Maureen Fokos (also known as “Lolita”) is an innovative designer who has created a new category in fashion—Post Modern Vintage.

From a very young age, Maureen has always had a love for fashion and clothes. She remembers, “As a child, I was always wanting to try on new clothes and play dress up in my mother’s closet.”

A close friend took Maureen into a thrift shop when she was a teenager, and that began her love and appreciation for “anything old.” She started shopping at thrift shops and quickly found a new passion for vintage clothing. As a normal teenager, Maureen spent a lot of time hanging out at the mall with her friends, and it wasn’t long before she started mixing her vintage finds with some of the more modern pieces she bought at the mall.

“This is where my original style comes from,” she believes.

She soon became known for her unique fashion flair and friends always asked to borrow her clothes. Even complete strangers would comment on her distinctive style. It helped that Maureen grew up in a home of European heritage in the 1980s with liberal parents who encouraged her creativity and individualistic style—plus she was heavily influenced by alternative music.

It wasn’t before long before Maureen would redo her vintage thrift shop finds by taking them apart and adding her own embellishments. By the time Maureen reached her senior year in high school, she was voted “Best Dressed” by her fellow classmates, and it was then that she began to realize that she had a calling in life—fashion!

Upon graduation, and despite the pleas to stay in her home state, Maureen packed her bags and headed off to California on her own where she began to study fashion and design. She explains, “I had always known that I wanted to do something in the fashion world. It’s always been a burning desire, something I think I’ve known my whole life.”

This future designer began her studies at Marymount College, but soon transferred to a more specialized fashion school, Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising (FIDM), in Los Angeles. Then, after only a few short years of working in the “real world,” Maureen decided to follow in her father’s footsteps and become an entrepreneur. Lolita-Girl Clothing was born.

In 1999, Maureen Fokos and her husband Steven Williams, launched Lolita-Girl. Maureen is the designer for the company and her youthful, fun and quirky personality can be readily seen in her designs.

Maureen has built her fashion career by following her heart and, as a result, her one-of-a-kind designs have broken more than a few traditional fashion rules along the way. She loves to combine various fabrics, enhance her designs with fun ribbons and bows, and sometime add the unexpected. Taking her love of the old and infusing it with the new, she has become known for her feminine, cute, yet still sexy, silhouettes.

“I could never imagine doing anything else! Designing is my passion. I wake up everyday and realize how truly blessed I am to be doing what I love!” she said.