It was the 1960s. Linda Dresner was 25 and already a wife and mother. Knowing that her only way out of the house was employment, she dropped off headshots at multiple modeling agencies and then waited for a phone call. A few weeks later that call came, and Linda began booking gigs modeling for car companies such as GM, Chevrolet and Ford as well as for for designers at Saks Fifth Avenue and the now-defunct department store, Bonwit Teller. Linda soon realized she had a natural eye for fashion and the ability to see clothes in a particular way. So she and a friend opened a little clothing store. “I wanted to distinguish myself and earn my own money,” she says. Today she is one of fashion’s most famous independent retailers and owner of an eponymous Birmingham, Michigan boutique.

“After two marriages, breast cancer, and more than 30 years in business, I feel more comfortable with myself, who I am and what I want to do,” she says.

“The criteria for modeling were different then,” said Linda. “You didn’t have to be 5’10” and weigh 105 pounds. You could be smaller, and more of a woman.”

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It was 1971, FOF Susan Grant’s first year in New York City. She moved to The Big Apple after landing her first job on Wall Street. “I was bringing home $83 a week,” she remembers. Her first big splurge? The fur coat pictured below (left) from Alixandre Furs. Today, the coat is long gone (she sold it) and she favors a fur vest designed by Ann Demeulemeester (pictured, right).

“I bought my very first fur for myself when I moved to NYC. It was muskrat with a raccoon collar. It was one of my first big-girl, big-city purchases.” -Susan Grant

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If you asked FOF Terry Gibralter when she was a teenager what she wanted to do with her life, it would probably be something in fashion.

“I made all my clothes in high school. I used to be really a good seamstress,” said Terry. “I used to just whip up an outfit to wear that night and that’s really what it was about, the ability to play with different looks… creative expression.”

Terry, hasn’t strayed far. She is now a Senior VP and Creative Director at Grey Worldwide ad agency as well as the founder of Bespoke Custom Shopping Tours, carefully-crafted shopping “vacations” around the world and self-proclaimed, “fashion-obsessed.”

“I’ve always been an early adopter, since I was a teenager. I always worked in stores. My first job, when I was 14, was in a boutique. I just handed them my paycheck at the end of the week. You know? Just gave it right back to them.” -Terry Gibralter

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