Jacqueline Strano of Ricamo Strano: Fashion History, Feminism and a Wicked Sense of Humor, One Stitch at a Time

5 min read

Nightlife Report · Interviews · Lillith Magic · Directed by Anthony Perlas

Follow Jacqueline Strano: Instagram @jmstrano · Website strangeembroidery.com

Jacqueline Strano is the artist and founder of Ricamo Strano in Brooklyn, New York, where she embroiders onto historical photographs. She answered the Nightlife Report founder questions in writing, and her answers run below exactly as she wrote them.

What was the moment you stopped playing small, and what did you do the very next day?

The moment I stopped playing small was when I realized I had spent years studying, teaching, and celebrating other people's creativity while quietly putting limits on my own. I had the knowledge, the ideas, and the passion, but I kept waiting for the perfect moment to take myself seriously as an artist.

Eventually, I realized that moment wasn't coming. I had to create it.

The very next day, I started treating my embroidery as more than a creative outlet. I began building what would become Ricamo Strano, a business that brings together my love of fashion history, cinema, women's stories, and textile art.

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What game is the rest of your industry playing that you refuse to play?

I think much of the creative industry is caught up in the game of producing more, posting more, and constantly chasing the next trend. There's enormous pressure to turn creativity into content and measure success by likes, followers, and algorithms.

I refuse to believe that art has to move at the speed of social media to be relevant or successful. My work is rooted in history, storytelling, and the slow, deliberate process of hand embroidery. Each piece takes time, and that's part of its value.

What's the boldest bet you've made on this brand (price, production, a hire, a show), and how did you justify it when others played it safe?

The boldest bet I've made was investing in Ricamo Strano before I had any guarantee it would succeed. I took something deeply personal—my love of fashion history, old Hollywood, women's stories, and embroidery—and decided to build an actual business around it.

If you restarted tomorrow, what would you do bigger and sooner?

I would put myself and my work out into the world much sooner. I spent too much time thinking I needed everything to be perfect before I could take the next step. The perfect website, the perfect collection, the perfect business plan. I've learned that you gain far more from actually doing something than from endlessly preparing to do it.

What are you putting into the world in the next 90 days that proves you're moving?

Over the next 90 days, I'm focused on expanding Ricamo Strano beyond individual works of art and creating new ways for people to experience fashion history through embroidery.

I'm developing embroidery kits, expanding my workshops, and pursuing collaborations with boutiques, museums, and creative spaces that share my appreciation for history, craftsmanship, and storytelling. I'm particularly excited about partnerships that bring embroidery into unexpected places.

Picture ten times the audience you have today. What has to change in how you and your team work to get there?

To reach ten times my current audience, I have to shift from thinking solely as an artist to thinking as both an artist and a business owner. Right now, I'm a one-woman operation, which means I'm the artist, researcher, marketer, administrator, and occasionally the person frantically packing orders at midnight.

Growth means learning to let go of some of those roles. I'd like to build a small, talented team that can handle the operational side of the business, allowing me to focus on what I do best: creating art, researching fascinating stories, teaching, and developing new ideas.

It also means being more intentional about collaborations, expanding workshops, and creating products that can reach people beyond my immediate community.

The challenge is scaling without losing what makes Ricamo Strano special. I never want the work to feel mass-produced or impersonal. I want to build a business that grows around the art, rather than one where the art gets lost in the business.

What almost killed a launch, show or shoot, and who on your team refused to let it die?

When you're a one-woman business, the person who refuses to let something die is usually you! There have been plenty of moments when preparing for a market or workshop felt overwhelming. Between creating the artwork, sourcing materials, organizing logistics, marketing, and managing all the little details, it's easy to wonder whether you've taken on too much.

But I've learned that being an independent artist means becoming very good at problem-solving, improvising, and occasionally working through a little chaos. Things rarely go exactly as planned, and sometimes you just have to figure it out as you go.

If you got one cover frame, which image, piece or look would it be, why does it carry the whole idea, and who made it with you?

I would choose my “Childless Cat Lady” embroidery, the piece that started Ricamo Strano. Inspired by the political rhetoric surrounding women who choose not to have children, it began as a way to express my frustration through something traditionally associated with femininity and domesticity.

What's the one detail in your work (a stitch, a light, a song, a scent, a gesture) that only your team notices but that changes everything?

It's knowing when to stop stitching. Because I work with historical photographs, there's always a delicate balance between the original image and what I add to it.

When you're not in the room, what one sentence do you want people saying about your brand?

Ricamo Strano makes you look at the past differently—it's where fashion history, feminism, and a wicked sense of humor meet, one stitch at a time.

In her own words: Why do you think it's important to revisit the past through art?

Because history is never really finished. We tend to look at old photographs and see beautiful clothes, glamorous women, or a world that feels impossibly far away. But behind those images are real women navigating expectations, limitations, ambitions, and identities that aren't so different from our own.

Credits. Instagram: @jmstrano. Website: strangeembroidery.com.

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Lillith Magic · Directed by Anthony Perlas

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