Walking the walk and talking the talk is a gigantic understatement when it comes to Kate. If her cravats could speak, they would tell a story of profound faith conquering adversity. Kate went from pre-law to working as a legal advocate for the city of New York, which was "very empowering, a lot of the people who had no hope, found hope." Currently she is a designer of "distinguished cravats" and both her company and her designs are literally a brand that is meant to build self-esteem and dreams, "there's something about people being able to look at themselves in a different light in the mirror." Kate's fascination with the cravat was partly inspired by Coco Chanel, who wore neck ties and who lost her mother at twelve years old to illness; Kate's gingham cravat is in the shape of two liberty bells, honoring this country's respect for freedom, despite the fact that her mother was unjudiciously incarcerated when Kate was nine-years-old. Her denim one with frayed edges is inside-out, standing for defiance. Kate revived the NAACP chapter at her college when she undermined a bake sale given by a group of students who were selling the sweets at different prices to different minorities (the whites were being charged more than the African-Americans). The evening before the event, she spent all of her money on ingredients and stayed up through the night baking, in order to give it all away for free. In honor of her belief in symbiotic relationships ("we all need each other..everyone's purpose is different") is the circular herringbone cravat in the shape of the earth, "when you are sitting at a round table, everyone is even." Kate uses only recyclables in deference to the enviornment and in reference to the fact that "history repeats itself." With souls like Kate in the world, there is the hope that the past can teach us to evolve, in the words of her icon Maya Angelou, "The free bird leaps, on the back of the wind and floats downstream, till the current ends and dips his wings, in the orange sun rays and dares to claim the sky."

If you like Kate, you might also enjoy Karen and Sara Brown or Thomas Khadafy.