Before Janice and Carolyn Wilbourn became international fashion designers, before their creations reached Atlanta retail spaces and fashion stages beyond Georgia, and long before the Wilbourn name became associated with decades of design, there were seven little girls learning to sew.
And there was a mother determined to teach them.
Her name was Elizabeth.
Known affectionately as “Queen Mother Elizabeth,” she was a single mother, entrepreneur and seamstress who understood the value of knowing how to make something with your own hands.
She taught all seven of her daughters—Janice, Carolyn, Johnetta, Ruth, Susie, Martha and Mary—to sew, design, work and create.
At the time, those lessons may have simply seemed like part of growing up in the Wilbourn household.
They became something much bigger.
For Janice and Carolyn, the lessons learned at their mother’s side would eventually travel from Tennessee to Atlanta and across the world.
Their story is one of fashion.
But it is also a story about what happens when a Black mother plants something powerful inside her daughters—and those daughters refuse to let it die.
Before Fashion Became the Dream
Queen Mother Elizabeth’s story began in Tennessee.
Born and raised in Hardeman County near Bolivar, she learned to sew from her own mother, Susie Chism. Elizabeth would become the only sibling in her family to pursue sewing as a trade.
Later, as a single mother raising seven daughters, sewing became more than something she enjoyed.
It became entrepreneurship.
Elizabeth began sewing for the public in the Bemis community near Jackson, Tennessee, building a livelihood around a skill passed down to her by another generation of women.
And then she did something that would ultimately change the trajectory of her family:
She taught her daughters what she knew.
Janice and Carolyn remember their mother not simply for teaching them how to handle fabric or operate a sewing machine, but for instilling the principles underneath the craft—work ethic, morals, self-esteem, independence and faith.
Those lessons matter because the Wilbourn story did not begin with access.
It began with preparation.
Queen Mother Elizabeth could not guarantee what opportunities would eventually be available to seven Black girls growing up in Tennessee.
But she could make certain they knew how to create.
She could give them a trade.
She could teach them how to work.
And she could teach them to believe that what was in their hands had value.
Several of her daughters would ultimately become involved in the family’s sewing, interior design and custom upholstery businesses.
Janice and Carolyn took the family gift into fashion.
And fashion took them places they could never have imagined.
From Tennessee to the World
The road was not a straight one.
The sisters’ professional journey eventually carried them through Texas and abroad, including work and travel in Europe. Published accounts of their career document experiences in places such as Germany and Paris before Atlanta became another defining chapter in the Wilbourn story.
They weren’t merely seeing the world.
They were taking their creativity with them.
For two Black women whose introduction to fashion began through their mother’s sewing tradition in Tennessee, the international experience represented something larger: a family skill was becoming a professional identity.
The world was getting bigger.
So was the Wilbourn name.
Then Came Atlanta
By approximately 1990, Janice and Carolyn had made their way to Atlanta.
It was a city transforming itself.
Atlanta was increasingly establishing its identity as a center of Black culture, politics, business and entrepreneurship. But opportunities for Black designers—particularly Black women designers—still couldn’t simply be assumed.
The sisters entered that environment carrying something powerful with them:
They knew their craft.
Historical accounts of their Atlanta years describe an important connection made while the sisters were living in the West End. A friend working as a personal shopper helped connect them with Rich’s/Federated, opening the way for a private presentation of their designs.
Their fashions would later be associated with Atlanta-area Macy’s retail, including Greenbriar Mall.
Today, an independent designer can photograph a garment, upload it to social media and potentially place it before thousands of consumers by the end of the day.
Janice and Carolyn were building in a different world.
There was no Instagram algorithm waiting to discover them.
No viral TikTok.
No direct-to-consumer digital infrastructure that allowed a designer to bypass traditional fashion gatekeepers with a smartphone and an online store.
Relationships mattered.
Reputation mattered.
Craftsmanship mattered.
And getting your clothing into major retail mattered.
For two Black women designers, those accomplishments carried particular weight.
They were building a name in Atlanta fashion during an era when Black designers often had to fight harder simply to be seen.
And they kept building.
Designs to Soothe the Soul
There has always been something distinctive about the way Janice and Carolyn describe their work.
They call their creations:
“Designs to Soothe the Soul.”
That phrase says something about how the Wilbourn Sisters see fashion.
Their work isn’t simply about covering the body.
It is about how a person feels when she walks into a room.
Over the years, Wilbourn Sisters Designs has created original fashions for women and men across an expansive range of occasions—from everyday clothing and wrap dresses to weddings, cruises, formal affairs, balls, swimwear and red-carpet events.
Their creative vocabulary has included linen, cotton, chiffon, rayon and silk as well as tapestry, jersey, leather, faux fur, denim, fleece, wool and statement evening fabrics.
Their designs can flow.
They can command attention.
They can celebrate the body rather than require the body to apologize for itself.
And behind each piece is the craftsmanship their mother insisted they learn long before they could have understood where it might take them.
More Than a Moment
Fashion loves what’s next.
