Debra Rapoport, a native New Yorker, has been curating her outfits from handmade elements since she was a girl.  Starring in Advanced Style the film and featured in three Advanced Style books, Debra is a creative force of non-traditional materials and reuse.  Her clothing and accessories are designed to be worn and displayed... and she work IS displayed in many museums.

This is what the Museum of Arts and Design in NYC published about her:

Debra Rapoport is a visual artist working with nontraditional and repurposed materials to create clothing and accessories that she wears with great panache. Her flamboyant embellishments and hats start with A/B/C: Assembling, Building, and Constructing for the body, incorporating color, texture, and layering. Embracing the idea that frugality is fun, she constantly re-invents and curates her closet without being a conspicuous consumer.

Rapaport's work is in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, NY), Museum of Arts and Design (New York, NY), LA County Museum of Art (Los Angeles, CA), Museum of Fine Arts (Houston, TX), Philadelphia Museum of Art (Philadelphia, PA), Ilias Lalaounis Jewelry Museum (Athens, Greece) and the Hermitage Museum (St. Petersburg, Russia) and the Helen Williams Drutt Collection.