Born in 1968, Bret Fowler was raised in San Diego and studied fashion design and tailoring at the Fashion Institute of Technology in NYC. After college Bret became a member of the curatorial staff in the Costume Department of the Museum at F.I.T. for 10 years. The last six years of his tenure, Bret worked as Curatorial Assistant, conducting private research appointments as well as an hour lecture for students and visiting tour groups on the history and construction of couture clothing.

In 2002 Bret met his partner Chris Stoeckel, a talented one-of-a-kind doll artist and former Fashion Co-ordinator for the windows department at Lord & Taylor’s flagship store in Manhattan. Bret moved from NYC, to his partner’s hometown of Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, where they owned a vintage clothing boutique for 6 years. Currently Bret works as a free-lance restoration artist specializing in 20th century couture clothing, as well as doing consultation work for museums and private collectors.

Having grown up in Southern California, Bret was always interested in designers with a California connection such as Adrian, Edith Head and Bonnie Cashin. As a student at FIT he was introduced to the work of Irene and fell in love with her unique blend of immaculate soft tailoring and chic feminine styling. Over the past 7 years Bret has been building his own private collection, and is proud to include 46 garments from his favorite designer Irene, as well as works from Bonnie Cashin, Traina-Norell, Claire McCardell, Adrian, and Pierre Balmain.