039;s Garment District factories, where she grew up watching sample makers, pattern makers, and designers ply their craft. &amp;quot;Because I was knee-deep in the production side of fashion at a very young age, I was curious and engrossed in finding out what it was like to be on the other end of things,&amp;quot; she explained.    Photo: Nando Esparza While still at Parsons The New School for Design (where she won the prestigious &amp;quot;Golden Thimble&amp;quot; award) Alcalay worked for designer Eric Gaskins and interned at Christian Lacroix in Paris. Upon returning to New York post-graduation, she focused on the retail end of the business, working in several high-end shops to learn all she could about customer service. &amp;quot;There were questions I had that no one could answer,&amp;quot; she noted. &amp;quot;How did a store function? How do buyers decide what to buy? How do you make a sale? What do customers want? I wanted to know all the business aspects of it before jumping in, head first.&amp;quot; After a few years in retail sales, Alcalay opened her own Brooklyn boutique, KIWI, in 2002, where she created custom, made-to-measure pieces for a discerning clientele who loved her modern-meets-timeless aesthetic. Eager to reach a broader range of women, the designer launched her first ready-to-wear collection in 2011.    Photo: Nando Esparza &amp;quot;It is really about making wearable clothes that women fall in love with because it represents who they are and who they want to be: powerful and feminine,&amp;quot; she said of the collection she designs out of her 4,600 square-foot Victorian home in Ditmas Park, which is often used as a location on TV shows such as The Good Wife. Alcalay stuck close to home for her spring 2014 collection. It was inspired by the emotions of a woman in love\u2014and specifically, the feeling evoked in Nina Simone&amp;#039;s &amp;quot;Wild is the Wind,&amp;quot; which she had on replay while studying the rebirth of seasons at the Brooklyn Botanical Garden, sketchbook in hand. &amp;quot;It was the wildflowers that inspired me the most,&amp;quot; she recalled. &amp;quot;The wild beauty of the flowers reminded me of how I felt when I first fell in love. Spring has that same feeling of freedom and lightness that I was trying to capture.&amp;quot;    Photo: Nando Esparza Capture it she did, in a pair of lovely botanical prints\u2014one hand-drawn in pen and ink, the other painted in watercolor\u2014along with bright, transparent pastels (used to great effect on pleated skirts and dresses), bold drop crotch pants, crisp cotton shorts, and tops with draping that mimics the way the wind blows against the body. Plus, all of it is made entirely in NYC in a factory now owned by an old family friend. The Christine Alcalay collection retails from $195 to $1,595 and is sold at boutiques worldwide, including Skiffingtons in Portsmouth, Rhode Island, Angela&amp;#039;s in Rye, NY, Mahna Mahna in Japan, and online at Christine Alcalay.    Photo: Nando Esparza "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.elle.com/fashion/news/a23842/christine-alcalay-designer-spotlight/>