I love seeing love," says Stephanie Brown, owner and designer of House of Maganda Bridal Boutique in downtown Charleston. Love is evident in everything she does. From the handpainted walls of her studio to her handsewn gowns, Brown lives and breathes love every single day. "Maganda means beauty or beautiful in Tagalog," says Brown. It's a nod to her Filipino heritage but, she says, "when I chose the name, I didn't know how all-encompassing it would become." All she knew was that she wanted a name that would allow her to create beauty, a direct foil to her prior career in the Army. "I bought my home sewing machine when I got out of the Army, around 2008," says Brown. She wasn't sewing bridal gowns yet, though. Instead, she was learning, sewing bags for friends and sweaters for her husband. "Can I measure you?" was a lovingly dreaded question among her friends and family. "They all came out horrible, but I was excited to be creating something." Brown's husband, still on Army active duty, was stationed in Hawaii, where she interned with Project Runway finalist Kini Zamora. When the family moved to El Paso, Texas, Brown won a prestigious fellowship with Andrea Pittercampbell, focused on bridal work. "This was where I started to ask Andrea, 'Do I have talent? Should I keep going?'" says Brown. "When I was dipping my toe, she gave me the confidence to move forward." HOUSE OF Maganda Beautiful, Strong and Made of Love BY LEAH MOORE 34 WWW.CHARLESTONWOMENPODCAST.COM | WWW.READCW.COM | WWW.INSTAGRAM.COM/CHARLESTONWOMEN
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