Alcalay grew up in New York City with a sewing needle in her hand after immigrating from Vietnam as a “boat person” at the age of 3.

Designing clothing became her first love as she worked side-by-side with her mother to put food on their table. The lessons she learned and the skills she has acquired were not only inspired but deeply imbedded in who she is.

Alcalay’s extensive training was introduced by her mother, self-taught tailor, sample-maker, and pattern-maker. Alcalay acquired the secrets of her trade working alongside her mother in gritty overcrowded manufaturing factories and later in the basement of their home where heaps of clothing awaited completion. With no seam unpressed, and no hem overlooked, Alcalay’s well trained eyes became sharper with every stitch. It was an unconventional and oddly auspicious upbringing for a natural-born designer.

At the tender age of 4, Alcalay was sewing, making and designing clothing while most children her age were coloring with crayons. Alcalay’s first few garments were not for dolls but for herself complete with bound buttonholes and lined in silk.

Clothing and design comes as naturally as speaking her mother tongue.


“Becoming a Designer was not a choice that I made. It is simply who I am.”


As a young adult with an insatiable appetite for more industry experience, Alcalay found her footing with seasoned people of her trade while attending The High School of Fashion Industries.

Starting a the young age of 14, Alcalay’s continued to nurture her extraordinary desire for fashion and worked in an undergarment design company with Roslyn Harte. Simultaneously, Alcalay spent any spare time she had at a 100 year-old lace company. Alcalay assisted designers such as Eric Gaskins in Seventh Avenue's Garment District and later worked in numerous Luxury stores on Madison Avenue.

Pursuing her dream, Alcalay attended Parson's School of Design in NYC and spent a year abroad in Paris. While is Paris, Alcalay interned at Christian Lacroix and studied the great masters of couture. Returning to NYC, inspired, Alcalay continued her studies and won the renowned "Parsons’s Golden Thimble" award from Michael Vollbract.

Upon graduation and with the understanding of craft and creativity involved in designing and making clothing in tow, Alcalay decided to focus on the business aspect of the fashion industry, her customer.

In 2002, Alcalay opened her boutique in NYC featuring her eponymous collection of "Made to Measure" clothing. Four the past 9 years, Alcalay expresses her ultra-feminine sensibility through her label's made-to-order coats, dresses, and separates. Using richly textured tweeds and silks, playful draping, and delicate details, Alcalay designs pieces intended for timelessness.

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