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Lore Emelio

• Ashley Goodwin

• The living room doubles as the showroom in Lore Emelio's home.

From the outside, this small house on McDonald Avenue looks like any other cozy home in Dilworth. But inside you'll find the start-up business and living quarters of Lore Emelio, a local fashion designer who believes Charlotte has the capacity to become the fashion capital of the South. Emelio attended the design school at Parsons and has worked for Ralph Lauren before moving to Charlotte three-and-a-half years ago. Since here, she has designed, developed and marketed her own line of hats, headbands, ties and bowties, and has recently launched her E-Boutique on her website, allowing clients to buy online.

For Emelio, space is key in her home (known to her friends as the Land of Lore), and every room and space has its own purpose. "When you're working from home, you've got to find useful ways to work with what you've got," she says. The living room has been transformed into her showroom, where she has product readily available for shipping out to clients. In the dining/kitchen area, what she refers to as her conference and work space, you'll find storage bins, corkboards filled with drawings and a computer station for website maintenance and shipping out orders. The master bedroom is the main sewing studio, and another bedroom is the hat studio.

Emelio says the reason why she chose to rent instead of buy is because she invested money into her business. "I knew having this space works for me and Moxey [her dog], and I knew it would work for work, but to have a family or something like that, we'd move. I only meant to rent for three months. Three years later, I don't own a home, which bugs the crap out of me, but my grandmother said, 'You can always buy a house.' Another thing my grandmother and I talked about is if I bought this house, I'd immediately do the yard, I'd immediately redo the house, and it would divide my attention from my business. It's a start-up and I'm doing it with zero budget, so it takes as much as I've got."

Where do you live?

A small house between Dilworth and South End, but it's technically Dilworth.

What would you say is the theme of your home?

I think what I was most inspired by when I found this house were the storage shelves, because they're metal and they're industrial and exposed. They are what they are; they're functional and sturdy. It's a perfect example of how aesthetic and use create a contemporary experience.

Since you work out of your home, is there any space that is exclusively yours?

The executive bathroom [laughs]. This is my private space; no one ever uses this bathroom. I have my closet and my toothbrush; what more do I need? That whole feng shui thing is prevalent in here though. You can tell the status of my life from the chair and the bathtub. If the bathtub is full of materials and the chair has samples piled up on it, you know I have a lot going on.

How would you say your home reflects your life?

It's eclectic. When you get into some of the random little details here, it's eclectic. And it's desperate to be organized [laughs]. And there's a whole lot going on.