The Good Life: On the Road

Inside Philly's most fashionable RV

As the youngest of eight kids, Mary Dougherty may have been raised on hand-me-downs, but she always had the fashion bug: She loved her sister's sewing machine, she worked at a clothing store as a teenager, and she modeled for trade shows in high school. So it's no huge shocker that she made fashion her full-time career: Today, Dougherty is the owner

As the youngest of eight kids, Mary Dougherty may have been raised on hand-me-downs, but she always had the fashion bug: She loved her sister's sewing machine, she worked at a clothing store as a teenager, and she modeled for trade shows in high school. So it's no huge shocker that she made fashion her full-time career: Today, Dougherty is the owner of the mid-Atlantic sales office and showroom for the high-style Nicole Miller and Cynthia Steffe brands, the person largely responsible for putting Miller on the map in the Philly area and for getting both lines into stores all along the Eastern Seaboard. And while Dougherty cites a great team, her passion for philanthropy and a love of fashion as her secret weapons, she also gives credit to her custom Winnebago clothing showroom. “I started out in an old brown stick-shift Toyota Corolla without air-conditioning, rolling into towns with clothing racks and body bags full of clothes crammed into the trunk,” she says. “With the truck, my team of 'road warriors' and I can invite buyers and store owners inside to see the whole collection, without having to edit down to just what we can carry.” And while Dougherty says the truck isn't pimped out, she's come to love it, and the peace of the open road. “It makes my regular car feel like a toy,” she says. “I'll see a parking spot and someone in my car will say, 'You're gonna fit into that?' and I just laugh. You bet I'll fit into that — my other car is an RV!”