Interview With Shirley Willett
In her 90s, Shirley is known as a “Renaissance woman” and a design expert still writing and educating aspiring designers.
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Dear Friends of Medium, one of my goals as a writer, editor, publisher, and curator is to introduce influential writers and leaders in their fields to my audience via interviews starting in 2019. When I became a Friend of Medium last year, I asked the early adopters of the program what they expected from this new subscription model.
Most avid readers in my circles expect curated content and visibility to the work of influential writers who can inform and entertain them with their knowledge and life experiences. Therefore, I introduce influential writers with leadership capability who contribute to my curated publications and create visibility for their impactful, insightful, relatable, memorable, and eloquent stories on this platform.
In this post, I will share an interview script I enjoyed conducting with Shirley Willett, a long-term contributor to the Medium community and an ardent supporter of ILLUMINATION publications, as a Friend of Medium. I have known Shirley for a long time. Her stories in my publications stand out due to their impact, rich information, authentic life lessons, engaging content, impressive style, and practical design insights.
As a design thinking professional, Shirley’s stories are extra unique to me as she reflects remarkable insights from the past, illuminating us. I believe you will enjoy exploring the background of this seasoned designer, now in her 90s, still transferring her tacit knowledge in her engaging stories.
Hi Shirley, tell us a bit about your background.
Thank you for this opportunity, Dr Yildiz. I was born in 1933, in the middle of the Great Depression, in the poorest section of Brookline, Massachusetts. My family (two older brothers and a 3rd after me) lived in a tiny apartment with my father’s brother and six kids.
This was important in my life because I had a great mother who came from the Nova Scotia farmlands, which was poorer than the U.S. 1930s Depression, so she had a fantastic attitude that everything was good for us.
This taught me that poverty was not bad and you can be happy and do things. She was the best teacher and motivator, and she taught me to save before buying. In Junior High, I saved my babysitting money and bought a sewing machine, the best purchase of my life that was meaningful to the fashion designer I would become.
My mother, whom I love deeply, died in 1963. Apparently, my reactions were determined mentally ill by a brother and a psychiatrist, and I was hospitalized and given ECT shock treatments. In my writing, I wanted to emphasize more positive elements of Mental Health. There is just too much negativity surrounding it.
At 16, my first job was stitching in garment factories, work that paid off in excellent learning about apparel production and what was needed in pattern engineering — for my eventual fashion design, engineering, and manufacturing corporation.
After building Shirley Willett, Inc. and selling it after 20 years, I reincorporated it in the 1980s as a small business consultant to teach and help young designers do what I had done. My life’s purpose is learning and teaching. Even some workers said, “Hey, Teach, come here.”
What are your hobbies?
In addition to my life’s work as a hobby, writing poetry was a love as a hobby. Although writing many poems and a book, “Do You See What I See?” my favorite poem is “A Zillion Universes”.
One of my hobbies is working with the color of emotions.
Can you tell us a bit about your design experience?
Excellence in design was always a goal. In the 1960s, as a custom designer, I learned from my customers’ needs and wants. A saleswoman at the elite French Shop at Filene’s in Boston got me customers and let me study the inside and making of top designer clothing in her sales.
As a teenager, I started experimenting with 2D/3D digital translations and connected them with my stitching in garment factories.
Then I worked on P.O.D. Databases titled “Syntax and Semantics of an Image Communication Language for Design Management,” by Shirley Willett, for Proceedings 1990 ASME Technical Design Conference, Chicago, Illinois. Kodak Camera & Caterpillar Farming Equip. You may ask for copies of my graphic showing Point of Design having all the information for a business.
My collections at Boston’s MassArt Fashion Design Museum and 2022 Catalog show my “design and Pattern Engineering experience.”
You talk about multiple dimensions in life in your stories. Please give us some insights on how you perceive them.
Dimensions are studied in both science and spirituality. In science, it concerns math, geometry, and measurements.
Spirituality has to do with evolving states of higher consciousness way beyond the death of physical bodies. This story talks more about spiritual Dimensions.
