[One of my mufflers] is a garment that leads a double life... As an artist, I'm linking fabrics together to create something you wouldn't ordinarily see.”

Perhaps it was fate that Roberto Rashid felt inspiration course through his shivering body while standing in the cold near the Apollo Theater in Harlem.

The longtime salesman was patiently waiting for his wife, Stephanie, who was buying a scarf from a vendor stationed across the street from the iconic music venue and symbol of African American arts and culture.

The colorful wrap Stephanie Rashid swirled around her neck not only shielded her from the biting cold, but led to an “aha” moment for her husband. If the vendor could create a scarf resplendent with African prints that evoke black culture, so could Rashid, a man with artistry in his background.

With that, the Wadsworth resident began the first steps toward creating a business fueled by art. He began hunting for the fabrics that have become his trademark:  prints, swirling ones, jagged ones, bold ones, neon ones. Scarves by Rashid don’t tiptoe into a room. They strut.

The scarves are the focus of an entrepreneurial art form in which Rashid creates handmade limited editions – five or six scarves with the same design – and then moves on to the next. He sells them at craft shows, arts programs, and will soon launch a website.

“I am 68 and I grew up in an era where culture was high in the African American community. I had teachers that told me to read James Baldwin, Nikki Giovanni and Richard Wright,” Rashid said.  “We grew up on Motown and at the Uptown Theater. Men wore suits, and it was ‘Yes ma’am, no ma’am.’ We went to hear jazz at the Aqua Lounge. When you grow up in that kind of environment, you’re bound to be creative.”

Rashid’s artistic inclinations – and entrepreneurship – also can be traced back to his mother and grandmother.  

His mom, Gloria Jenkins, was a seamstress for the Samson Quilting & Embroidery Co. once based near Jeweler’s Row in Center City. His dad was a military man. As a youngster, Rashid swept the floors and ran errands at the quilting warehouse while his mom worked amid the deafening din of industrial sewing machines. Workers there taught Rashid how to pin patterns. His mom made sure her son knew how to darn socks, thread a needle, use a thimble and sew on buttons.

When his mother died of cancer, Rashid went to live with his grandmother, Gladys Wright, a registered nurse at Fox Chase Cancer Center, and also an entrepreneur.

“She owned a millinery store and health spa in North Philadelphia, and she canned, baked. We had strawberries all year round,” Rashid said.

A graduate of Mastbaum High School, where he focused on electronics, Rashid went on to study secondary education and communications at Millersville University and then Drexel University, then left Drexel to take a sales job. He worked as a job placement specialist and then in sales for AT&T and Verizon. 

All the while, a creative spirit bubbled inside him, but it wasn’t ignited until one particular day, during a conversation with his cousin, Roy Mills. They were talking  about sewing, and that he made his own clothing.

“My genetic memory kicked in and I started thinking about my mom and grandmom sewing,” Rashid said. He decided to enroll in a nighttime tailoring class at West Philadelphia High School. Then, he learned pattern making at John F. Kennedy Skills Center and about garment structure at the Philadelphia College of Textiles and Sciences.

“I knew there would come a time when all this would serve me,” Rashid said. Then, in the mid-1990s, came the epiphany at the Apollo.

Rashid started creating scarves on the side while working in sales. He traveled to New York and searched for fabric in the Garment District, on Canal Street and at Mood, the store made famous by the TV show “Project Runway.”

His niche is mufflers: colorful designs in silk or another material on one side backed by an underlay fabric like cashmere or rayon. He calls it a “garment that leads a double life. ….  As an artist, I’m linking fabrics together to create something you wouldn’t ordinarily see.” He sews in his basement workshop, sometimes to the jazz of John Coltrane.

“When you walk in [wearing a Rashid scarf], I want people to say, ‘Where did you get that?” Rashid said. Rashid thinks of them as conversation pieces with the kind of pizzazz factor that can help people who wear them stand out, and network with style in a room full of people.

He sells them at museums, festivals, Mt. Airy Art Garage, churches and special events. His work will be featured at holiday bazaars Nov. 18 and 19 at the Waldorf School of Philadelphia in Germantown, and Dec. 10 and 11 at the Water Tower Recreation Center in Chestnut Hill.

Rashid retired from sales in 2020 and is devoting most of his time to scarf creation, marketing, and prepping the website, scarvesbyrashid.biz.  He is taking classes with Verizon’s Small Business Digital Ready program and SCORE, a small business education and advocacy initiative. He works part-time as a kindergarten assistant in the Philadelphia schools.

As for the future, Rashid says he’s not looking to turn his craft into a big business, although he wouldn't turn down the opportunity. But at the moment, the only expansion he is planning is adding pocket squares and infinity scarves to his accessory line.

“There’s just something about being able to work for yourself and being a creator,” he said. “God has blessed me. At this point in my life, the dollar sign is not number one, and sometimes that’s hard for people to understand.”