About us
MRS. Couture is an extraordinary private collection of vintage and couture fashion of the 20th century. The collection has been growing for over thirty five years and includes rare historically and culturally important works sourced locally and internationally from private estates. Curated selections from the collection are presented for purchase on MRSCouture.com.
Revenue from the sale of this collection will fund a future children’s museum where children have the opportunity to learn history through fashion.
Nicole M. Willis
Head Researcher and Content Writer
Miles Payne- Media, Content Writer & Photographer
Bios
Marci Rosenberg Samuels
MRS. Couture
Marci Rosenberg is the founder of MRS. Couture, the ultimate fashion archive. It is an extraordinary historical collection consisting of well over 10,000 garments and accessories including important and rare works. She has been collecting for over 35 years. With an eye for pieces that look and feel great on women, clothing with both cultural and historical significance, and a love of the art of both textile and architectural design, Mrs. Rosenberg adds daily to the collection.
She was born with fashion in her genes/jeans. Her great grandfather was a haberdasher and her grandfather an attorney for the Amalgamated Garment Workers Union. Her father was first a textile salesman and then an owner of various garment manufacturers. She remembers having every pair of Charlie’s Angels Jeans, one such company for which he worked. Her mother worked in fashion retail for both Neiman Marcus and Marshall Fields. She spent weekends and summers at the Apparel Mart in Dallas and Apparel Shows throughout the U.S. modeling her father’s clothing lines for perspective buyers. She spent hundreds of hours at the knee of fashion designers and seamstresses learning the art of design. Marci acquired an eye for textile quality, style, Haute Couture and a passion for collecting.
Mrs. Rosenberg left the fashion industry behind. In college, earning degrees in Government and Social Work and working professionally in both state and national politics where she served in the state of Texas Lobby Office in DC for Governor Ann Richards and working for and to elect a number of female US Senators. She became both a 1st Amendment and poverty lawyer and worked on 1st amendment issues in DC and Texas and upon moving back to Texas to marry and start a family she ran a pro bono legal assistance program. Throughout her professional years in the world of politics and law she collected fashion vociferously with one goal in mind.
Growing up she had loved history and had hatched the idea to teach it to America’s youth, in a more relatable, hands on way than she had been taught. She wanted to teach it through fashion. Over the years, the idea blossomed from that of classroom teaching to a history museum where issues such as immigration, industrialization, the environment, and the women’s movement would be evidenced through the “who, what, why, where and how” fashion had been made and allowing visitors to try on and dress up in the museum's contents.
In order to fund this idea, Mrs. Couture was born. A company, made up of women joined by a love of fashion, what it represents and its history. Mrs. Rosenberg and the MRS. Couture team are bringing the wonderful pieces of our past alive by locating and curating incredibly well designed one-of-a-kind items, and adding them to women’s closets around the world.
Director
Originally from St.Augustine, Florida, the oldest city in the United States, Cheryl grew up immersed in antiquities, Spanish renaissance architecture, period costume and the arts. Her mother was her greatest influence and was an extremely wise, creative, talented & savvy business woman. Cheryl's family, the Connell's, were the founders of one of the oldest family restaurants in St. Augustine, the Santa Maria. Her matriarch grandmother, Marguerite Hyacinth Sangaree-Connell was a fashionista and spent much of her time with Cheryl.
As a teenager Cheryl moved south to the beach town New Smyrna and was later hired as a model by sunscreen tycoon Ron Rice, founder of Hawaiian Tropic. Soon after, she became one of his personal assistant's working closely with him traveling the world experiencing places and events like the 24 Heures du Mans, Marjoe Gortner Celebrity Ski events, Miss Hawaiian Tropic International competitions, Europe, Hawaii, China and accompanying his daughter Sterling to Hollywood film sets like the "Olson Twins" movies, "Wild Hogs" and "Boat Trip" where she inadvertently ended up in the films. Time spent traveling and working with Ron expanded her perspective on global business, advertising and most importantly business relationships.
Finally arriving in Houston, Texas, with her husband and prized kids she attended the Art Institute and received her BFA in Fashion Design graduating with honors. During her time at the Art Institute she excelled and won several competitions and scholarships including The National Humane Societies' "Cool v/s Cruel" Fur Free Campaign design competition ( Houston), Little Black Dress Designer for Houston and Dallas, Houston Art Institute's Portfolio Show, team charity competition "Design Wars" benefiting MD Anderson and BARK. She was also chosen out of thousands of applicants making it to semi-final auditions in Atlanta for season 12 of the popular TV show Project Runway. After graduation Cheryl's love of historical and vintage fashion led her to an internship at MRS Couture and shortly after she became Director.
Surrounded daily by vintage fashion and working with the Museum of Fine Arts Houston as a vintage dealer for the gift shop she is able to conceptualize the multi - million dollar MRS Couture collection and continues to work closely with Marci Rosenberg.
Nicole M. Willis
Content Writer and Media Specialist
Nicole’s love of vintage fashion stems from it being a convergence point of art, history, design, sociology, and technology. She researches, writes, photographs, and archives unique vintage garments including historically significant pieces. She provides graphic design for social media, company branding, and events. "I wear a lot of hats!"
