The Gypsy Sisters
Amy Moorhouse
Amy grew up in West Texas on the famous Pitchfork Ranch. After high school she attended Texas Women’s University in Denton, Texas. While studying design at TWU, Amy was on the University Honor Roll and the President’s Honor List. Amy has been a buyer and visual artists for Cowboy Up, Smith Brothers, and the Bar S Ranch Store. She also held the position of Designer & Market Researcher for Cruel Girl and Cinch Clothing, as well as buyer for The National Cowgirl Museum & Hall of Fame Gift Shop, before venturing out on her own as a freelance buyer, designer and visual merchandising consultant. Her years of experience in the industry, her amazing ability to see a trend before it is a trend and her unique style and design sense are why she is now the Vice-President & Co-Owner of Gypsy Soule. She has helped build a brand that is taking the western style scene by the horns and refusing to let go.
Amy is very close to her family and spends a lot of her spare time with them and her friends. She and her husband, Chad, live in Fort Worth, Texas, where you can catch them out enjoying live music or a ranch rodeo in the stockyards on any given weekend.
Lorinda Graham-Van Newkirk
Lorinda was born and raised in California, bringing that California cool to all of her projects. She had an early interest in rodeo from barrel racing to rodeo queen. Lorinda pursued her education in Agriculture Communications at California State University – Fresno. With a sense of style and fashion that could only have come from her soul, she has quickly become one of the leaders in her industry. She is an award-winning business owner with over 15 years’ experience in all aspects of the retail world. From managing annual budgets to designing pieces from scratch, she is involved every step of the way. Lorinda started her first jewelry line in 1996. When she re-located to Texas in 2003, she started VanGlow, and the jeweled flip-flop was birthed. In 2006 she joined forces with Amy Moorhouse to create the unstoppable Gypsy Soule. She is the President and Co-Owner of Gypsy Soule.
Her two greatest accomplishments are her two beautiful daughters, who have already developed their own sense of style. Lorinda, her husband Joel, and their two daughters call Weatherford, Texas home, where the neighbors are never surprised to see her rollerblading around the house with the girls.
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Contributors
Sam Montgomery
Sam is a full-time freelance make-up artist with ten years professional artistry experience. She began her career as an artist for Toni & Guy Salons and continued her training through an apprenticeship in New York City, where she was an artist at New York’s theater staple Ricky’s NYC. Sam began her time with MAC Cosmetics as a 15 hour artist and climbed the ladder to an assistant manager position. After five great years, she left MAC to focus on her freelance career and her company, ArtistrybySam. She credits MAC with much of what she now knows, and she continues to work for MAC locations all over the DFW area as a member of their freelance artist team. Sam has extensive experience in all forms of beauty make-up, wedding, photo-shoots, runway shows, and special effects make-up. She is inspired by strong men and women with fashion-forward styles, as well as classic beauty icons and the colorful world of the drag culture. Some of her strongest artistic influences include make-up artist Sutan Amrull, designer Alexander McQueen, supermodel Linda Evangelista, and drag super-star RuPaul. She also credits her daughter, Charlotte Olivia and mother Margie with inspiring her artistic vision. www.artistrybysam.com
Leah Walker
Raised on the South Plains of West Texas, Leah earned a degree in English and Education from Texas Tech University. She has slowly migrated east with stops in Austin before making Houston her home. Leah’s been a high school English teacher and basketball coach and has worked for the NBA in sales and marketing. She now finds herself as a technical writer in the oil and gas industry.
In order to deal with her current life in a cube, Leah’s turned herself into Walter Mitty. Her shower is the splash of Iguazú Falls. Feeding her dachshunds is fending off spotted hyenas in South Africa. Commuting to work is in a Bangkok tuk tuk. What gets Leah through the day is the thrill of going home in a World War I biplane.
With a severe case of wanderlust, Leah lives by the motto, “Life is too short to live with a someday attitude.” When Leah’s not in Houston dreaming about travel, she is found being groped by the TSA, getting her passport stamped, seeking out street food that won’t make her sick, and writing all about it on LeahTravels.com.
