Joan Calabrese, the doyenne of upscale first communion and special occasion dressing, is one of the few childrenswear designers to have had their designs installed in the permanent collection of New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art and in the Costume Collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

The brand evolved from humble beginnings in 1975, when Joan, as the mother of two toddlers, began designing clothes for her own children. Encouraged by an executive in the Couture department at Saks Fifth Avenue, the business was born and grew into the brand we now see on the pages of Vogue and Vanity Fair.