Our Story
I learned to sew from my grandmother, Irina, when I was seven years old.
Before becoming a tailor, she studied to become a rocket programmer in the Soviet Union. Although she never got to build a career in that field, her education stayed with her throughout her life.
She had a remarkable ability to look at a garment and find a solution where someone else might only see a limitation. She was always experimenting, finding creative ways to alter, repair, or reshape clothing. When people asked her whether she could do a certain alteration, she would respond, “we can do everything.” If there was a problem with a garment, she believed there was a way to figure it out.
I carried that way of thinking with me as I grew up. I eventually studied Costume Design at Emerson College, where my relationship with clothing expanded beyond construction and tailoring into design, storytelling, and character. Costume design taught me to think about clothing not simply as something that fits a body, but as something that can communicate who a person is, how they move through the world, and how they want to be seen.
That is what I bring to Baboo’s Atelier.
My grandmother taught me to look at a garment and ask, How can we make this work? My work as a costume designer taught me to also ask, What does this garment mean to the person wearing it?
Baboo’s Atelier is my way of bringing those two perspectives together. I provide tailoring and alterations with an emphasis on craftsmanship, creative problem-solving, and the individual person behind each garment. Whether we are making a small adjustment or figuring out how to transform a piece entirely, I want the finished garment to feel like it belongs to the person wearing it.
The name Baboo’s Atelier comes from my grandmother, whom we sarcastically referred to as Baboo, and from the Shawmut Place location where she built her tailoring business. I opened the shop after graduating from Emerson in 2026, carrying forward the skills she taught me while building something that reflects my own perspective as a costume designer.
For me, continuing her legacy does not mean doing things exactly as she did. It means carrying forward the curiosity, creativity, and belief that there is always a way to make something work, and combining that with my own belief that clothing should tell the story of the individual wearing it.