Dear New Orleans,
I wasn’t born here.
I arrived when I was six years old, carrying pieces of another world with me.
I came from San Diego, California—a place beautiful in its own way, with its own rhythm, its own culture, its own identity.
And then I met you.
I grew up Uptown, in P-Town, to be exact.
At first, I didn’t have the words for what I was experiencing. I only knew things felt different.
The pace was different. The people were different. The energy was different.
Years later, I realized what had happened.
I experienced a culture reset.
New Orleans taught me that life doesn’t always have to move at full speed. Things move slower here. And because they move slower, you can hear yourself think.
You can hear your imagination.
Mine ran wild.
This city gave me room to dream.
What I love most about New Orleans is it’s real and authentic.
It’s a small city that carries itself like a giant. You can travel from one side of town to the other in minutes, yet somehow it celebrates with the confidence of an entire nation.
And I love that.
I love the creativity. I love the music. I love the food seasoned with generations of knowledge.
I love the levees. I love the dirty Mississippi River. I love watching the streetcar go by as if it has all the time in the world.
I even love the beautiful chaos of Bourbon Street.
There is a freedom here that is difficult to explain unless you’ve lived it.
New Orleans doesn’t ask permission to be itself.
It simply is.
And maybe that’s why so many artists find their way here.
This city welcomed me.
It became the backdrop of my childhood, the witness to my dreams, the place where I learned who I was, the place where I found my creativity, and the place where I found my voice.
And now, through every stitch, every sketch, and every corset I create, I hope to give something back.
This collection is my thank you.
A love letter to a city that taught me how to imagine.
With love,
❤️Mildred
