When Kelsey Campion started making handmade Mardi Gras-themed clothing from a 200-square-foot bedroom nearly a decade ago, she never expected to get stopped on the street and asked if she’s the “caftan lady.”

But a viral video and strong local demand for her signature sequined items — jackets, dresses, vests, shirts and the full-length caftans seen everywhere on local parade routes — propelled her home-based sewing enterprise into a pair of businesses with millions in revenues and a growing clientele from the Gulf Coast and beyond.

Campion and her business and life partner, Liz Ellis, now operate both businesses from a hot pink former paint factory on Howard Avenue. One is an e-commerce retailer called Fringe & Co. that sells Campion's creations directly to consumers. The other is a grow

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