Kelly Funabashi spent more than 15 years as a senior designer in women's denim, across junior, mass-market, contemporary, and plus-size lines. That means years of fittings on real bodies: where a waistband gaps, where a hem should break, why one pair works and another doesn't.

The love of clothes started earlier, in thrift stores as a kid, digging through racks for the piece nobody else noticed. That instinct still drives every Wardrobe Study: the best outfit is often already there, it just needs a second look.

Kelly studied Fashion Design at FIT, specializing in knitwear, and is also a painter and illustrator working as Funabashi Studio. Based in Astoria, Queens.