About: The Designer

Military brat Jennifer Sharmaine Wilborn was born in Germany on the 11th of November in 1977.  Soon after, at the age of 2 her family had moved to California were she spent the next 13 years of her life.  At a very young age she decided she wanted to run her own business as a fashion designer by way of going to school in New York (she really like the TV show Fame).  At around the age of 11 she learned how to sew and manipulate patterns, and from that point on she was sewing every chance she could get.  At the age of 15 her family moved to North Carolina, which is were she received her undergraduate degree.  She graduated from North Carolina State University, with a Bachelors in Textile and Apparel Management. This degree had her well prepared for running a factory, but that is not what she said she wanted to do.  She decided to go back to school to get and associates in Fashion Design in Georgia.  After two semesters she felt she had learned enough from that particular school.  At the age of 22 she was ready to start her "professional" career. So she quit school and officially joined the rat-race as a technical designer for a women's wear company in North Carolina. A year later the company decided it would be better for her to move up north and work in their New York office.  A few years over her official declaration, Sharmaine finally made it to NY and planted stakes in Brooklyn. Once in NY she continued working full-time as a technical designer all the while going back to school to receive her masters.  In 2003 she received a graduate degree in Design Management from Pratt Institute of New York.  Very soon after she realized her life needed a change and that is when she quit her job to pursue her life long dream of becoming a fashion designer.

So, in the summer of 2003 Sharmaine truly started her hustle by selling garments under the label SharDann.  She tested the waters by mostly selling off-the-rack garments, via local New York markets. The markets gave Sharmaine a chance to build one-on-one customer relationships, which resulted in a customer base strictly interested in specially made pieces. In 2004, working directly with individual customers gave Sharmaine a chance to focus on creating more unique garments. Realizing her childhood dream, Sharmaine produced her first official SharDann collection made available for the 2005 Fall/Holiday season entitled "Queen of the Circus".  This collection was filled with bold colors, textures and shapes, which are now key elements of any SharDann collection.