The Chicago native got her start in fashion early: Rowley has been designing since she was 7 years old and later sold her first collection of dresses while she was still at design school. While she.s best known for her flirty cocktail dresses, fun frocks aren.t her only specialty: In recent years Rowley has ventured out into handbags, shoes, and other accessories, cosmetics, eyewear, fragrances, and home decor as well as a series of books. She co-wrote the entertaining lifestyle books Slim: A Fantasy Memoir, Home Swell Home, and The Swell Dressed Party, and Swell: A Girl.s Guide to the Good Life With Ilene Rosenzweig. Rowley lives in New York.s West Village with her husband and daughter.