“Fifth Dimension Perspectives: Evolving higher consciousness one understands many perspectives before getting “A Vision of the Whole in the Sixth Dimension.”
Can you mention some books you wrote about design work?
Yes, I wrote several books. All my books were written with a core idea of teaching. I taught fashion design and pattern engineering at many Boston schools and colleges, mentored many young proteges, and won a few National Science Foundation engineering design awards through my background and writing expertise. Here is a list of them.
1965, Creative Kits: Designed garment pieces of leather for putting together embroidery, rivets, or crocheting by consumers.
1983, Let’s Design a Dress: A textbook for teaching fashion design and pattern making in many schools and colleges. The logo is my design.
2004, Fashion Industry Design Issues & Practices: A workshop at MIT, comparing design in various industries
2018, Past, Present, Future Book: Fashion Memoir, 70 Years of Design, Education, Engineering & Technology: by Shirley Willett & published by Stylometrics, Inc.
2022, Pattern Engineering: MassArt Fashion Design Catalog featuring Shirley Willett collections in their museum.
It was the best learning experience to write well, as I wrote a couple of hundred papers for seminars and conferences. One of those was for a workshop at MIT.
I know you also read a lot. What are the top three books that affected your life?
I read many books, but these are more involved with spirituality.
1. Rudolph Steiner: Cosmic Memory talks of how Humanity evolved on planets before and after being on Earth. I discovered this book when searching to understand a past life recall in Lemuria.
2. Rudolph Steiner: How To Know Higher Worlds talks of knowledge from Mystics, Gnostics, and Theosophists of the world of soul and spirit, and the development of power and faculties, and attaining them.
3. James Redfield, Celestine Prophecy, “Insights moving toward a completely spiritual culture on Earth.”
Why do you write on Medium?
Books I wrote about my fashion and teaching work, which led me to write on Medium.com. Writing on Medium is my life today, at almost 91, and some of my readers said they learn from my writing — which pleases me, as teaching is my purpose. I have found a wonderful community of writers on Medium.com, and I no longer miss family and my generation of friends — who have all passed away.
Why did you join ILLUMINATION?
When I first joined Medium, I joined many publications and followed many writers. As I discovered writers who talked of many topics I love, I reduced publications and followings. Illumination has those special writers and has introduced me to others who sparked me, and we often communicate in our comments, which is joyful. This also answers the question, “How do I connect with my readers?” These writers/readers are now my world and community, and with some, like my family.
Who are the top ten writers you follow on Medium?
Apart from yourself, my favorite writers are Marcus aka Gregory Maidman, 🥰Lanu Pitan🥰, Jodie Helm http//www.asktheangels222.com, Andy Murphy, Anne Bellamy, Steven Gambardella, Anthi Psomiadou, Jocelyn Joy Thomas, Ashllyn T., and many more.
What are your values as a writer?
Teaching to my readers is a core value for me. Awareness and acceptance of my readers are important as they accept me as I am. My goal is to share my experience in a simple way.
What do you recommend to writers, especially in the design field?
READ writers in many fields. First, find those to link with and comment/communicate with. Second, discover those that spark new interests that lead to understanding more of yourself.
If you are into design work, many stories, especially my Fashion Design Assistance Series, talk as a teacher and fashion design expert to young designers. I am disappointed with fashion design education today, which promotes celebrities, fashion shows, and sensationalism.
I plead to them to learn and do every step from idea to pattern engineering to stitching to finishing, not just to achieve a meaningful and excellent product but also to be able to guide workers when starting to hire. Ideas are nice but meaningless without execution.
What are your top five stories to share with your audience and why?
I wrote many stories, but these are the most popular ones.
What are your plans as a writer?
As long as I live, I will continue to write as I have been doing. However, I am almost 91, and I believe I will pass when I finish doing what needs to be done — to leave comfortably. I do have a desire, not a plan, that in the Afterlife, I could be a muse in design and writing for those on earth.
Thank you for reading this interview script. I hope you explore the profile of Shirley Willett and read her insightful and inspiring stories full of design insights and life lessons reflecting her vast life experience.
I also introduced several other influential writers. Here are some recent samples that you may start exploring.
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