About

The Full Story

 
In the fashion business for over 40 years, Victor Colvin won Best Dressed in high school wearing thrift store clothes that he was getting a local tailor to alter for him. Shortly after, he started sewing as an elective during his senior year. He entered a class as a way to be around a room full of girls (being as though he was such a ladies man), and took interest in it. He received his first sewing machine from 1 of his 5 sisters that she found in a vacant house that was next door to where he grew up. He then set up shop and started sewing out of his mother's basement.  
He sold his first collection out of West 57, an upscale boutique nestled in Wash., DC's prestigious Georgetown Park Mall, as well as Ricey's Boutique of Georgetown, not long after graduating. His career got a major boost when he was selected over 30 other designers to appear in (the now defunct) Ebony Man Magazine. He went on to become the recipient of a couple of design awards, which include the Best Sportswear Designer of the Year 1982 (Joyce Mills & Associates), and the Couture Award for Outstanding Young Designers 1983-84 (Deb Tech Consulting Service).
In recent years, he has done freelance designing, manufacturing, and/or consulting for over 40 urban lines in the Washington Metropolitan area, such as Mchunu, All Daz, Shooters, and Madness, just to name a few. Under the moniker of VMAC, he and his former partner launched their own line in 2001. It included playful, trendy urbanwear, vivacious couture, and racy, eye-catching swimwear.
Victor debuted his Victor Hou Collection for DC Fashion Week II in 2005. He has been featured in many publications including, Black Mens Magazine SSX (Swimsuit Extra), DaBook, Black Hair Sophisticates, and DC North. He has also appeared on several cable TV shows in DC, MD, NJ, and NY. Celebrities such as Taraji Henson, Kima (of the Bad Boy Records group, Total), Allen Iverson, and Jaheim have all adorned themselves with Victor's pieces.
In Nov. 2015, he became the recipient of Designer of the Year of the New York Fashion Awards (Heartland Model Agency) for his ongoing contributions in the Fashion Capital. He also showed 2 mini-collections for New York Fashion Week with Plitzs Fashion Marketing,(one of which will be launched on macys.com in Summer 2016). 

Victor Colvin started collecting vintage sewing machines fairly recently, in 2017. He was using a white plastic Walmart machine and was working on a project that had a deadline, when the machine started acting up. He looked on Facebook Marketplace and found a vintage Kenmore near where he was living at the time. The machine so impressed him that he decided to purchase more vintage machines as a backup. He found a seller that had three of the machines, and he purchased all three of them.

Soon, Victor began to get involved in the vintage sewing machine community on Facebook. He was surprised to discover just how large the community was – the first group he joined had 65,000 members from all over the world. He began sharing pictures of his new sewing machine purchases with the group, and before he knew it, he had an audience of people waiting to see what he would share next.
“I was finding some real beauties!” he shares. “Next thing I knew, I was a rock star in this community.”

Today, Victor’s collection consists of almost 300 machines, many of which he acquired overseas from countries such as the UK, Germany, and the Netherlands. Although at first he was just buying whatever he could find, his eye is now more trained to find the machines that are special and rare. The oldest piece in the collection is a mother of pearl Singer 12, which dates back to 1868. The rarity of what he collects is something that makes his collection truly stand out.

His favorite piece from the collection is a Queen Victoria Jubilee Singer Model 27. Singer produced just 100 of these and gave them away in a contest in 1897 – they were never for sale. The machine commemorated Queen Victoria’s reign, and there’s a picture of her on the bed of the machine. Only 7 or 8 of them are known to exist. “I may have #9 out of 100,” shares Victor. Victor acquired this special piece at an auction in the UK. “You can tell when an auction house doesn’t know what it has, but they knew what it was – they had the name on it.” When it came time for the auction, the starting bid was set at 200 pounds. Victor placed a bid and was surprised to find that no one else bid on the item! “The auctioneer was surprised,” he shares.

Right now, Victor’s collection is all in storage, but he has plans to change that. He has started a nonprofit organization that will open a vintage sewing machine showroom in Washington DC. “I will be housing my collection there once I acquire a building, whether through grants, donations, fundraisers, or government funding!” he shares. “I’ve already gotten participation from top collectors that will loan their machines to the showroom.” He and his partner currently teach sewing classes in DC community centers, and they plan to teach them at the showroom as well.