“Can you make 18 more pieces by Friday?”
“For the playoffs?”
“Yes!”
“Done.”
It’s the kind of exchange Ashley Harris gets more and more often these days — and always delivers on.
A team of wives and girlfriends asking her to make a statement before a playoff game, a hometown actor from a trending TV series or a season-ticket holder who “just wants one jacket made for one specific seat in one specific section,” she says.
And she treats every task the same way.
The stitching doesn’t change because the deadline did. Every jacket, whether it’s one of 18 or the only one she’ll make that month, gets the same attention at the seam and the same care in how it’s made.
A season lasts a few months. A jacket, if she’s built it right, lasts a lifetime.
It is why clients keep coming back, and why more people find her style one-of-a-kind.
Harris’ love of sewing began in childhood, making outfits for her Barbie and American Girl dolls, with her great-grandmother’s guidance. She loved styling herself — flipping through catalogs and taking-fashion design classes before she even had a portfolio. She went from Western Michigan University to New York City’s Fashion Institute of Technology, earning a degree in Fashion Design and Couture. She landed a coveted internship at the Vera Wang atelier in New York City. and went to work in luxury retail at Coach, learning the products inside and out.
Back in Michigan, Harris transitioned to trim engineering in the auto industry, where she learned to think about constructing pieces the way an engineer does — not just how a design looks, but how it’s built to last.
Between her 9-to-5, Harris worked on custom evening gowns and couture dresses, which kept her coming back to her “why?”
“I love creating beautiful art,” she says. “Nothing compares to seeing people feel their best in something I’ve made.”
Eventually, she took the leap to leave the corporate world to pursue her passion full-time, launching Ashley Harris Designs in 2012.
With her growing success came a new arm of her interests: In addition to designing couture gowns, Harris watched a rise in upcycled fashion.
“Clients would mail me clothing they already owned,” Harris says. “I’d combine it with other thrifted finds to create one-of-a-kind patchwork pieces.” In her hands, well-worn tees, denim jackets and even stadium memorabilia were given new life as hand-stitched one-of-a-kind pieces.
Through this process, Harris found herself drawn to yet another niche: sportswear. She was pulled into a world of custom pieces built for the people who live and breathe a sports team. And not just the players on the field.
She began creating for the wives and girlfriends of professional athletes, season-ticket holders — and anyone who wanted to wear their love of the game literally on their sleeve. “No two clients are the same,” Harris says, “and neither are their pieces.”
The one-off pieces kept growing. Last year, Harris added a new collection under the Ashley Harris brand. Rooted in sustainability and innovation, Drafted in Detroit is the sportswear line built to take what she’d been doing one piece at a time and make it accessible to everyone. She had a clear idea of what she wanted it to stand for — a brand rooted in Detroit, built for anyone who loved a team that much.
The requests keep coming in — from fans currently rooting for the Detroit Tigers to those looking forward to football season, including high-profile names like Coaches Izzo and Fralick, National Anthem-singer Monica Notaro, influencer Kait Keith and NFL wives Callahan LaPorta and Carly Wright. Another highlight: designing a custom jacket for Michigan-native Antonio Cipriano that he wore to Obsessed Fest.
“Clients want pieces built around a specific game, a specific moment — something that captures exactly what each season or event meant to them,” Harris says. “I work closely with every client, from start to finish. Meaningful pieces are at the core of each design.”
Harris is preparing for what’s next: a launch already in motion, a spot lined up at See You Sunday sports-themed pop-up market and a fashion show of her own with a team behind the brand.
Every piece she makes is engineered to outlast the moment it’s made for.
“I love creating beautiful art,” she says. “Nothing compares to seeing people feel their best in something I’ve made.” — Ashley Harris