Mountain Views News          Saturday, February 19, 2011

7

GOOD FOOD & DRINK

SMALL BUSINESS NEWS

 Mountain Views News Saturday, February 19, 2011 

SIERRA MADRE

FashGal – A New Online Design Studio

Proprietor, Paula Gallemore

By Laquetta Shamblee 

I just moved into my new digs, and had to find a new Starbuck’s for my morning Joe.

What is the big deal, you ask? Sure that is reasonable response, but just like me the drink 
is very complicated. Vento Size (that’s large for the non Starbucks world) and eight pump 
Chai Tea Latté, no water. Yes, your favorite restaurant reviewer is one of them. Those people 
you roll your eyes at as they are ordering your drink, while there are ten people ahead of 
you and behind you. But I do have my etiquette formally patterned: no talking on the cell 
phone once you are in line and don’t bring a list, otherwise the charming barista turns beet 
red! It’s been a week now I have a few of them trained and remembering my order. Come 
on for $4 don’t I get it my way?

Trying to dig around to find out what’s new in town in the culinary area. The KFC is long 
gone and it looks like a Mexican Restaurant is placing their stake down, hmmm Margaritas 
to go? 

What I thought was the pride of Sierra Madre, Lozano’s is gone; guess we just couldn’t walk 
across the street. The same owners as Mike and Anne’s of South Pasadena is set to open the 
Wisteria Grill. 

Lucky Baldwin’s our favorite Beer Place is expanding and has opened up on Colorado in 
Pasadena, the old Brit’s is no more and if you like beer, this should be your spot, over 60 
beers on Tap. Sounds like they are giving the Yard 

House a run for Beer supremacy, I can never get a cold 
glass at the Yard House. 

Banking on the same success as LA Dine, Pasadena has 
come up with their own restaurant week. The event 
happens from March 27th through April 1st. Restaurants 
will be offering lunch and dinner fixed menus 
from the $15 to $45 range. Restaurants include Bar Celona, 
Robins BBQ, Mijare’s and El Cholo. Please call 
The Chamber at (626) 795-3355 for additional details.

Join me this Sunday afternoon at 4 PM on KABC Talk 
Radio AM 790 for Dining with Dills, for those of you that 
have Charter Cable, Sundays at 7 PM on Channel 101. 
Know of a new restaurant? Drop me a line at the chefknows@
yahoo.com


At 6’3” tall, Paula Gallemore 
has a towering presence as the 
owner of a small business. She 
was laid off from her job in 
2008 after many years as a full-
time professional in the fashion 
industry. With encouragement 
and support from her husband, 
Kyle, she has embraced this time 
as a transition period to start a 
home-based business. After 
enrolling in an entrepreneurship 
workshop offered by the Women 
At Work nonprofit organization, 
she began to lay the groundwork 
to bring her ideas to life. 
Gallemore™, her first fashion 
line, merges her knowledge of fine fabrics 
with inspiration from a huge wardrobe of 
scarves purchased during her travels as a 
fashion industry professional to India, China, 
Hong Kong, Istanbul, Greece and Germany. 

The Gallemore™ line features handmade and 
one-of-a-kind scarves in exquisite textures, 
including silk and velvet fabrics, a brilliant 
color palette and her distinctive, signature 
- four beautiful dangling beads, with one 
adorning each corner of every scarf. In 
October of last year, she donated two of her 
first designs for the silent auction at Women 
At Work’s annual fundraiser. There was 
brisk bidding for both, with one selling well 
above its retail price of $125. Most pieces 
in the Gallemore™ line range from $48 to 
$89. In December of 2010, she launched the 
“FashGal™, Online Design Studio, where the 
fashion conscious can find “Accessories as 
unique as the woman who wears them.”™

A graduate of Fashion Institute of Design 
& Merchandising in Los Angeles, she has 
enjoyed the type of career that some can only 
dream about. Initially starting as an assistant 
designer, she has covered much of the 
industries professional spectrum. From roles 
as a first pattern maker, to the responsibilities 
of selecting an entire line as a Merchandiser, 
if it has anything to do with the fashion 
industry, she has seen it all and has probably 
done most of it. Her talents as a producer and 
coordinator of fashion shows involved hiring 
models and working with major department 
retailers, including Macy’s, Nordstrom’s and 
the apparel manufacturers in Los Angeles. 
She coordinated numerous satellite shows 
throughout the U.S. in Seattle, Chicago, 
Dallas, New York and other major cities. 

Although she continues to do freelance work 
and considers high-level fashion industry 
opportunities, she is clearly excited when 
speaking about what’s next for FashGal. “I’m 
working with different silk fabrics and some 
custom-pleated designs. I refer to one of the 
designs as my crazy, crystal pleat’ which is 
done by hand, with no two alike,” says Paula, 
“the intricate geometric designs remind me 
of the Disney Concert Hall, with various 
planes and angles.

History is filled with stories of women like 
Marie Callendar and Mary Kay who blazed 
trails now being walked on by women like 
Paula Gallemore – individuals who have 
dared to step out to bring their concepts and 
ideas to life. Take a moment to window shop 
and puruse her fashions at www.etsy.com/
people/fashgal.


TABLE FOR TWO by Peter Dills