Not every accolade changed her routines. The Top role came with more than commissions: apprentices now sought her out. She taught them to listen before cutting, to learn a life by the tug of a seam. “Measure the person first,” she would say. “Measure the garment second.” Her students were impatient at first, used to fast fashion’s rhythms, but they learned the difference between altering to please and altering to hold.