Childhood and Influences
Born in Chicago near Chinatown, Pinto grew up in a large Italian family and is a twin; she and her brother are the youngest of seven children. Her father was a sanitation worker and her mother was a caterer. Since she was young, Pinto expressed interest in fashion. She made her own clothes as early as 7th grade and got her first sewing machine at age 13. An article in the Wall Street Journal reveals that Pinto's talent surfaced early:
...at age 10 [she] was borrowing a neighbor's issues of Women's Wear Daily. By 13, she was drawing and stitching her own designs. In high school, friends asked her to make coats and hot pants on her Singer sewing machine. She obliged. After taking a class to learn the basics, she recalls, "I started changing the patterns."She even made her own high school prom dress using a pattern by Halston with a fitted bodice and a full skirt. Pinto told Chicago Magazine:
"I didn't have any intense or special exposure to fashion...But I was always interested in the construction of clothes."
Early Adulthood
That interest was put on hold after high school due to personal obligations - namely the family business. In the late 1970s, the Pinto family took over a vacant and dilapidated former cafe, gutted the place, and transformed it into an upscale Italian restaurant. Described as serving "some of the best Italian food in the city," the restaurant had an oddly prescient name - Sogni Dorati (Italian for "golden dreams").
Unfortunately, Pinto's own golden dreams as a designer had to wait; she felt strong family loyalty to her brother Silvio, who was the head chef. The restaurant garnered rave reviews and in 1987 was named among the Top 40 most highly rated Chicago restaurants by Zagat's. However, when her brother became ill that year, the restaurant closed.
Education and Training
At age 30, Pinto decided at last to pursue her own interests in art and fashion. According to the Wall Street Journal:
While studying at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, she learned to marry her love of sculpture and painting with her craft. (Sculptor Richard Serra is an influence.)Pinto told FamousInterview.com:
For me, its fashion/art. I’ve always studied art and I just consider fashion an extension of art that I adore, which is sculpture. So, textiles become sculpture on the body, because you’re dealing with three dimension.Pinto's passion for sculpture and the physical form was enhanced by her first job after college with a well-known designer, as reported by Chicago Magazine:
After graduation, Pinto moved to New York City and started working for the fashion icon Geoffrey Beene, in his Fifth Avenue shop, where she handled some of his high-profile clients, and in the design room, where she studied Beene's style of construction. He had a medical background, and his construction was closely connected to the body's musculature, following the line of an arm or the curve of a hip. In 1991, Pinto moved back to Chicago and started sewing.The rest, as they say, would soon be history.
Sources:
Branch, Shelly. " Michelle Obama's Chicago designer makes a bid for national recognition." The Wall Street Journal, 21 June 2008.
Coburn, Marcia Froelke. "Dressing to Thrill." Chicago Magazine, March 2008.
Hevrdejs, Judy. "20-year old Zagat unearths delicious Chicago dining memories." ChicagoTribune.com, 31 December 2007.
James, Gary. "Maria Pinto Interview." FamousInterview.com, retrieved 16 January 2009.
"Maria Pinto - Lola Black, LLC." ChicagoFashionResource.com, retrieved 16 January 2009.
"Pat Bruno's Private Table." The Chicago Sun-Times, 11 November 1990.
Patterson, Ryan. "Glam Slam: Michelle Obama's Go-To Gal." Access Hollywood, 30 October 2008.
Saulny, Susan. "Front Row: An Obama Fashion Bump." The New York Times, 14 August 2008.
Taylor, Bill. "The woman behind that purple dress." The Toronto Star, 22 August 2008.
