MEET ROWAN
Hi! It's the Dark Rabbit, aka Rowan, and I am the dancer and designer behind all this.
I started on this path way back when I moved to Miami at 6 years old. It was a quick move and my parents told me that I could either take acting or dance classes. At the time, I was more interested in acting, so that’s what I chose. Later that week, my mom took my brother and I out to see Step It Up! (remember that movie with all the hip-hop dancers who break the rules and have giant flash mobs all the time? Yeah, that one). After that movie, I decided I really wanted to dance. So, of course my mom signed me up for dance classes at my local dance studio, In Motion Performing Arts Center. At first, all I did was hip-hop, but after the teacher told me I couldn't wear a tutu, I decided to give ballet, jazz, and tap a try. Even at that age I was all about the dancewear!
After about a year or so of just taking classes, I tried my hardest to make the dance team surrounded by my amazing dance friends. The team was posted, and guess what? I made it!… But, as an understudy. That was still enough to make me really excited and want to keep working really hard. Over that summer, my teacher gave us exercise routines to do every day, and she told me that if I had my splits mastered by August, I could be on the team. So, I did the exercises every single day, several times a day without missing a beat. Because of that, I had my splits and finally made the Mini Team! I continued to dance and it became part of who I was, with every form and type making me love it even more, all through dancing with the Orange County School of the Arts in California.
How I started in fashion is a little bit of a different story. About two summers after making the team, my parents insisted on having something to keep me busy on one of the last weeks of break, so they registered me for this sewing/design camp at a local place called 'Design Lab'. I spent a week there, and I loved it; learning how to sew and make things like handbags and pillowcases. So, when the school year rolled around, my parents decided to sign me up for weekly lessons.
I eventually worked my way up to making clothes, stuffed animals, and pretty much anything else. I even dabbled in making bows and running my own little company called RowBows on Etsy. I couldn’t keep up with the demand for the stylish little bows, but I was motivated to keep designing! My teacher told me that my next project was to design my own fashion line. I brainstormed for a while, and finally I decided that I wanted to incorporate my two favorite things, dance and fashion, by designing a dancewear line.