Dressing to your Assets!

Christina Shipman, a clothing designer, seamstress and business owner for more than 35 years, founded Istina Design in 2010 and established a clothing line that focuses on a woman’s body shape. Her goal is to help women dress beautifully and confidently by understanding their assets as indicated by their their body shapes. She shares her knowledge as an expert, designs original ensembles for her many clients, creates and sells a line of body shape conscious clothing.
Christina was born in Venezuela and grew up in Florida on the Space Coast. She began her study of design in high school with courses in fashion merchandising and clothing design. She went on to study costume design at the College of William and Mary and the U. of So. Florida where she earned an AA of arts degree in theater and a bachelor’s degree in computer science.
Upon graduation, Christina pursued dual careers in costume/fashion design and computer programming. Ultimately the design career won out. She held jobs as an assistant designer in a costume house, cut-and-sew in a hospital supply company, a costume mistress for a cruise ship theater company and the owner of a clothing store of local designers.
Highlights from her design career included working as the costume shop supervisor and designer for Busch Gardens Tampa where each year she redesigned a third of the park’s many costumes. She used her costume design expertise on several Indie films in Florida (winning a Florida Motion Picture and Television Association Crystal Reel award for her costume designing) and owned an online costume company that sold to the Renaissance Fair fans and science fiction communities.
In 2005 Christina's family moved to Raleigh, North Carolina. She closed her online costume company and donated several thousands of dollars of costume stock to Raleigh Little Theater.
She turned her focus toward what had become her passion—fashion and custom clothing design. Christina developed quite a following of private clientele who sought out her design skills.
Christina founded Istina Design in 2010 and today helps a wider audience of women look good and feel confident. Her classic, fitted clothing with an unexpected twist is created to flatter a woman’s body shape and express personal style. In addition, she perks up wardrobes with the right alterations and additions.
Christina also helps other entrepreneurs realize their dreams by doing small production and sample work for several small Raleigh companies.
When not spending time with her family and young grandchildren, Christina enjoys reading, needlepoint and a variety of handicrafts..

Join a vibrant group of empowering women in business

Fridays: 9:30 (free time to network): meeting from 9:45 – 10:45am

As a guest you can
• network with other women in business before and after the meeting
• put your business cards in our card case that is passed around during the meetings
• do a 30 sec presentation to the group about your business
• bring a door prize and have a second opportunity to advertise to the group
• hear a presentation by one of our members
• attend our special lunches with great local guest speakers
• get motivation and support from wonderful women

Attend 3 times for free then decide to join us as an official member with these advantages:
• post your events on our calendar - new people and those signed up on the meetup site (100+) will be notified of your event
• Sign up to do a presentation to this group
• Travel to other Coffee and Contacts™ chapters in the area to network

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