Duchess, Clothier - The Ladies and Gentlemen of Duchess

The Ladies and Gentlemen of Duchess

Duchess was lovingly created by Founding Duchess, Seyta Selter, in 2005. Growing rapidly each year since its inception, Duchess is now sustained and maintained with the lifeblood of a select few individuals of unique qualifications.

Lady Katie Reynolds, Duchess of Order

Born and raised in the dirty south (well, Florida), Katie made her way across the US to Oregon, with her penchant for Project Pat and well-made biscuits still intact. Diversity reigns in Katie's family, and she considers herself Irish, Polish, Korean, Japanese and German by adoption and association. This seemingly cacophonous mixture did well to lend itself to the array of hats Katie now wears proudly as manager. Besides consulting with clients, crunching the numbers, and managing the showroom, she’s also in her own right a business owner, designer, pug lover, vintage maniac, textile shredder and reluctant vocalist. Katie is happiest when busy...and organized, don't forget organized!

Having succeeded in dominating two-thirds of the the US coastline, Katie finds herself settled in Portland with unabashed joy and thankfulness, although she will always have Florida in her heart and the south in her mouth. Some things will never change. Now she just knows what good coffee tastes like.

Lady Hannah McDevitt, Duchess of Consideration

This woman is so talented, trying to pin a title on her is like capturing a tempest in a teapot. A tiny, super-delicate, adorable teapot. With a background as diverse as co-author of Famous Frocks, sewing and art instructor, and knitter-extraordinaire, she does a little bit of everything at Duchess with such aplomb, it’s impossible to limit her to only one area of concern!

Perhaps it was the call of the lovebirds in the greenhouse back on the family farm that guided her home after several years in San Francisco, we’ll never know. While she was there, she managed and taught in several settings, including a knitting studio, a crafting collective, and even founded a program teaching fabric skills to at-risk youth.

Hannah is now a full fledged consultant at Duchess, lending her expertise and generosity of spirit to each and every interaction.

Lady Annie van Thillo, Duchess of Finery

Bursting at the seams with her passion for all things splendid and rarefied, Annie is the woman-of-all-trades commanding the San Francisco showroom. An unrelated (but highly fortuitous) return home to the Bay Area from Portland provided the perfect nexus for Duchess to both stake its claim unapologetically in Gold Rush territory, while maintaining the big/small-town feel that could only have been grown in Oregon.

Annie cut her teeth the old fashioned way; by way of an Airstream trailer in Maui, to the hallowed ground of NYC Broadway costume design, to production for several Portland designers, where her keen eye for style and exuberant love of visual expression (in all its forms) catapulted her to the very top of the sartorial game. She is a master at managing from the big picture down to the details, providing top-shelf consultations on topics as varied as the relative importance of hand-stitching, to which period-appropriate prop best accompanies a particular swatch of fabric. She dreams in color, and sometimes, French.

Lady Ali Loverink, Duchess of Detail

Born in the unfortunately named Poudre Valley, Colorado, Ali grew up wanting to be the first Harley Davidson driving cop—who sews. A mandatory, some say court-ordered, move to Alaska prevented that particular gender bending smash-up to occur.

With the help of her (at least) 27 first cousins, her travels stateside are all within a secret society of networked blood related kin. Ali has never seen the inside of a hotel as a result.

During moments of tranquil silence or sublime profundity, she will admit strange truths about herself, such as the inspiration Dr. Seuss has had throughout her life, or the entire year she spent as a young child wearing a motorcycle helmet for all hours of the day. We are not quite sure if she shares these threads of esoterica as a friendly gesture or sinister warning…

Ali oversees with delicate care Duchess alterations and inspections, and provides a general disposition of excitement.

Lady Jennifer Faust, Duchess of Introspection

Lady Faust danced herself out of the womb somewhere in Northern California, to the utter delight of a devout Italian Catholic and a German atheist.

Before joining Duchess as an alterations specialist, she spent her formative years rollerskating through the Japanese countryside, designing and selling her own line of clothing, and giving birth to a girl named Tuesday on a Thursday.

A seventies girl at heart and a musician in her soul, she rocks a vintage Gibson Flying V in her band Denim Wedding and believes music is the answer. She continues to sell her work online using original designs and vintage patterns combined with vintage fabrics and notions to create small batches or one-of-a-kind pieces.

Sir Keegan Greenwald, Duke of Fit

Sir Keegan made his way into our hearts via Portland Sewing School, where none other than our own Lady Ali was one of his instructors. Having cut his teeth working on quilting machines and reupholstering furniture, he is a virtual jack-of-all-trades, and has quickly made himself indispensable as an alterations assistant and garment inspector. If this weren't enough to keep this energetic young man occupied, he moonlights by night as a bartender. He enjoys fashion and design, and is also working on his own menswear line.

Sir Daniel Thomas, Duke of Dapper

Originally from Fillmore, California, the Duke of Dapper is a 21st century Renaissance man: A successful businessman and entrepreneur, carpenter, artist, trained vocalist, exceptional cook, philosopher-dandy and lover of life. Part Willy Wonka, part brigand, and part mountain goat, Daniel truly navigates the world by his own internal compass.

As a young boy, he hiked through Yosemite National Park for an extended camp/hiking experience. He got separated from the group and stumbled upon a native tribal hobo. The old man made tea and offered Daniel shelter. The hobo/tramp then attempted to divine Daniel’s future with the help of hallucinogens. The young Duke stopped the hobo, telling him “I don’t prescribe to your notion of reality, old dude. I’m going to make my own path.” And so it began. Daniel kept the hallucinogens.

Daniel had a pet minotaur, but released it back into the wild. It sends occasional postcards from whatever exotic lands it is visiting.

Daniel’s custom subterranean walk-in closet is purported to have its own zipcode, and sometimes you can’t even get past all the hats. Former lovers often camp out near the shoes, hoping to catch him unawares.

Daniel’s many humanitarian efforts include: making it look easy for the rest of us, hospice care or the elderly and dying, and sheltering needful, spiritual orphans within the confines of his delightful SE Portland home.

Lady Seyta Selter, Founding Duchess

The founding Duchess was born in a forest of evergreens at twilight in Washington state. Local astrologers and shaman noted the peculiar celestial activities that evening and interpreted the birth in a somewhat unusual manner. “Super Badass” is what one of them purportedly left written in the dry earth before astrally projecting into the new child’s future. Duchess began as a vintage reproduction shop for the ladies of Portland, but metamorphosized when Seyta wished more men would wear dapper suits. If Duchess, then, is a dream made real, it was dreamed a long time ago by a young, feisty Leo with a penchant for subtle brilliance and an abiding connection to nature. A veritable tempest when it comes to tastes and inspirations, Seyta can rarely be pinned down for long.