The next designer.
The next trend.
The next collection.
The next name everyone suddenly needs to know.
But longevity tells a different kind of story.
Janice and Carolyn have navigated an industry that has changed dramatically during their careers.
Department stores changed.
Shopping malls changed.
Manufacturing changed.
Consumer behavior changed.
The Internet changed everything.
Social media changed it again.
Then came economic downturns, retail disruption and a global pandemic.
Through it all, the Wilbourn name endured.
Their designs have been presented through fashion shows and events throughout the United States and abroad. Their work has received national exposure, including recognition through Black media and cultural platforms.
But longevity isn’t simply about remaining visible.
It is about adapting without losing yourself.
And perhaps that is one of the most important lessons hidden inside the Wilbourn Sisters’ story.
Trends change. Purpose doesn’t have to.
When the Storefront Was Broken
One of the most striking chapters of their Atlanta journey came in 2020.
America was already in crisis.
COVID-19 had disrupted businesses, families and communities. Then the killing of George Floyd ignited protests throughout the country, including demonstrations in downtown Atlanta.
Some demonstrations gave way to property destruction.
The Wilbourn Sisters’ downtown business was damaged.
Photographs and news coverage documented Janice amid the aftermath.
For many entrepreneurs, a storefront is more than walls and merchandise.
It represents years.
Years of sacrifice.
Years of showing up when sales were slow.
Years of figuring out payroll, inventory, customers, rent, production and the thousand other things the public never sees.
For the Wilbourn Sisters, there was something else inside those walls.
Their mother’s legacy.
And yet broken glass could not break what Queen Mother Elizabeth had spent a lifetime building into her daughters.
They continued.
That moment says perhaps as much about the Wilbourn Sisters as any runway ever could.
Because trailblazing isn’t only about getting through a door.
Sometimes it’s about having enough resilience to remain standing after life knocks the door down.
Faith Was Always Part of the Pattern
There is another thread running through the Wilbourn story.
Faith.
The sisters openly credit God for their journey and describe continuing their mother’s legacy as part of their mission.
Their family history points to Proverbs 22:6:
“Train up a child in the way he should go…”
Queen Mother Elizabeth lived that principle in an extraordinarily practical way.
She trained her daughters.
Not simply spiritually.
She trained their hands.
Their minds.
Their work ethic.
Their confidence.
She taught them how to turn creativity into something tangible.
And decades later, her daughters are still carrying those lessons.
A Legacy Must Be Passed
Perhaps this is where the Wilbourn Sisters’ story becomes most important.
Janice and Carolyn aren’t interested in being the final chapter.
Their stated mission is to continue their mother’s legacy by passing sewing and design skills to another generation—encouraging young people to discover their creativity, gifts and God-given talents.
Janice has continued teaching fashion design and couture, extending knowledge accumulated across decades of sewing, tailoring, design, production and entrepreneurship.
Consider what that means.
Susie Chism taught Elizabeth.
Elizabeth taught seven daughters.
Those daughters built businesses.
And now the knowledge continues moving forward.
That is generational legacy in its most practical form.
Not simply money inherited.
Knowledge inherited.
Skill inherited.
Confidence inherited.
Faith inherited.
The ability to create opportunity inherited.
And then—most importantly—the willingness to teach somebody else.
The Black Women Who Built Before We Were Watching
There is a larger reason Real Women Atlanta Magazine believes the Wilbourn Sisters’ story deserves to be told.
Black women’s history is filled with women who were doing extraordinary things long before the world decided to pay attention.
Some built businesses without venture capital.
Some created brands without marketing departments.
Some entered industries where they were rarely represented.
Some developed clientele through relationships and reputation rather than followers and algorithms.
Some were building generational wealth before anyone turned the phrase into a hashtag.
Their names aren’t always the ones history remembers first.
But their work mattered.
Janice and Carolyn Wilbourn are part of that story.
They represent a generation of Black women entrepreneurs who learned to create opportunities when opportunities weren’t always created for them.
They built.
They traveled.
They designed.
They taught.
They adapted.
They survived.
And they’re still here.
Two Sisters. One Extraordinary Fashion Legacy.
Perhaps Queen Mother Elizabeth never imagined exactly what would become of those childhood sewing lessons.
Maybe she couldn’t have pictured international travel.
Fashion presentations.
Atlanta.
Major retail.
Decades in business.
Or her daughters eventually teaching others what she once taught them.
But maybe she didn’t need to see all of that.
Maybe she simply understood something about legacy.
You pour what you know into the next generation and trust them to carry it farther than you could.
Janice and Carolyn did.
From Tennessee to Atlanta and beyond, the Wilbourn Sisters took a skill passed from mother to daughters and transformed it into a fashion legacy that has endured across decades.
And still, they create.
Still, they teach.
Still, they inspire.
Still, the Wilbourn name moves forward.
That’s why Janice and Carolyn Wilbourn aren’t simply women whose history deserves to be remembered.
They’re still Women2Watch.
