Self-employed dressmaker Evelyn Noguchi has sewn gowns for the rich and famous, worked alongside late local fashion designer Zsalei, created travel accessories for hula halau and felt blessed to travel to places she never would have gone had she not been a seamstress.

Once a regular on the craft fair circuit, she’s back in action and this past summer wowed the crowd at the Moiliili Summer Fest with her happi coats in a variety of fabrics, including aloha prints, as well as the accessories for which she is known.

“I started with luggage tags and ID holders,” and sold some on consignment at Kuni’s Island Fabrics years ago, she said.

A customer who bought one of Noguchi’s creations asked to place a custom order for additional items in matching fabric for her hula troupe, which was planning a trip.

When travel regulations were tightened and airports began requiring passengers have identification cards at the ready, “people would find all these IDs on the floor,” she said, as travelers thought they had securely put away their ID cards when they in fact had not. The market for her ID holders in local prints greatly expanded, and she still makes them with durable clear plastic pockets.

Her American flag-print ID holders are big sellers among Japanese visitors, said Mary Phillips, owner of Flags Flying at Ward Warehouse, while other items by Noguchi’s brand, Evelyn’s Custom Designs, are sold at nearby Na Mea Hawaii.

Noguchi expanded her product line by making different styles of trifold wallets, in men’s and women’s styles, which she has been making for about 10 years. The popular wallets have the usual compartments for cash, zippered pockets for coins, a check holder and slots for ID, credit cards and pictures of kids and grandkids.

Noguchi makes more than 30 types of items, from lanyards that start at $4 to tote bags that sell for $75. Her popular trifold wallets sell for about $35, though a model with extra card slots sells for $40.

She learned her craft as a trade, taking commercial sewing at Honolulu Technical School, the predecessor to Honolulu Community College.

She got a job as a sample maker, and later worked in Betty Higgins’ dress shop in the Royal Hawaiian. Higgins traveled the world to buy fabric, and went to Japan to buy kimono and obi (wide sashes). As is popular today, Higgins repurposed the ornate, embroidered silk to create dresses of her own design, often with matching coats and accessories. The outfits would sometimes cost thousands of dollars, Noguchi said.

Noguchi for a time worked in a Waikiki swimwear shop where “we would custom-make bikinis … and we were able to do it in a day,” she said.

Noguchi later opened her own shop in a two-story building where the Royal Hawaiian Center is now, and among her clientele was a Ziegfeld dancer who had married very well. Noguchi created a custom ensemble with double-chiffon skirt in black for her, and the customer wore it to a party in Europe that also was attended by haute couture designer Hubert de Givenchy. Upon a return visit to Noguchi’s shop, the customer told her that Givenchy, who had seen her twirling while wearing the outfit, told her that every woman should have one of those skirts in her wardrobe, Noguchi said. It was a huge compliment.

Because of another contact made during her career, she traveled to Massachusetts to attend a symphony opening and dine at the kind of restaurant most of us only dream about, even though “I’m just a seamstress,” Noguchi said.

One celebrity encounter came when Hollywood dancer, singer and actress Ann Miller came in for a fitting at a dress shop where Noguchi worked. “The sky’s the limit,” Noguchi said of the budget for the dress, for which the fabric cost about $100 a yard. It was quite the contrast for the child of hardworking parents who didn’t believe in waste. Noguchi wore hand-me-down dresses from her older sister, and by the time she could no longer fit into them, they were unsuitable for her younger sister to wear.

It was during those lean times growing up with parents Torao and Momoyo Noguchi that her grandmother Sode introduced her to fabrics. As she helped her grandmother sort fabrics, her growing appreciation of the feel and texture of each set her on her life’s path.