Expressing Grief with Style: A Woman’s Healing Journey into Fashion

Credit: Elle.com

Alyssa Wasko has a picture of herself as a little girl flying through the air on a swing. Her smiling father is on a swing next to her. “Our eyes are deadlocked on one another, making sure that as high as he got, I was right there with him,” Alyssa recalls in her article titled “How my Fashion Line Helped me Grieve” on Elle.com. Her father, Donald was her motivator—cheering her on to greater heights, until, on the first day of her sophomore year in college, he was gone. Alyssa remembers her bereavement: she felt as if she landed on her back and had the wind knocked out of her.

“‘You play the hand you’re dealt’ – that’s what he always said. So that’s what I did,” she explains.

In her grief, Alyssa saw two choices. She could take a semester off and wait for her pain to stop, or she could do something. She knew her father would want her to choose the latter. “‘You play the hand you’re dealt’ – that’s what he always said. So that’s what I did,” she explains.

Returning to school a week after the funeral, Alyssa took on an ambitious course load and even made it on the dean’s list. During that time, even her busy academic career made her life barely tolerable. Alyssa eventually went into grief counseling, but found no solace in therapy. What she really wanted was to still have her father as a part of her life.

“I was in my own personal therapy session, expressing my grief while pouring my heart into this project,”

Credit: Elle.com

At home, between classes and with no schoolwork to distract her, Alyssa found herself with a basket of fabrics, charms and thread from a local craft store. As her hands went to work making scarves, her healing began. “I was in my own personal therapy session, expressing my grief while pouring my heart into this project,” Alyssa tells in her article.

That’s how Donni Charm came into being. Donni after her father Donald and Charm for a good luck charm that’s sewn into each scarf. Soon Alyssa found herself in a network of people who reached out to her in gratitude for sharing her story and inspiring them to express their grief through creativity. “I became even more inspired and motivated,” she writes. Her inspiration soared higher than she thought possible. Today, stars like Beyoncé, Jessica Alba, Hilary Duff to name a few, sport Alyssa’s labor of love.

Though Alyssa still feels that her father’s death was unfair, Donni Charm gives her a sense of purpose, “It fills me with pride when I hear that one girl has found strength through this story. Now, whenever I see a Donni Charm pass me on the street, I can’t help but smile.”

Just like Alyssa wanted during those difficult months after her loss, her father is a part of her life through luxurious, cozy scarves made in America, and through the numerous charities that receive a portion of all profits from all Donni Charm purchases.

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