The Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) and Bethlehem Catholic High School are separated by less than 90 miles, but the two institutions might as well be on different continents if you're a fresh-faced 18 year old who's leaving behind everything she knows to see if she can hack it in a notoriously cutthroat profession. The year was 1974, and the audacious young woman (and newly minted Becahi grad) was future fashion designer Patricia Johnson. “I look back on it now, and I think, ‘Oh my God, what was I thinking?'” she says. Weekend trips home to visit friends and family in the Lehigh Valley were a comforting respite from her new reality, but Sunday night meant back to business in the Big Apple. “I can remember sobbing at the bus stop when my mom would drop me off,” recalls Johnson.
But quitting was never an option. Johnson says she was aware at a young age that fashion design would be her career of choice. She recalls making her own clothing as a young girl. “There was a gnawing inside of me to come up with things for myself.” Vo-Tech classes in fashion and design helped fan the flames. A favorite teacher encouraged and inspired her. Finally, a field trip to FIT sealed the deal. “I knew that's what I wanted to do,” she says.
And she did do it—in a big way. After graduation from FIT, she went to work in New York City's garment district, and soon found herself honing her craft alongside the Queen of the Knits herself, French designer Sonia Rykiel, at clothier Marisa Christina. “I was thrilled to pieces because I never thought I'd have that kind of opportunity,” Johnson says. She recalls jet-setting to Paris on the Concorde and frequenting parties where she'd rub elbows with celebrities and the VIPs of her field, like Karl Lagerfeld. By 1987 she was on the payroll at EPISODE. Trips to Asia were common, so she took it upon herself to learn how to speak Chinese.
1995 brought a game-changer for Johnson on a personal level: She and her husband, Nicholas Ampietro, welcomed a son, Nicolas. Johnson says motherhood brought her to a crossroads in her career, and, for the first time since her earliest days as a newbie in New York, she began to question whether the globe-trotting lifestyle of an in-demand designer was in her best interest. “I would be in Paris, and there would be a party that I should have been going to and enjoying, but I missed [Nicolas]. I worried about him.” So Johnson and her husband decided to move back to the Lehigh Valley, and Johnson scaled back her work in New York City.
Although the location of her home base changed, her drive and ambition didn't wane. She continued to build her resume in the years that followed. Among the highlights: Johnson served as design director at Bluefish Clothing in Frenchtown, New Jersey, as well as a knitwear designer at Paris-based EQ:IQ and Dutch company Nash International. In 2009, she landed at Nation Design in New York City, which designs and manufactures clothing lines for clients like J. Crew, Talbots and the Home Shopping Network. A working partnership with fashion icon Iris Apfel (she of the oversized, overstated eyeglasses) began two years ago, and continues to this day.
Johnson spends about three days a week in the city, which leaves her enough time to work on her own Lehigh Valley-based clothing line, Nvelop. “It's meant to be clothing you can wear—comfortable, but not sloppy,” says Johnson. “A lot of people work at home nowadays. They want to be comfortable but don't want to look like they just left the gym.” She favors items that can make the day-to-night transition. When she's looking for inspiration, Johnson says the Lehigh Valley itself is one of her primary muses. “I love nature. I love the seasons here.” Her collection is heavy on knits, natural fibers and vibrant colors. Locally, her pieces are sold at Allentown's BOUTIQUETOGO and in Bethlehem at AM Luxe Apparel.
Johnson says she's working on making her wares available online. She understands the value of moving beyond traditional brick-and-mortar stores in her line of business. And, while fashion trends certainly have changed over the years (Johnson couldn't wait for the garish disco years to run their course), she says she believes computer technology has been the biggest catalyst for change in the overall fashion industry. “Everything used to be done by hand,” she says. “I still sketch by hand and scan it into the computer. There's nothing like getting a sketch pad and just sketching.” But there are elements of the industry that remain timeless: quality fabrics and visionary compositions. “I like the challenge of coming up with something very creative and entrepreneurial,” says Johnson. “So much has been done already. It's hard to come up with something that's brand new.”
Through it all, she's had an unlikely ally in the fashion business: her husband. Nicholas Ampietro has spent more than three decades working for men's clothing designer Burma Bibas. A Liberty High School and Moravian College graduate, Ampietro was a young teacher in the Salisbury Township School District when he was making regular trips to New York City to visit Johnson while she was a student at FIT. Johnson recalls having to sleep outside in the bed of his pickup truck because men were not allowed as overnight guests in her dorm. By that time, they had already been an item for several years. “He was my very first date,” she says. She was 14 years old; he was 16. They went to see Love Story at Bethlehem's Boyd Theatre. And the rest is history.
It was on one of those weekend visits to the Big Apple that Ampietro ran an errand as a messenger for Burma Bibas. Now, he's the company's vice president.
Although Johnson didn't know it at the time, the seeds for another career were being planted during her years at FIT. While wandering around the city one day, she stumbled upon the Flower District. “It was like fantasy land,” she says. She recalls lush greens and row after row of vibrant, radiant blossoms: a technicolor jungle in the middle of the concrete jungle, only a block away from her school. Although the district has shrunk over the years, Johnson's appreciation for the possibilities presented by its colors and textures continued to bloom, and, about 15 years ago, she began designing floral arrangements for weddings. Now she takes on anywhere from five to ten ceremonies a year, using flowers from Lehigh Valley growers as well as offerings from the famed Flower District in New York. In fact, she'll even take brides-to-be to the Big Apple on a field trip so they can see for themselves what Johnson is cooking up.
As she ponders what's ahead for her and for her career, Johnson says she wouldn't be surprised if one day her floral designs become her primary focus. Regardless of how she chooses to channel her creative energy, she'll no doubt tackle the end goal with the same tenacity that propelled her from Bethlehem to the inner circle of the fashion elite. It's a journey that wasn't without obstacles, both personally and professionally. She offers this advice to anyone who's standing where she once was, at the starting line of a new beginning, destination unknown: “You just have to set your goal and chip away at it. Be true to what you're doing and why you're doing it. Do what's in your heart.”
