Cynthia grew up surrounded by the arts
Cynthia was raised by her parents, Ed and Clementine Rowley, in Illinois her dad was a science teacher, but her mother’s side of the family dabbled in the arts…which likely inspired her love for fashion design. “My mom’s whole side of the family were painters. My grandmother did a lot of self-portraits like this [upstairs] painting,” Cynthia told the New York Times. “She always wore Chinese dresses like that, even though she was 100 percent Italian. It was a very eccentric upbringing, with theme rooms and stuff.”
Cynthia made her first piece of clothing a dress at the age of 7. (I was literally playing with my Barbie dolls and watching