Our shirts tell stories. Each season, we make our final selects of “winner” shirts to go into production for a future release. Next comes the naming process, a company perk that most employees of Ledbury have assisted with.

A month after joining our Customer Experience Team, Michael Conigliaro had the opportunity to name a shirt in honor of his mother, who he lost to cancer in 2015.

When Ledbury’s Fall 2018 picks were finalized, Michael opened up to our Design team about his mother’s passing and mentioned her favorite color: purple. That’s when Lindsey Hunt, our Head of Design, got to work on a very, special release.

A week shy of Christmas, a box showed up on Michael’s desk with a beautiful checked fabric swatch attached to a piece of cardstock and the words “The Sondra Check” underneath. Michael’s family says that this is one of the best gifts that they’ve ever received. The subtle lilac tone of The Sondra Check was the perfect nod to Sandy’s memory, which Michael knew every Conigliaro would wear proudly.

The Sondra Check, is named after Michael’s mother, known to most as Sandy. Surrounded by Italian culture, she spent most of her years in Brooklyn, New York and wed into a Sicilian family, where her love for cooking Italian cuisine became a passion. Her husband of 33 years, Vincent, and her four kids, Anthony, Michael, Nicholas, and Samantha, all agree that her best dish was baked ziti with tons of cheese and a loaf of (normally burnt) bread. Described as loving, selfless, Michael recalls visits with his mom to The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, the perfect backdrop for this week’s release.