Ever since I could hold a pencil, I have been drawing. Scribbles turned into shapes, shapes into figures, and figures into characters wearing turbans, tiaras, suits, shawls, pumps, pockets . . . I was a storyteller not with words, but with forms, colors, and textures.



My name is Natalie Turturro Mettouchi; I am a costume designer for stage and screen based in New York City. This is my story _x0014_



Growing up in New York City and Florida, I was taught to embrace the humble notion that _x001C_clothes do not make the girl._x001D_ Yet, trapped in a drab uniform at primary school, I knew that while my polo shirt and pleated skirt did not define who I was, they surely did not allow me to express my colorful character beneath them. The girl, I thought, would have to make the clothes.



Always an avid reader of novels and plays, this time I went to the library searching for something else: DIY books on how to alter one's wardrobe. I dyed my shirt pink in the bathtub, stitched a green frog patch onto the